Letters - Friday, May 22, 2015

On Thursday, May 14, I parked outside The Waterways next to a parking meter.

I paid the fee of £3 but no ticket came out. I pressed all the buttons but nothing happened.

I then phoned the number given and was put on hold for several minutes. When I was eventually put through, I was asked the details of my car so if the traffic warden came along I would not be given a ticket.

During this conversation a kind lady from the Waterways Café came and told me the meter had been out of order for at least three weeks. During that time numerous car owners had tried to get a ticket and failed. They also had phoned the number on the machine.

The lady from the café told me the machine had been emptied of coins on several occasions during this period.

Can the council please explain why they cannot fix the meter or at least put up a notice to say it is not working so nobody wastes their money by trying to get a ticket?

It would be interesting to know how much the meter has taken during the weeks it has been out of order.

JANET HODDS

Main Road,

Rollesby.

Nothing wrong with Acle road

What a load of rubbish Mr Dave Harris was writing last week, May 15 (One-way idea for Acle Straight).

I live in a village where the Acle Straight is my quickest option to Great Yarmouth. Now say residents or even myself needed an ambulance to get to the Paget hospital in an emergency, they are not going to get there in the quickest time going all the way to Caister first. Why don’t people think before they give their opinions. Anyway, there is nothing wrong with Acle Straight only the impatient drivers !

L TURNER

Freethorpe

Thanks for ‘faith in politics again’

I wanted to express my thanks to everyone who voted for me in this year’s General Election.

Although we were not successful on this occasion the warmth and support I received from the public has been overwhelming.

I want to also take this opportunity to thank all those who helped over the last two and a half years, especially those people who have never had faith in politics before. I hope that together we can continue to put faith and trust back into our political system.

My heartfelt congratulations to all of my Labour colleagues who were elected onto the council, I feel proud to have worked alongside such a dedicated and hardworking group of people who care so passionately about our town.

Finally I want to welcome all of the new members who have joined us over the last few weeks.

I look forward to working alongside you in the fight for a greater Yarmouth for all of us.

LARA NORRIS

Former Labour constituency candidate for Great Yarmouth

History of Bishop house continues

A rude shock, deserving an explanation, writes Peggotty in his column (Mercury, May 15), concerning his discovery that Arthur Bishop, a Yarmouth Coorportaion bus driver, was the original Peggotty from the 1930s.

Peggotty seems a little miffed that Mr Bishop’s former home in St George’s Plain bears a heritage plaque to Sir Astley Cooper rather than to Bishop.

Sir Astley was the son of a Yarmouth vicar. This son became not only the most sought after surgeon in Europe but the only person ever to serve three successive monarchs as Royal Surgeon; George IV, William IV and Queen Victoria. Surely such an eminent Yarmouth son is deserving of much recognition.

For the past six years I have owned and occupied the house in question and was aware that Arthur Bishop had lived there.Having for some time tried to discover the provenance and history of the house, I have gained very little information - which is greatly frustrating. All I could discover about Bishop was that he had been a bus driver and an active member of the congregation of St George’s Chapel for many years.

I have spoken to Malcolm Ferrow on a number of occasions but never once did he mention the Bishop/Peggotty connection. So, I have been as much in the dark on this matter as our current Peggotty!

However, now that we are all aware of the facts I am more than willing to help redress any perceived slight to the man. I have asked the plaque committee of the Great Yarmouth and District Local History and Archaeological Society to determine whether Arthur Bishop’s contribution to the town would merit a heritage accolade.

Dr TERRY MILLS

St George’s Plain,

Great Yarmouth

Blue plaques or ‘plague of warts’

I was very amused to read Peggotty’s column last Friday about the good deeds of his founding father and the rant about the blue heritage plaque erected on St George’s Plain by the GY&DAS to renowned surgeon Sir Astley Cooper.

I know that some of the blue plaques erected by the society are to people with an extremely tenuous connection to Great Yarmouth. But to erect plaques to hardworking anonymous beneficiaries of the town or even towns of the United Kingdom would cause blue plaques to spread across the United Kingdom like a plague of warts.

