Letters, March 14 2014

Isn’t it about time councillors, MPs, etc stood down off the steps during the Remembrance Sunday service? We are there to pay our respects to those that gave so much. Why year in year out do we have to stand and look up to these people?

You don’t see the Prime Minister and others standing at the base of the Cenotaph.

Those who are currently serving their country or have served are pushed away into the crowd so these so-called dignitaries’ partners can have seats in the remembrance garden area! It’s 100 years ago those brave souls gave up everything for us today... let’s remember them.

MARK TRUDGILL

email

What is Lent? It is not in Bible

Could one of the local vicars please tell us what “Lent” is? It’s not in the Bible. Which means the apostles and New Testament church never practised it. So if God hasn’t told us to practise Lent, why do some religious organisations make such a big thing of it?

Likewise christening and confirmation – also not found in the Bible. Jesus, the Lord God, says, “In vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men” (Matthew 15:9).

E BARKHUIZEN

Albemarle Road,

Gorleston

Looking for the family of Arthur

I am currently writing a book about how the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed and the surrounding district were affected before, during and immediately after World War One. During my research I have come across many poems written by Thomas Grey, a resident of Tweedmouth in Berwick, known as the “Footplate Poet”.

Many of his poems touch on the mood of the population during the war, and also reflect on the tragedy suffered by many Berwick families. Thomas Grey had three sons serving during the war: James served in the Royal Navy, and Arthur and Thomas jr were in the Army.

Arthur Grey is thought to have moved to the Great Yarmouth area after the war. Thomas jr emigrated to what was then northern Rhodesia after the war, and I have succeeded in tracing his descendents who now live in Zimbabwe.

I would like to make contact with any descendents of Arthur Grey who may still reside in the Yarmouth area with the aim of finding out more about his life and what prompted his father, Thomas, to become such a prolific poet.

I would be grateful for any assistance your readers can provide and I can be contacted at 2 Roberts Court, Galashiels, Scottish Borders, TD1 2BW, call 01896 756211 or email harry-scott@hotmail.co.uk.

HARRY SCOTT

email

Must keep trying on the headlines

The potential headlines are all there in this week’s paper.

Man has grocery shopping stolen at 1.10 in the morning.

New cadet is one of senior junior leaders in unit.

Swedish visitors experienced suburb hospitality.

I suppose we’ll never get my “One-legged man was mentally unbalanced” - but we must keep trying, mustn’t we?

MIKE SPRAGG

Collingwood Road,

Great Yarmouth

Towers revamp no benefit to us!

I have just read this week’s Mercury and was appalled and disgusted to read that the council is to spend £100,000 converting one of the medieval towers along Blackfriars Road into a holiday let. Given the constant cuts (driven by central government) they keep complaining about, this seems an excessive amount of residents’ money to be wasting.

It certainly will not be of much benefit to local residents. There cannot be any hope of this being recouped and surely there are better purposes this money could be used for.

I and 37 plus residents of Frank Stone Court and others along the South Drive have been campaigning for over three years to have the parking along South Drive changed to stop the constant and regular anti-social behaviour of 100 or so of the jetty boys which blight our nights, only to be told there is no money available.

Perhaps the council could spend a similar amount on us which would be of more benefit to more residents than this overpriced unnecessary holiday let!

DAVID HUDSON

email

Get a grip on Facebook swipes

Wouldn’t you think the county council had more important issues to discuss than who said what about who on Facebook? Come on lads, get a grip! This is the stuff of the playground - sticks and stones and all that.

Still it’s great to know they are making use of their laptops which were supplied by the council and paid for by the electorate.

PAULINE LYNCH

Bradwell

Thanks for my JPH treatment

I was admitted to the James Paget as an emergency in February with breathing difficulties and spent six days there.

I can only say the thoroughness of the testing they did on and after arrival, cleanliness, quality of food, everything was much better than I had dared hope.

In fact, I can’t think of anything I could criticise. All the doctors, nurses and other staff seemed very caring and well motivated and dare I say to be enjoying their work. A far cry from the mixed press NHS hospitals so often seem to get.

