Letters, February 21, 2104

It is good to see commonsense has prevailed and Great Yarmouth Borough Council has seen fit to scrap its plan to deprive the community of full and unequivocal use of the Beaconsfield Recreation Ground. They are to be congratulated on this.

Congratulations are in order also, I believe, for the splendid way they have gone about cleaning up the beach and dune areas, at least from what I can see in the north of the borough, after the storm surge and in preparation for the holiday season.

They cannot get everything right of course and, for the sake of balance if for no other reason, the increased car parking charges would appear to be a false economy; and what on earth is going on with the market - where the claimed number of outlets is far removed from those actually present on Wednesdays and Saturdays?

MIKE SPRAGG

Collingwood Road,

Great Yarmouth

Disgust over mole killings

I am saddened to hear about the decision of the parish council to kill the moles on the Bells Lane playing field. Typical, if it’s in the way kill it!

Obviously the people who voted for their destruction are not animal lovers. I oppose this and am disgusted with those who voted to do it.

Mrs JULIE BARNES

Silver Gardens

Belton

This road is one-way only!

I am sure many of your readers use Sussex Road in Gorleston. Those who live there, and others of a knowing nature, will be acquainted with the fact this highway is only one-way from the entrance to the Sussex Road business centre. The remaining road, which is from the junction of Pier Plain, is in fact two-way.

I only mention this as a motorist who uses the road regularly and am somewhat concerned at the aggressive nature some road users have when approached from the opposite direction and have to take verbal abuse and also aggressive gestures.

I have asked the police to make contact with the highways department of the county council to erect suitable signage at the junction to inform all motorists of the direction of traffic flow in this part of the road, which is both ways. It would also be helpful and could avoid a serious incident. It would help if others could contact the highways department at County Hall supporting this action.

Dr PATRICK THOMPSON

email

Will last person turn off lights?

I have been following the various letters on Hughes Electrical moving from the Market Place to an out of town site, building a new unit where currently the old Two Bears Hotel is located.

I have used Hughes over many years for my electrical appliances after viewing first in-store, and living north of Great Yarmouth, I for one will not be driving over Haven or Breydon bridges in traffic to view a new television or electrical appliances especially during busy summer months.

As another reader commented the old empty Co-op building would have been an ideal site with parking in the Market Place nearby. Yarmouth town centre is becoming a depressing site, shops closed up, charity shops, banks and building societies.

If we ever lose Palmers or Marks and Spencer will the last person leaving town please turn off the lights!

A thought for our poor market traders; working in all weather, always cheerful and doing their best to survive in difficult trading conditions, I hope the people of Yarmouth continue to visit our market and support those hardworking people.

PAUL APOSTILI

email

Any Angels still living here?

I am tracing my family history in Great Yarmouth/Norfolk. My great grandfather George Angel was born in Yarmouth (c1835/1840?). His father was William Angell (occupation a mariner). The 1851 census shows a George Angel (son) with William Angel (widower) as head of the family and living at Row 28 with a total family of six: Benjamin, John, Mary Ann, Robert, Edward and of course George.

George (also a mariner) left Yarmouth (unknown date) and moved to Falmouth, Cornwall where on January 21, 1862 he married an Elizabeth Brown and he is shown on their marriage certificate as being 28 years old.

They lived in Falmouth where they had a boarding house, although George was still shown as being a mariner. I have a photograph of him when he was operating the Falmouth to Flushing Ferry, aboard with his son Jack (John).

My grandfather was Edwin Charles Angell (tug master) and my father was Cecil Charles Angell (boilermaker) both of Falmouth.

A number of the dates for George do not exactly match but I understand that’s not unusual. Many people at that time were unable to read or write and that was true of George and his wife as was shown by their mark made on the marriage certificate.

We were in Yarmouth two years ago to visit the Rows etc but it turned up more questions than answers, so I am hopeful somebody in the present Angel family recognises George and his father William and can make contact.

EDWIN JOHN ANGELL

Penryn, Cornwall

angells@talktalk.net

Are these horses okay in field?

Driving to Burgh Castle recently, I have noticed that on one of the fields there are several horses that are completely out in the open field with no shelter and no covering on them.

