Letters, June 14, 2013

Just a quick reply to Mr Morrice, as I see he can relate to me to a point.

My issue with these letters from God is that they usually take up more space than the headline story of the front page. Constant contradicting, talking snakes, wine from water, the murder and pillaging (never much talking about this part though), the list is endless and with Mr Barkhuizen it generally is. It used to be the outer harbour and the usual suspects with their constant moaning, now its Mr Barkhuizen and his 12 disciples taking over the Mercury.

Anyway, I’m off to walk on water.

R GERVAIS

email

Fantastic site for indoor market

For many years, well before the Co-op and Woolworths closed, I have said these buildings would be a fantastic location for a permanent indoor market.

The stalls on the market (excluding chip stalls) could be re-located paying a moderate rate to hire their pitches.

For this to succeed only have fruit, veg, butchers, bread, fish, clothing, shoes etc and no cheap-jack stalls that are so prevalant on the market at the moment together with a cafe so weary shoppers can have refreshments.

Leaving the marketplace solely for parking. This would entice more visitors to come to Great Yarmouth knowing they can park in the town centre and be central for all the shops/banks in town. Also increasing the revenue for Great Yarmouth Borough Council, will the council take note of this suggestion or just ignore the residents as usual.

WILLIAM FERRIDGE

Olive Road

Great Yarmouth

Hospital parking

is out of hand

I would just liked to say that the parking on Jenner Road is getting worse, it seems the hospital staff are now parking on grass verges.

I was walking the children to school and had to keep going inbetween the cars, mothers with babies in prams had to keep going up and down the kerbs to get past, now that the road has been passed over to the council is there any chance of traffic wardens coming up there? It’s about time the road has been sorted as it’s just getting out of hand. They have the money to put the yellow lines down, but reckon they don’t have the time to do it this year.

This has got to get sorted before someone gets injured. Our road is turning into a car park for everyone, we sometimes can’t even get into our driveway as cars are parked across them.

MR SAUNDERS

email

Compensating

ex-terrorists?

In the borough there must be many ex-servicemen that either fought in Kenya or supplied those that fought in Kenya trying to protect British people that were being terrorised by the Mau-Mau 60 years ago.

Britain has decided that those Kenyans should be compensated by our taxpayers!

What flood gates will be opened now? There is the ex EOKA terrorists in Cyprus, the Communists in Malaya, how about the IRA in Northern Ireland?

Let us look to the future, in 60 years from now will those that government start shelling out cash to the “ex terrorists” of Afghanistan? This act of giving £20m to a group of ex terrorists shows complete disrespect for past, present and future servicemen.

JOHN L COOPER

Burnt Lane

Gorleston

Need something new at market

The idea to have an indoor market in the Co-op could be a good one, but it depends, what type of stalls they will be, as it is, I hardly shop in the market now because there’s nothing there for me to buy, I have only bought something from the market twice this year, one year calender and a couple of cardigans, the rest of the stalls are not of interest, they don’t sell what I need or want.

The market we have at the moment is not exactly up to scratch, put it inside, they can trade for longer and we use the outside space for something else, but there should be a limit on how many of each type of stalls there should be.

Not required are an abundance of stalls that sell the same stuff, at the same prices (more than one probably owned by the same person), one trader, one stall. If the outdoor market goes inside, what to do with the outside, not a permanent car park extension, something like an entertainment area with tables and chairs in the summer months or maybe different stalls than we already have and it could then be used for extra parking perhaps in the winter months only. Perhaps the Xmas Tree could be put in the middle of the market area instead of up by Palmers.

What I wouldn’t want to see in the old Co-op, is a duplication of what’s already in town, we have far too many clothes shops, mini markets, food stalls, shoe shops, eateries etc as well as all the trading units down Regent Road. God forbid they allow second hand stalls in there.

Pop-up trading stalls are fine as long as they are only for a few days or at most a week, like the Italian one we have on the odd occasion, perhaps a good idea would be to have a pop-up stall for an individual country so people could try a bit of French, Romanian, German, Spanish etc. food but not as a permanent stall.

