Letters, October 18, 2013

I have written to our MP Brandon Lewis on the matter of changing the driving age from 17 to 18.

I have a son of 16 who is looking for work as he has left school, what chance has he of finding any work in the Great Yarmouth area or any other area if the government changes the young person driving regulation.

Most young persons have to travel several miles to find a career or an apprenticeship as the opportunities are not in the town like they used to be, unless you want to work in a cafe or shop.

As he approached the legal driving age I was hoping to push for his driving licence to hopefully expand his chance of getting a decent job.

Once again I feel the government has not thought through yet another useless law and penalise the young for a few who are reckless.

JIM GRAY

Pegasus Close

Caister on sea

More parise for the bookshop

The letter, October 11, relating to the bookshop in the Victoria Arcade in Great Yarmouth was very true. We have visited this bookshop many times and have always received excellent service.

We have a member of the family who has special needs and we mentioned this to the proprietor when buying certain books.

The next time we visited the shop he had a bundle of appropriate books and other items for our nephew. We too offered to pay but he refused payment and said he was happy to help.

Thank goodness for people like him, they confirm our belief in the kindness of most people.

LARRAINE EVANS

Ormesby St Margaret

This town needs cycle paths

Further to correspondence re cycling over Haven Bridge. The powers that be need to cycle over that bridge and see for themselves just how dangerous it is for cyclists.

This town and others need to have cycle paths incorporated into the pavements or where possible cycle lanes. The sale of bicycles has risen, and more people wish to cycle, but it is too risky on a lot of our congested roads. Most cyclists are very considerate and would give way to walkers. Cyclists are at least able to cycle along the lower promenade now, at Gorleston, and very enjoyable it is. Also can anyone tell me when we are going to get our cycle/walkway to Hopton, via Warren Road?

Mrs T WEST

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Need address of Aussie visitor

At the recent Maritime Festival, an Australian visitor was very interested in the gansey knitting I was demonstrating and asked for printed details on the subject. These I sent to the Caister address she gave me but they have been returned as address unknown. If any reader can provide me with the correct contact address for her, I will forward them.

ANN DUNNING

Bells Road,

Gorleston

Let’s have a law on antifreeze

I am responding to the story last week of poor Tobias, the cat poisoned by antifreeze.

It’s a shame it has to die because of carelessness or even worse. Deliberate cruelty on poor defenceless cats. I have read some cases of this and am appalled to think that human beings (if you can call them that) take such cruel actions to kill these lovely creatures. In my mind they are sick murderers. I agree totally with Tobias’ family that something must be done to stop this. Yes, it should only be sold at garages and used there and then to service cars with customers paying only for what they have used. The remainder should be used to fill the next car and so on.

I would like a law to be passed, so cat lovers everywhere should get a petition together and take the first steps to take to a local MP.

But for now, it’s farewell to Tobias, another victim of the poisonous antifreeze and it won’t be the last.

Mrs MARIE HAWKINS

Great Yarmouth

Dredging cause of the erosion

To add insult to injury there has recently been three applications by Hamilton Aggregates Marine Ltd to continue offshore aggregate dredging along our coastline for a further 15 years: 40m tonnes from areas 240, 212, 328(B&C) *Marine Management Organisation (MMO) application Ref MLA/2013/00119: 22.5m tonnes from areas 401, 402, (A&B) MMO application Ref MLA/2013/00306: and 24.25m tonnes from areas 242, 328 and 361 (A&C). MMO application Ref MLA/2013/00338.

These areas have already been dredged and this further dredging will deepen the already five to 10 metre pits over vast areas of our long-shore seabed.

The seabed off this coastline is mobile and further dredging deepening the seabed in these dredged areas will draw material from adjacent seabed areas which eventually results in beach draw–down causing severe erosion of the adjacent coastline.

The deeper water caused by these dredging operations adjacent to the coastline also increases the onshore wave force and consequently accelerates this coastal erosion.

Beach losses coupled with the above makes soft sand and marram grass defences particularly vulnerable as has been seen by the recent beach loss and consequential erosion at Hemsby.

Our famous golden beaches are also not being naturally replenished because the massive amounts of seabed material already removed by these dredging operations is altering the natural flow of long-shore drift sediment flux to our beaches.

Loss of our beaches by beach draw-down and lack of replenishment by the long-shore drift sediment flux is not only causing accelerated coastal erosion it will be very detrimental to our holiday industry and a great loss to future generations.

The erosion along what’s left of the remaining dune protecting the Newport to Hemsby valley during the recent high tides have been quite severe with no access now from the beach to the Newport Fishermans cottages and winter has not started yet. I fear that with the north-east storms and high tides that we will have this winter the sea could flood part of the Newport to Hemsby valley (the Marrams) this winter.

Originally there were three dunes protecting the Newport to Hemsby Valley and I remember loss of many holiday bungalows on the second dune due to erosion during the storms of 1983, now there is only half of the last one left. Further information on the link between seabed aggregate dredging, beach losses and coastal erosion can be found on our web-site www.marinet.org - Marine Aggregate Dredging and Coastal Defences/Shoreline Management Plans.