There is a water container but I cannot see any sign of food for them which means they only have the grass to graze on which I don’t think is sufficient at this time of year. The weather has been atrocious, surely this must amount to animal cruelty?

M HARVEY

email

Exhibition is a seaside stunner

Congratulations to local artist Jane Hall for her fabulous Seaside Sensation exhibition, which is currently running at Great Yarmouth Library. I went along to the show after reading the excellent article about Miss Hall in this very newspaper; and was delighted to discover a series of bright, colourful paintings that show off the town in which we live in such an interesting, modern and positive way.

I particularly enjoyed her new postcard-sized paintings showing aspects of Great Yarmouth by night, but my absolute favourites were the ice cream pictures. They were genuinely mouth-watering and looked good enough to eat.

As an amateur artist myself, I would also like to say what a fantastic gallery space we have in our local library. I have travelled to galleries throughout England and abroad and can’t recall seeing anything better anywhere. The bright, airy rooms, with their clean white walls, provide a brilliant backdrop for the bright, bold paintings Miss Hall paints of our seaside town. I really cannot recommend both the gallery space and Miss Hall’s work highly enough; and would advise all local residents to hurry down to this lovely show.

JENNY JOHNSON

Falcon Court

Great Yarmouth

Moving the sand was fruitless job

Could someone please tell me why three diggers on Gorleston beach were removing the sand that had blown into heaps and spreading it along the beach?

The wind then blew it back just as fast as they could spread it. This was not a one-off but was happening most times I walked along the seafront, which is once or twice a week. If it wasn’t for the total waste of money it would be laughable! Explanation please.

Another thing is why was a six foot fence put up around the Gorleston pier car park? People like to sit in their cars and look at the sea. It was also a waste of money as it has blown down and some of it was strewn across the car park.

DENNIS PRATT

Brasenose Avenue,

Gorleston

Visitor attacks car park hike

As a visitor to your wonderful town for over 30 years, can I say that if your local council pushes ahead with their proposed car park increases I will reluctantly cease to visit your town. If all visitors take the same attitude then the town will suffer lost revenue.

M DOLBY

email

Shock at refusal to heat bottle

On February 13, I took myself my daughter and her 20-week old baby to KFC on Regent Road, Great Yarmouth.

My daughter’s baby needed a bottle warmed up so as I ordered our meal I politely asked if they could give me a jug of hot water to heat the baby’s bottle. I was shocked when I told she wasn’t allowed to as it was policy not to.

So I asked if she could do it behind the counter but the answer was the same. Is this some sort of discrimination towards babies or is it just health and safety lunacy.

Costa coffee didn’t discriminate against my grand-daughter. they warmed up her bottle. Thank God for sensible people.

BEVERLEY ADAMS

email

Keep sending aid to children

Following the 1953 floods, borough-wide folk are well equipped to advise about flooding.

After three major storms that have flooded UK, one national newspaper has called on the government to stop sending money to poor foreigners when it could be used to replace carpets right here in Britain.

In a hard-hitting editorial, the newspaper underlined the horrifying extent of Britain’s humanitarian crisis by illustrating its story with a photo of a moist BMW.

The BMW owner’s wife, from Somerset, said: “How many BMWs have to get wet before the government stops trying to impress stupid African babies?”

Professor Henry Brubaker, from the Institute for Studies, said in the article: “People who don’t have flood insurance either didn’t ask for it, which is mentally defective, or were denied it, which should have caused the first faint stirrings of something being amiss. If we are going to use some foreign aid money, perhaps we could make a film about how not to buy a house on flood plain!”

I have had trees blown down and roof tiles missing, but as the fifth most wealthy country in the world, am not going to demand children dying of malnutrition, be denied so that I can get help with logging.

Methinks the national newspaper mentioned has at last earned its right to be numbered among the greats, not least the Beano, Dandy, Beezer, Topper and Eagle.

ROGER HAYES

Beccles Road,

Bradwell

Town centre will just disappear

The borough council stabs the town centre in the back by allowing an out of town retailer to build. I wonder if our so-called “town” councillors really look around the area and know what is going on.

Retailers are closing on a regular basis, not only in the town centre but also down Regent Road and along the seafront.

The 30-plus stalls advertised as being on the market are actually less than half a dozen (excluding the covered in section) on most market days.