Training area’s are a good idea but it definately has to be in something that would be beneficial, like catering, hairdressing not so sure about that.

Whatever it turns out as, it’s got to get the grant first, we’ll have to wait and see.

MRS LONG

email

We could all do with a laugh

There has been a lot of letters recently about religion in which I have been involved. The question is why, as a committed atheist, am I so interested in the subject?

Unlike many people, who are not interested until they need a church for a wedding or a funeral, I am aware of the enormous influence religion has had and to some extent still has, on our legal system and therefore our lives in general.

As far as I am concerned all religions are based on myths with no positive evidence to support their claims or beliefs but they do have a very positive effect on our lives. Some effects are for the good but quite a lot are not and I believe that is it up to all of us when we observe such an effect to do our best to combat it.

As an example I would refer to homosexuality. This was, at one time illegal, based on something written over 2000 years ago by an unknown writer who did not understand the condition. Consider the case of Alan Turing. Together with his colleagues at GCHQ he saved the lives of thousands of people, certainly shortened the last war by at least one year maybe two and yet because he was homosexual we hounded him until he committed suicide.

Even today people, many of whom will not be affected in any way, line up with banners objecting to the recent change in the law allowing homosexuals to marry

Just imagine how much damage could be done if we took Mr Barkhuizen seriously. Actually I think you should give Mr Barkhuizen a regular column. We could do with a good laugh on a regular basis.

DEREK BROWN

The Cottages

Royal Naval Hospital

School pick-up on busy road

As a grandparent who picks up grandchildren from Rollesby school I would like to raise the following points. I hope when the Rollesby Parish Council consider the use of the additional area behind the pavilion on Rollesby playing field for the use of parents for a short time morning and afternoon, they will consider the possibility that Rollesby School could face closure in the future if pupils are not brought in from other villages, as has happened over the years for both Thurne and Repps schools.

For a parent dropping off a pupil, they might have more than one toddler to get from a car seat on the side of the very busy A 149, not an enviable task.

PAT GEORGE

email

What about a Primark store?

I read the article about the old Co-op store becoming an indoor market. While I agree it needs to be filled an indoor market, really...? We have the outdoor market which seems to be getting smaller each week, cheap shops even an indoor market (which isn’t fully used) down Regent Road, this to me will be a bad move.

What we need is either one big name or several smaller names in there.

I understand Primark are not interested which seem crazy, maybe it’s too big, but how about M&S taking over the Co-op store and offering a bigger range of menswear and food and Primark going into the current M&S store.

Come on Yarmouth council think before we lose a good retail unit to a market. Let’s get the great back in to Yarmouth and go out there and attract some new shops, not a market please.

ALAN TRETT

email

Current market a ‘waste of time’

Why would Great Yarmouth need yet another indoor market? If the outdoor market can’t make a living what chance has a second indoor market got?

Our market is a waste of time now, we used to have the whole space covered and it was nice to walk around. We have less than half now and it take 10 minutes to walk around. With all the cheap shops now plus the outlet down Regent Road, this idea is totally stupid and a waste of money.

Surely this council can come up with something better.

CA BALLS

Bradwell

Main road full of school traffic

I was interested to read the letter from Mr Hackford in your issue of May 24 and I must say that I am in complete agreement.

My driveway exits onto the main road passing through our village. Some years ago we had a bypass which we expected to relieve the main road.

However, there was very little improvement and with the continued new housing etc. the conditions have worsened.

In my case I notice that we have a cavalcade into the village from about 9-9.30am and a similar one at about 3pm to 4pm. This seems to be inward and outward school traffic.

There is a corresponding parking problem along Appleton. I am glad that my house is not in that area.

RC LAPPING

Yarmouth Road

Ormesby

I remember the merry maypole

Daphne Greenacre’s letter regarding maypole dancing is quite true. I went to Hopton Old School, now Old School House, opposite St Margaret’s Church when Miss Coe was the headteacher.