Very few people within the town knew Arthur Bishop was Peggotty because he wished to stay anonymous, as even today very few people within the town know the real identity of the current Peggotty.

ROGER SILVER

Email

Glowing red light of this election

As usual I read the letters pages with interest, some of the comments made near to the date of an election are very revealing, and sometimes a shaft of light into minds.

I was troubled by the letter in the latest edition of the Mercury from Julie Staff, obviously a disappointed Labour supporter, and I quote “Great Yarmouth needs people who they can believe in and I think they have found it (sic) in Lara Norris. She is a glowing red light of hope in a murky blue sea. Keep up the good fight Lara.” I am worried what or who may be attracted to Mrs Norris’s glowing red light!

GORDON CRAIG

Hemsby

New homes will ‘destroy’ villages

The front page article of the Mercury on May 15, about huge housing development in Belton and the northern parishes, made me feel physically sick.

Brandon Lewis must surely hold the record for the speed at which he stabbed his supporters in the back after a General Election.

As planning minister before and after the election he was well aware of what was afoot. Had he had the guts to come clean before the election he would have received little more than a handful of votes in his Tory heartlands.

To describe the inspector as “independent” is an abuse of the English language. Somebody is paying him and everybody knows that “he who pays the piper calls the tune.” This inspector is clearly paid by the government or vested interests, judging by his ridiculous utterances to date. He has clearly never been stuck in a traffic jam writhing in agony, trying to get to the hospital, as I have.

Brandon Lewis’s job is supposed to be to look after his constituents, to enhance their well-being and meet their genuine wishes and aspirations. It is not his job to concentrate solely on business interests, focusing on what is best for Brandon Lewis and promoting the interests of property developers and the like over the wishes of his constituents.

Nor was he voted in to destroy communities, create urban gridlock on country roads and overload services.

We are stuck with him now but we can make sure that the long-serving local Conservative councillors who selected him to stand for this constituency answer for their actions as they come up for election.

Many of them are local businessmen, including some who have lucrative contracts to provide goods and services to the borough and/or county councils. We can, at least, pay them back when we next go to the ballot box; and I speak as a life-long Conservative voter!

As for David Cameron, I had not realised that he was colour blind - being unable to differentiate between brown fields and green fields. Nor does he believe in local democracy - despite his promises to allow local people to decide on issues affecting them. He does, however, believe in putting new housing before essential infrastructure and services, causing traffic jams and generally creating hazardous road and living conditions.

At the next local elections, I for one will be voting for anybody who has not been a councillor before, regardless of which party they belong to.

M TUOHY

Email

Another expert? No thank you!

So here we have yet another expert telling us what we need.

I hope Mr Rivett has taken into account the outdated sewer system, the doctors, hospital and schools.

I really do love to hear from all the experts that keep telling us what we need. I especially like the experts that don’t even live in the area, they’re the best ones.

CHRIS KING

Lords Lane,

Bradwell

Brownfield sites incentive needed

New houses are of course absolutely essential to meet housing need in the borough and to boost Yarmouth’s regeneration as the energy sector progressively generates new jobs for the town (“Plans to increase housing across Borough” - Mercury, May 15) - but the indepedent Planning Inspector increasing the number of houses required by 2030 from 5,700 to 7,140 will not in itself ensure that homes get built more quickly in the areas best placed to accommodate them.

The Mercury article correctly identifies that the waterfront areas of Yarmouth can take 1,000 homes in an area already well-served by schools, shops, doctors and public transport. The trouble is that developers are more interested in building on greenfield sites where ground conditions are better and construction costs will be significantly cheaper

Brandon Lewis MP as Housing Minister would be well-placed to do something about it if he was minded to do that but it will require making brownfield sites attractive for investment.

Why not designate a “Housing Enterprise Zone” for the riverside development with tax-breaks and incentives for construction firms and Housing Associations. That would be a major boost to our town regenerating derelict land and producing new homes for local people. Otherwise developers will wait for the greenfield sites in outlying villages and the town areas of Yarmouth will still be waiting years and years for that investment.