Yes, pubs, restaurants, shops and other business premises empty. Would it not be an idea to try and entice business into the town and use existing properties to turn the town around and back into a thriving community.

It would be better by far than the themed ghetto of empty and boarded up buildings it is fast becoming.

No, even better perhaps, the borough council could put a compulsory purchase order on all business property from the beach to the river and make the whole of Great Yarmouth a park and ride to service the out of town shopping areas because soon there will not be a town centre to worry about.

ROGER SILVER

Cobholm Miniatures

Broad Row

Demand flood defence money

Are we at war with our weather? Storms invading out coastal regions and reaching far inland, degrading the infrastructure, flooding valuable properties, the deluging rain turning farmland into soggy waterways.

Relying on the protection of Victorian defences that have slowly degraded with the passage of time, the harbours and beach revetment structures have taken a battering far above what the original design of construction could handle.

There is a real fear about the future with sea levels rising, although by a few centimetres global changes affects differ throughout the world, every continent has its own vagaries to contend with. Is it possible now to protect and repair the damage to secure a storm proof Britain for the future?

The answer to that is no, not in the short term. If the weather conditions remain placid and sea conditions become benign the environmental rebuild programme will stall even if the suggestion of finance is there to support the rebuild. The Government say money is no object. Who decides who is the most worthy cause and what are the priorities?

My message to the people having to contend with this long term flooding is promises do not instil hope, actions speak louder than words; if money is no object, do not ask for it - demand it. For those in serious need, spend what is necessary is a term to be very cautious of.

In Environmental Agency speak they will spend on useless projects and not the obvious solutions. Everything will take time to analyse; it will be jaw-jaw and little war. What is required is a different viewpoint on robust engineering strategy building on the principles of Victorian ideals, visions and enterprise.

They left a lasting contribution in design and construction, these skills need enhancing by the use of modern reconstruction methods and innovation incorporating modern fast set concretes without the inbuilt steel bar frameworks which cause corrosion and long term concrete fracturing internally.

With the intention of spending millions of pounds on the new river extensions by re-piling to raise the height of the river walls, my hope is this strategy includes Gorleston, incorporating Darby’s Hard and the adjacent low levels; also can they block off the rivers Bure, Thurne and Breydon expanses - this is the biggest back door that is vulnerable to water overspill and total ingress into the town? Watch this space.

MIKE GIBBS

Somerleyton

Bogus calls all too familiar

An article in the Mercury last week regarding an elderly gentlemen falling victim of a bogus caller is all too familiar.

As a former crime reduction officer I visited many victims of this particular crime and I can assure you the consequences are far reaching to the victim particularly if they are living alone. They are left badly shaken, confidence is knocked, they may suspend activities they are involved in, making themselves very quickly isolated from everyone.

Living alone when you are elderly can be a lonely time, perhaps not speaking to another human being for days, their only company is usually the radio or television - or the staff at their local supermarket. So when they hear a knock at the front door, often all the advice in the world leaves them.

We are too polite and not to open the front door may seem rude however, the answer is easy: don’t open the front door to unexpected callers. If you have a door chain use it, there is also no shame to talk to a caller through your letterbox keeping the door closed at all times.

If in any doubt at any time of a suspicious caller or vehicle call the police they will definitely want to hear about it.

PENNY CARPENTER

Chairman,

Great Yarmouth Older People’s Network

Trying to track down Adam...

I am trying to contact Adam Savage and I hope your readers may be able to help as so far I’ve been unsuccessful.

We used to help at an adult education maths course run by Sandy Barnes at the Ormiston Venture Academy in Gorleston and I believe Adam has a folder of work of mine. The Adult Education office have been unable to help but if Adam or anyone who knows him reads this could you please ask him to either drop the folder in to Yarmouth library c/o Adult Education or contact me on 01493 663901 so I can pick it up.

Mrs M COATES

Upper Cliff Road,

Gorleston

No containers here... why?

The Port of Felixstowe is planning to invest in a development programme which will enable it to handle some of the largest container vessels in the world and the London Gateway is already in operation and building up business. Was it in 2009 that the cranes were removed from Yarmouth Outer Harbour without ever being used?

I believe the CEO of the port company at the time explained that this was because there was little prospect of profitable business in the container industry and they would find other work.