One of the boys was in charge of the wind up gramophone in the month of May and we danced to tunes such as ‘Lassies and Lads’ around the maypole in single plaits and double plaits. A pretty girl called Pearl Watson was crowned May Queen one year. My sister Pat also did maypole dancing when Mr Etheridge was headmaster of Hopton Primary School.

When my two daughters were pupils at the school, they also did maypole dancing. So it was not 200 years since children danced and made merry around the maypole dancing.

OLIVE HAWORTH, nee Houells

Old Church Road

Hopton

Lovely memories of May Day

Myself and my cousin can well remember dancing round the maypole and we are sure it was on May Day at Hopton School when we were dressed up and got all excited at this event in our yearly calendar.

We can remember most of the children we went to school with and often see some of them, they were wonderful days and especially the walks through the woods on our nature lessons.

Miss Coe and Mrs Pitchers were our teachers through all the years spent there including some war years when we sat under the desks singing until we were allowed out again, lovely memories and nice to know someone else remembers them.

Thank you Daphne.

SYLVIA BROWN

email

Help needed to protect coastline

The sea bed of most of the North Sea consists of sandy soil consistently moving due to the waves and current.

Fast flowing water stirs sand particles, picks them up, and transports them away from the beaches and dunes due to gales and exceptional high tides.

This combination is the mechanism that creates accelerated scour and is the main transfer process that depletes firstly the sand and sediment which is unstable and sensitive removing all particles down to the foundations.

The north to south drift which is a natural occurrence removes limited amounts of sand but replacement is ongoing, movement of sand due to wind, wave and current cannot be monitored on a daily basis so no current data is available for the Great Yarmouth and adjacent coastal areas. But what is most obvious is the total fatigue and destruction of our local beaches due to their dynamic sensitivity.

So where have millions of tons of sand and sedimentation gone? No beaches along the southern coastal regions have benefited by our losses, is there large loads transferred elsewhere?

Maybe the answer is printed in the Great Yarmouth Mercury, June 7, in the public notice section page 63 bottom left column, detailing an application to dredge nearly 40m tons of sand and aggregates from sectors offshore from Great Yarmouth over the next 15 years.

The areas are situated between 18kms down to 3.1 kms - basically dredging two miles off our beaches.

This new application gives the reader an insight to the future theft of our shorelines. But what has been removed in the past 15 years?

The beach and damage to the dunes at Hemsby and other coastal areas cannot be brought back to their previous state if reliance on natural north to south replacement occurs.

To stop or delay further scouring a major effort is required to protect what little is left.

To stop the undercutting of wave action against the dunes must be a priority, if the sand has gone from the beach and the foundations are intact the incoming rolling wave action will attack any sand barrier remaining further up the beach heads.

The sand and gravel extraction is an insult to local communities struggling to protect what is left of the beaches and shorelines.

Our local government MP Mr Brandon Lewis should ask in parliament for a subsidy of 50p per ton from the extraction company and a payback scheme to initiate a protection program for our beaches.

That would certainly give us some hope for the future and possibly employ local labour.

A futile effort to manufacture four ton concrete blocks to protect the Hemsby shoreline over the next two years is a fantasy, the small amount of finances available will be a wasted resource.

Local volunteers working around the clock cannot produce enough barrier blocks to stop the rot.

My advice to the people of Hemsby, don’t be too proud to ask for assistance or advice, your efforts will be no easy fix, the answer to your problem is out there.

I wish you well in your endeavors. Good luck.

MIKE GIBBS

email

JPH staff are well-oiled unit

I live in Leicester but have family in Great Yarmouth and Oulton Broad who I love to visit on a regular basis.

Unfortunately, on this recent occasion I fell foul of a very nasty illness which necessitated my being taken to James Paget University Hospital where I remained from May 31 to June 7.

Many test, X-rays and scans were taken.

Nobody likes to be hospitalised and yet this experience confirmed to me that ‘our NHS’ as our prime minister calls it, is well and working wonderfully for the benefit of its patients.