Cllr MICK CASTLE

Yarmouth North and Central

Town Wall Road,

Great Yarmouth

A great time at village’s VE Day

As one of the guests at the Stokesby VE day celebrations, I would like to say a big thank you to everyone involved, for their hospitality, in making for me, and I’m sure for everyone else, a very enjoyable evening.

From Mark Vradenburg and his wife who invited and accompanied me to Mel Ward for the last dance, it was great. Thanks to all.

N HOWELL

Nuffield Close,

Gorleston

His comb has teeth missing!

Is it a coincidence that the Borough Council announces the future plan for house building in the area just after the elections?

As reported in the Mercury, the council has employed an ‘Independent Planning Inspector to go over the original numbers with ‘a fine tooth comb’; I think he must have an awful amount of teeth missing to come up with a ridiculous increase in his development projection.

The original quota was unacceptable due to the fact that the hospital is finding it difficult to cope at the moment with continual cancellations for appointments, schools are almost at maximum attendance, it is difficult to see your own GP at some surgeries, sewage systems are struggling to take the present demand, traffic going into Yarmouth is sometimes at a standstill.

In Hopton we have one PCSO who also tries to cover Belton and Bradwell to name just a few of the areas where over the past years due to development our quality of life is getting worse.

Villages have spent a considerable amount of time and expense in developing Parish Plans to no avail; Hopton overwhelmingly asked for no future development but this has and is being ignored. Borough councillors should closely read the Code of Ethics that they all signed when joining the council which states: “...should act solely in terms of the public interest”.

The response to concerns will be that they are under pressure from County Council and in turn they will say that they are under pressure from central government.

There is no need for these ridiculous numbers of houses in our borough. As far as I can see there is no major business developments planned in the area, so where is the justification?

It is time our council stood up for its people and said enough is enough.

Or maybe because personally I feel this is such a serious issue perhaps we could set a precedent to the rest of the country and have a referendum on the issue!

STEPHEN FORD

Email

Fast response at our cancer unit

My husband is attending the Sandra Chapman Unit for cancer treatment. We mentioned he was feeling breathless and what a response!

The doctor examined him - arranged blood tests, chest x-rays and a CT scan and all were completed and diagnosed within three hours. Thanks to all departments involved.

Mr and Mrs B FERGUSON

Arundel Road,

Great Yarmouth

An honour to serve the ward

A big and heartfelt thank you to the 1,155 residents who came out and voted for me in Nelson Ward which resulted in me being returned for a second term as their councillor. I have been honoured to serve you and look forward to continuing to do so.

Cllr KERRY ROBINSON-PAYNE

Nelson Ward

Cllr’s promise to represent you all

My grateful thanks are extended to the residents of Ormesby, Scratby and California for electing me onto Great Yarmouth Borough Council. I will serve you all to the best of my ability during my term of office. My contact number is 07575947041.

Cllr RON HANTON

Ormesby Ward

Wonderful turn out in election

I would like to express my gratitude and to say a big thank you for the support and kind words I received at the local election on May 7.

The Flegg villages had a wonderful turnout of over 72pc. I am here to help and should you have any issues or concerns I can assist you with do not hesitate to contact me on 01493 368250 or email h.thirtle007@btinternet.com.

Cllr HAYDN THIRTLE

Fleggburgh

Thank you for voting me in

I was your local UKIP candidate for Bradwell North and I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their support during the election.

I shall continue to represent you through the hard working and dedicated team at Bradwell Parish Council, who give so much of their time to do their best for Bradwell.

Cllr MAURICE JOEL

Bradwell

Health officers deserve praise

A letter of thanks to the Environmental Health staff Marie Chesny, Migel Fish, Paul Shucksmith for helping to keep Cobholm a safer place to live with the work they do through the right channels they get things done, such as fixing a dangerous fence on Steam Mill Lane, making pavements safe to walk on, removing broken posts and repair ingnotices put up for fly tipping.

Don’t knock them, work with them. They are a great team, give credit to them.

MARGARET JENNIS

Cobholm