MIKE KING

MARINET

Great Yarmouth

Ladies stood guard over seal

As an animal lover I was shocked and appalled at the treatment a young seal was given on Caister on Sea beach. This young seal was reported to many agencies from the Sunday to Monday, October 14 and yet it took until 11am for someone to come and attend to it.

If it wasn’t for three ladies who had stood protecting the seal from dogs from 8.30am that morning then I feel the agency who came out may have been dealing with a corpse. Well done ladies, it’s nice to know some people care.

JAMES SMITH

Eastern Beach Caravan Park,

Caister on Sea

Yippee! How to make a profit

This is how I imagine the board meeting prior to January 2013 of eon, electricity and gas supplier, was conducted.

Ladies and gentlemen (I assume there are some ladies on the board), our customers have been cutting down on their use of electricity and gas by installing double glazing, loft and cavity wall insulation. Mr Chairman, isn’t that what the government wants them to do?

Well yes, but our income is going down? I suggest we impose a standing charge so that even if they don’t use any power whatsoever we can still get some money out of them.

What will we attribute the charge to? We will put it down to administration and maintenance of the electricity wires.

How much? Well, I’ve worked it out and it comes to 26p and nine-hundredths of a penny per day. Wow, that comes to £95.22 which rounds up to £95.23 per annum.

What did you work out for the gas pipes maintenance and admin? Oh, I got that to 26p and nine-hundredths of a penny per day. That’s amazing, and such a fine piece of mathematics to arrive at the same figure, which for dual-use customers will bring us another £95.23 per annum making a total of £190.46.

But won’t they notice? No, they are stupid and don’t forget, every leap year we get an extra 26.09 x 2 = 52p per customer on dual fuel, which with 80,000 customers comes to…you work it out.

Yippee, Mr Chairman!

DON FAWCETT,

Jasmine Gardens,

Bradwell

Wing mirror is hit yet again

Last Friday at around 9.45am, I stopped my car outside my elderly mother’s house on Church Road, Gorleston, in order to pick her up for a trip out. She lives at the White Horse roundabout end of the road. As she has great difficulty in walking, I popped in to get her wheelchair before helping her into the car.

As I emerged from the house with the wheelchair I heard a loud bang. Rushing to my car I discovered my driver’s side wing mirror had been hit and the mirror glass was lying in the road.

As I looked up I noticed a rust coloured Ford was just in front of my car, but as I waved at the driver to stop, the car accelerated and drove off towards St Andrew’s church. I managed to recover the glass, which was intact, but unfortunately the wing mirror housing is now broken and the electrical contacts have been ripped off.

I have spoken to my Peugeot garage and they tell me that it will cost £197 to fix. Thanks a lot!

This is the second time in 18 months that my wing mirror has been hit whilst outside my Mum’s house, and, similarly, no-one had the decency to stop and admit what they had done on that occasion either.

The only slight consolation I had was that I retrieved not only the mirror glass for my car, but also a piece of their wing mirror housing.

Ironically, it was the same silver colour as my own car, and from the writing inside, also appeared to be from a Peugeot.

I appreciate that Church Road is not as wide at this end of the road as it is nearer the church, and as such there is not enough room for three vehicles to pass each other safely.

Yet, for some inexplicable reason, some individuals cannot possibly bear to wait a few seconds for oncoming traffic to pass, and insist on squeezing through the narrow gap between my stationary car and the oncoming traffic. In this way they risk damaging not only their own vehicle but also other people’s.

I would like to say to both of the inconsiderate and selfish drivers who have hit my car and not had the decency to admit it, that I hope you believe the damage you sustained to your car was worth it. I also hope you might now think that the cost of those few seconds waiting might have been the cheaper option.

STEPHANIE MAYS

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Generosity of our community

Could I through the letters column of your newspaper convey the thanks of Stokesby St Andrew Parochial Church Council to the very generous villagers and other members of the community who have donated funds to repair the vandalised church windows?

Donations at the present time stand at £774. We are quite astonished by people’s generosity and wish to thank those who have helped.

Mrs V FABB and Mrs P SULLIVAN

Churchwardens,

Stokesby St Andrew PCC

Who to call re baby seals?

I am writing to say a big thank you to the two ladies who stood with myself on the beach at Caister on Sea on Monday from 8.30am to 11am with a young seal. Myself and these ladies had rang a number of places concerning this seal. It would be nice to see posters put up around our coastline of where the general public can phone when a seal is found. It seemed there was not enough information out there about who the public are meant to ring. I hope the seal now gets the best treatment and makes a full recovery. Thanks again ladies, and for the coffee.

Miss H GRAY,

Beach Road,

Caister on Sea

Left behind bag was handed in

On October 10, my two year old son and I went to the Marina Centre for swimming.

I didn’t realise until the next day that I had left the swim bag with my boy’s swimming toys and our swimsuits in the changing room. I was so upset, because the swimming learning toys where brand new. I returned to the Marina Centre and to my surprise the bag was in reception!

I want to say a big thank you to the lovely and honest person who handed in our bag to reception. I don’t know who you are, but you made me so happy. Also, a big thank you to the lady in reception for her kindness.

Mrs LAIMA BENSON

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