I cannot thank JPUH enough for what they have done for me. At all times I was appraised of what was happening. It would not be fair for me to name any individual as everything worked like one big team covering doctors, consultants, technicians, nursing staff and, yes even transporters and cleaners. All became like one big well-oiled unit.

So thank you JPUH from the bottom of my heart for what you have done for me and long may you continue to show others just exactly what ‘our NHS’ is capable of.

DAVID NEWMAN

email

Herring boat’s long history

Following the Peggotty article in last Friday’s Mercury regarding Bloomfield and his fleet, you and your readers may be interested to know that Great Yarmouth Local History and Archaeological Society are unveiling a blue plaque to him on Friday June 21 at 11.30am at his former residence at number 15, Sandown Road which is now part of the A’Rona Hotel.

We hope the mayor will be in attendance.

Christopher Unsworth who recently had a book published called ‘The British Herring Industry, The Steam Drifter Years 1900 – 1960’ will also be in attendance. He wrote the piece for me below which I hope will be of interest.

Of all the fishing companies that were based in Great Yarmouth during the heyday of the herring industry the best-known, and the one that survived longest, was that founded by James Bloomfield.

Bloomfield’s Limited came into being in 1911 and, thanks to James’ drive and entrepreneurial skills, within a year it was operating fifteen steam drifters and had branch offices in fishing ports from Lerwick to Londonderry to Lowestoft.

As well as fishing, the company was also involved in fish selling, fish smoking, ice manufacture and salt trading.

In 1913 James set up a sideline, a partnership with representatives of the Tsar of Russia. Its purpose was to develop fishing in the waters off northern Russia.

To support this venture Bloomfield’s invested the modern equivalent of £3m in Russia.

A key part of that enterprise was that in the summer of 1913 the Winterton skipper, “Wee” Green, sailed a Bloomfield’s drifter to Archangel to fish for herring in the White Sea.

James was an influential spokesperson for the herring industry.

His campaigns included the fight against the use of trawl nets in herring fishing and battling the railway companies to reduce their freight charges for coal (which was the fuel for stream drifters).

At the outbreak of the first world war, steam drifters were commandeered for the Royal Navy so James lent his energy and managerial abilities to the Ministry of Munitions and, subsequently, to the Admiralty.

In 1919 James met his match when Bloomfield’s Limited was the subject of a take-over by the soap magnate, Lord Leverhulme, who wanted it as part of his “Mac Fisheries” conglomerate.

The new owner retained the Bloomfield name and James remained as general manager until his death in 1922.

After that Bloomfield’s Limited continued in operation until the 1960s when fishing was becoming unprofitable and Unilever closed it down.

ANDREW FAKES

President GYLHAS

We have lost a racing legend

With great sadness the world heard on Tuesday, about Sir Henry Cecil’s death. A very sad day for the racing world.

Sir Henry was an outstanding trainer of his generation, he was the trainer of the unbeaten horse Frankel, champion trainer for ten times, but above all, a truly an amazing man.

He loved coming to Great Yarmouth Racecourse, he loved the people, and the people loved him.

He always had time for everybody, he was a very humble and unassuming man, a very compassionate and caring human being, who was more concerned about other people’s health issues, rather than himself, although he was suffering with cancer since 2006. A cruel decease which killed his twin brother a few years ago.

My husband and I, consider ourselves very privileged to know this remarkable man and serve him in our establishment for the last 30 years.

Our thoughts are with his family and friends and to all the people this very talented gentleman, and passionate rose grower, touched their lives, and who gave pleasure to millions with so many memorable races.

Thank you,

MIRIAM KIKIS

North Quay

Great Yarmouth

Happy birthday to you, Dusty

So nice to see the tribute to Dusty the deckchair man. We have spent many unforgettable Sunday afternoons sitting in his deck chairs and listening to Great Yarmouth Brass at the bandstand and having a chat to Dusty.

My husband and I have many fond memories but sadly we can no longer do this as the brass has moved to Gorleston Band Stand where there is nowhere to sit and is no bus to take us there.