I would like to thank everyone involved in my treatment for making my stay as bearable as it could be under the circumstances.

PETE BISS

email

Where will firm grow in future?

On March 25, 2012 US giant API Technology bought out C-Mac with the excellent news they were going to save the 60 jobs that were to be lost if C-Mac were to carry on in business.

Now we learn C-Mac is to make 25 jobs redundant. To a person that for eight years has delved into the vagaries of Great Yarmouth Borough Council, there are with this fresh news more hidden answers to the many questions not being answered.

Cllr Wainwright is stating his disappointment, at the same time promoting Beacon Park, also giving his view of a downturn in aerospace. His comments could not help C-Mac, whilst C-Mac were optimistically looking to a good future.

His comments about a downturn in C-Mac’s business could be picked up by clients and affect C-Mac’s statement of “future opportunities”.

C-Mac is on Fenner Road, where Great Yarmouth Development Company Ltd, headed by Cllr Williamson and Cllr Castle is to form an Energy Park, an idea that might blight the companies already on South Denes. What bearing has this well publicised idea had on C-Mac’s thoughts on future growth?

“The company is positioned to invest in future growth opportunities” says C-Mac. For a company looking to grow in the future it must have stability NOW! Blighting these companies that have been on South Denes for half a century is a sure way to make all the companies on the denes think about moving!

JOHN L COOPER

Burnt Lane,

Gorleston

What has caused bad weather?

Is it possible the shift of the Gulf Stream, causing all this bad weather, was brought about by recent severe solar activity? If this was the cause of its movement, is this going to be its permanent position or will it revert back to its norm?

JACK DYE

Gonville Road,

Gorleston

Endless forms and no replies

I wonder if Mr Smith from Swift Taxis has ever had to chase a job. My sister has applied for so many jobs, made phone calls, filled in application forms and left her name and number for the last four years. In that time, not one person got back to her and she didn’t get an interview. So Mr Smith, it is not easy at all. After applying for a job, a month later that job is in the paper again. What is the logic in that I ask?

C A BALLS

Bradwell

Thanks for help after seizure

On Sunday I had an epileptic seizure at the bus stop under Market Gates in Great Yarmouth.

I would like to thank the kind person who called for an ambulance and to say that I am feeling a lot better thank you.

MICHAEL ATTERWILL

Garden Close,

Bungay

Why moan when you could act

It’s not very often that I have a whinge, but it’s so annoying when I read “someone” should be responsible, or why doesn’t someone do something about it, who is this “someone”? It could be you!!

L TURNER

The Common,

Freethorpe

Yarmouth’s ‘still in 20th century’

I reply to the letter in last week’s Mercury re Blackpool. As I go home once a year to my home town of Blackpool I always look at what they have and what Great Yarmouth does not have and that is life.

They live in the 21st century whereas Yarmouth is still in the 20th century. All Yarmouth looks at is what it has done in the past and not what it is doing now. Blackpool’s season starts the first week in February, that is when the Pleasure Beach opens, not the few weeks the one in Yarmouth is opened. As for the shows all they do on the Pier is change the date as they have the same acts year on year. I know I will not be first to speak out as it’s been the joke of the town for years.

When will the town live for today and leave the years behind as they will never come back?

Name and Address withheld

No excuse for ‘ugly’ plant pots

Well, while the streets are strewn with litter and dog mess, piles of broken televisions, mattresses and discarded furniture from one end of Yarmouth to the other at least we can relish the fact that our council tax is spent wisely on the instalment of several ugly giant plant pots along the seafront. They are now being filled with the plants I’m sure were meant for the flower beds that have been removed because they were too expensive to maintain every year. Can’t wait for the excuse on this one.

SUSAN DIMBLEBY

Great Yarmouth

via email

Legs like new thanks to you!

I would like to thank Shrublands Health Care Centre and their staff for their care in healing my ulcerated legs. I received first class care from the district nurses, and the reception staff were very helpful and friendly.