NICK POWNALL

email

A crazy idea from Labour

Here we go again with another crazy idea from Councillor Wainwright and Labour. Don’t they realise visitors are an essential part of the financial well-being of the town, whose spending ensures that local business can pay rates and thereby keep the economy of the town afloat.

Or will these councillors not be happy until they have driven all the visitors away and created a ghost town of this once great borough.

Which towns is Councillor Wainwright using to justify this increase or are these yet more figures and comparisons, as exampled with those survey figures Labour used to try and justify the now defunct proposal to extend residents parking last year? Is it also not illegal to use revenue generated from parking charges for any other use?

Come on the rest of you non Labour councillors, especial those UKIP county councillors recently elected, it is time to stand up for the well being of the town and not let Labour ruin the place.

JOHN STEVENS

email

Dog mess all over the place

Interesting to read it is the 12th anniversary of the dog wardens. They obviously have not been in the Water Gardens. If you enter at the North Denes end near the Beige Café and head towards Britannia Pier, on the left side you will see a dog mess every foot. It appears the culprit must go at night as surely he/she would notice how awful it is. It appears to be a large dog. Shame on whoever it is.

You can’t blame the dog, just the owners. The poor council workers who tend the gardens must get fed up with it. I don’t know how we can overcome this terrible problem. Perhaps we should have a ban on all open spaces. Huh! That won’t be fair on all the responsible owners of which there are many.

JULIA GALLAGHER

Hemsby

Protect our open spaces

As chairperson of the People of North Yarmouth, I would like to thank the community for their support in saving the Beaconsfield Recreation Ground from being transferred to the Great Yarmouth VA High School. It is important the community uses local facilities demonstrating demand and protecting our open spaces.

We are holding a public meeting on Thursday, February 27 at the football club’s social club on Sandown Road at 7.30pm, to discuss what else we can do for the People of North Yarmouth.

PAULA WATERS-BURN

email

Do not release health records

Due to an adverse response, particularly from some GPs, and to give more time for proper consultation and consideration the government is delaying, by six months, plans to release/sell private and confidential patients records to private enterprises in order they might computerise them and create what they say will be useful statistics from the mass records.

I would rather money be spent on my GP having the time to recognise me as a person rather than turn me into a number or a statistic.

I have written to my GP to forbid him from releasing my records because I think this is unsafe (given the record on not respecting confidentiality), unethical and detrimental to the service provided by the NHS. Privatisation is taking place behind our backs and the NHS is suffering as a result.

Many of us paid for a good service from our NHS but, despite their promises, this is being undermined by our own elected government. How many people in the USA die early because they cannot afford the massive health insurance premiums?

This proposed sell-off of our confidential medical notes is a bit like the government’s recent planned sell-off of our public woodlands. That failed due to the public outcry at the time. I hope the planned release of confidential medical records will go the same way - the dust-bin.

DAVID KELF

Gorleston

Thanks for your festive ‘gifts’

I would like to express my thanks and appreciation to all the kind friends who made donations to my chosen charities whilst viewing the Christmas displays in my home over the festive season, and especially those who were unable to visit but sent donations to my deserving causes. Your generosity and support made it possible for me to donate £350 to East Anglian Air Ambulance and £225 to The Norfolk Zipper Club. I thank you all.

ERIC J NOBLE

Windsor Avenue,

Great Yarmouth

Join and sing your heart out

Sing Your Heart Out East would like to invite Mercury readers to come along to the Priory Centre, Great Yarmouth from 11am to 12:30pm on consecutive Mondays commencing February 24. We will be holding singing workshops for mental health wellbeing through until April 14, with a special session at Christchurch on April 7. The workshops are good fun, everyone is welcome and absolutely no talent or musical expertise is required! More information on our website at www.syho.org.

GILL OLIVER

Secretary SYHO East

The dog mess problem worse

I see from a picture in the Mercury that the dog poo situation is not getting any better. It is just as bad in Bradwell.

How can a dog owner let its dog poo right next to a bin and then not clear it up? It is beyond me! In certain roads there are doggy poo bags just thrown willy-nilly. Is it so hard to carry it to the nearest bin – which in Bradwell are few and far between, or just take it home? Take a torch out with you in the dark so you can see to clear up the mess. Easy really, isn’t it?

C A BALLS

Bradwell