We send many happy birthday wishes to Dusty. It is people like him that make Yarmouth great.

JUNE WILLISON

Newnham Green

Gorleston

Happy times at school games

I too remember the maypole.In the late 1920s and early 1930s when I was at Edward Worlledge Infant School, May Day was celebrated with sports and games on the school playing fields.

The maypole was enjoyed by the girls with singing and dancing while the boys preferred egg and spoon, sack, and three legged races.

Later, during the early to mid 1930s at the Priory Boys School, we would celebrate Empire Day on May 24.

In the school choir, under Dr Haydon Hare the church music director, we would sing patriotic songs such as Jerusalem, Land of Hope and Glory, Rule Brittania and we always ended with God Bless the Prince of Wales.

I can’t recall the other words but I sometimes find myself humming the tune.

Thanks to Daphne Greenacre for helping recall some happy school days.

OWEN GROOM

Warbler Close

Bradwell

High hopes for £6m link road

This time next year the new Beacon Park £6.8m link up road will have begun construction, bringing with it 1,000 new homes.

I would like to pose a question to ‘Government bosses’ Bernard Williamson (cabinet member for transformation and regeneration), David Glason (growth manager for the borough council), Kim Balls (senior planner for the borough council) and Trevor Wainwright (borough council leader).

You state the new road will be one of the largest infrastructures the town has ever seen (outer harbour aside you say – what a waste of money that was.)

There is no mention of a new doctors’ surgery, dentist surgery or school. All of these are needed.

It is all very well building new housing estates and roads so people can drive faster and get to destinations quicker through the countryside, putting wildlife etc in danger, but are the important (to all) services going to be included in this wonderful decision for the future? I hope so.

MRS J ELLIOT

Green Lane

Bradwell

No room for religion here!

As one of the members of the ‘unholy alliance’ cited by David Morrice last week I would like to try to explain my personal objections to the religiously themed correspondence.

I believe that much of the evil in the world is brought about by extremism, be it religious or political, and that many of these letters demonstrate a tendency towards just such extremism.

As Mr Morrice says, ‘all that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing’.

Whilst I do not claim to be a good man, I do believe that the ‘drivel’ (Mr Morrices word) should be countered and objected to, whether by argued debate or a healthy dose of sarcasm.

Whilst I also believe in freedom of speech it is my personal belief that the letters pages are more suited to discussion of local affairs such as the ongoing cyclists v. pedestrians debate rather than (to misquote Father Jack) ‘ecumenical matters’, although I’m sure many would disagree.

MIKE BURROUGHES

Queens Road

Great Yarmouth

Football club’s labour of love

I am writing in reply to the letter published in last week’s Mercury titled Football Club too deserve praise.

As secretary of Gorleston Football Club, on behalf of us all, I would like to thank Mr Callan for his kind words.

We are all non paid volunteers and it is true we work very hard albeit a labour of love. Neither does it stop at the end of the season for the majority of us it is getting prepared for the next one.

However without the support of our loyal fans who have stuck with us through the bad times as well as the good ones none of this would be possible. They turn up in all weathers cheering on (most of the time) our players.

So thank you to each and everyone of you and please carry on next season.

ANN SANTON

Secretary

Gorleston Football Club

Traders hard hit by holes

I just wanted to observe that it seems that the traders in Gorleston High Street have been hit financially by the closure of the road due to the recent subsidence.

I am fortunate to live close enough to walk to the High Street, where we have a good selection of shops, for my shopping.

Many people however rely on a car to make the journey to get their shopping.

This should be used as a good illustration of why great care needs to be taken over any decision to close the High Street to traffic as has been suggested many times in the past.

Such a move may well destroy the character of the High Street and cause many good shops to go out of business.

Frustrating as it may be with the hold-ups and inconvenience of traffic movements it brings a good deal of business in to the town to have the convenience of short term parking close to the shops.

For through traffic after all there is the bypass.

Geoff Marshall

Lower Cliff Road,

Gorleston,