My legs are healed and like new, thanks to everyone at the centre you are all true NHS professionals.

COLIN THOMPSON

via email

Mayor’s Cadet deserved more

How disappointing to read so little detail about the newly appointed Mayor’s Cadet in last week’s Mercury. I am sure most readers would have been interested to read about why young Leone was chosen; the skills, qualities and aptitude she brings to the role or what she was looking forward to during her year with the Mayor.

Instead, most of the article focused on the set-up of the newly-formed independent unit she belongs to, still in its infancy and clearly desperate to expand its members, going on to describe how cadets train and progress through the unit’s structure. Inaccuracy also shone out, as I believe Leone was one of six nominated young people from different organisations, not ‘chosen from five other cadets’, as stated.

What a shame, this really was not their moment to shine.

Name and Address withheld

Support the coast we love

We are so lucky to live on the wonderful east coast. But if we don’t act now, how long until it is washed away by Mother Nature? I love to walk on Hemsby beach whatever the weather and we all know how the residents there have been in the wars for well over a year - first the beach disappearing and then the storm surge destroying those homes.

If we love where we live, we should join the campaign to save our coastline and if that means getting together to lobby the government for better sea defences or cash to do it ourselves, count me in.

JANE MURRAY

Bush Road,

Winterton-on-Sea

Snails are a happy tradition

Having left the east coast more than 20 years ago now, I can sometimes catch on to developments a little later than everyone else. And while I know I am late to this story - which I read on the Mercury website some weeks ago - I wanted to express my glee that the famous Joyland Snails are being considered as a heritage site.

I remember riding on the colourful creatures when I was a youngster and when I make return trips to Yarmouth to see old friends, it fills me with great joy to see them still going. I will always remember the clack, clack, clack sound they make as they trundle around their track.

The snails are a wonderful reminder of Great Yarmouth’s glorious seaside history, and I think it is a testament to their enduring appeal that they have survived into 2014 - and hopefully beyond.

They are also proof that children - and adults - can still be entertained by the more simple things in life, and while 3D wizardry, touch screens and high-tech gadgetry all has its place, there will always be room for tradition.

I hope the snails are soon recognised as a heritage spot alongside Yarmouth’s other simple pleasures.

GEORGINA SPENCER

Uckfield,

East Sussex

(former Great Yarmouth resident)

Schools suffer in Ofsted’s hands

I am writing to express my complete lack of faith in the Ofsted system.

I have two daughters at a Great Yarmouth school which visitors always praise as a happy school with hard-working teachers and polite, enthusiastic children who are proud to be pupils there.

However, inexplicably, two years after an Ofsted inspector praised the school and its management, saying it was on the way to being classed as ‘good’, another Ofsted team turned up and roundly condemned everything – from the management and governance to behaviour and attainment – as inadequate.

Placing the school in special measures inevitably affected staff morale and caused bewilderment among the pupils themselves.

Other local schools have suffered in the same way, but surely any credibility Ofsted retained must have vanished after their treatment of Lynn Grove High School.

In the 13 years I have lived in Yarmouth, Lynn Grove has always been held up as an excellent school with inspections that reflected that – suddenly Ofsted has judged the school to be inadequate.

Scarily, Ofsted is pushing all schools down the road of putting results before everything else and that cannot be good for the broader education and happiness of our children.

The question all this leaves one asking is: Who would want to become a teacher?

STEPHEN WATSON

Great Yarmouth

Seafront revamp looking tatty

Has anyone else noticed the mess Great Yarmouth seafront is in?

Our once beautiful new cobbles are now scarred by ugly patches of tarmac. The crossing area from Regent Road to Britannia Pier is a disgrace - more holes in it that a colander.

Presumably a lot of money was spent along this stretch in the recent past, many millions although I cannot recall exactly how many. But with little will to keep them looking nice what was the point. Just seems a shame.

Meanwhile the net of lights along Regent Road is looking a bit ropey too. Too many of the lights are out. Admittedly it was lovely when it was new but needs maintaining or replacing.

ELAINE COPE

Great Yarmouth