Letters, September 23

for dog’s mess

ON September 6 I went to talk to two friends and neighbours who were standing on the opposite corner. After a while one lady left with her dog and within seconds a gentleman came out and started accusing my dogs of messing in his garden and saying he was going to phone the dog warden. I told him that all three of my dogs did not walk off the lead and when they did stop to go to the toilet I have always cleared it up, making it clear I have had dogs for many years.

I understand his anger as I would feel exactly the same but people should be sure of the facts before lashing out at people in the street. If this gentleman wants proof my my dog’s innocence perhaps he would like to take a sample of their faeces along with a sample of what he keeps finding in the garden to our local vet to get it analysed at his expense.

This would solve it once and for all and perhaps the person who is letting their dog do this would think again and keep their dog on a lead and clear up after them.

Mrs S BURGESS

Gorse Close

Belton

Multi-storey car

park is needed

WHY doesn’t the council look at multi-storey parking in the town? It would take a lot more cars if they did so. There are no more spaces on floor level so building up would help solve some of these problems. St Nicholas car park and behind King Street could be built on, also the coach station on Nelson Road - these would be ideal. Of course the council will say it costs money, but it would be money well spent. Let’s look forward for this town to be great again and attract more visitors.

Mrs M FOWLER

Perebrown Avenue

Great Yarmouth

Decision-making

need re-think

OPPONENTS of the Elected Mayor for Great Yarmouth campaign last year made much of the line “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”, yet the way some big issues are being handled by those who wield power at the Town Hall tells a totally different story. Firstly, Steve Ames was elected behind closed doors by as few 20 or so Tory councillors before the local elections even took place. Secondly, although the new Regional Casino will be in the town or seafront area of Yarmouth where nine of the 10 councillors are Labour yet not one person from the opposition will sit on the Casino Advisory Committee making the recommendation. Thirdly, without a political mandate from the public, Cllr Charles Reynolds is trying to bulldoze through abolition of a residents permit parking scheme which safeguards the quality of life of people living in the terraced streets behind the Golden Mile - the Tory candidate in May’s election didn’t have such a move in his election address.

Great Yarmouth deserves proper decisionmaking and fair decisionmaking. I believe an Elected Mayor elected by the people would be intervening now to prevent the abuse of power and the depressing exercise of political spite.

Cllr MICK CASTLE

Town Wall Road

Great Yarmouth

Parking on grass

areas is wrong

I HAVE a lot of sympathy with Peter McKinna who wrote to you last week about parking on grassed areas near Wellesley Recreation Ground, we suffer from this near where I live too, and people just seem to be allowed to get away with it.

On Pavilion Road in Gorleston the council eventually put up notices on the grassed areas but cars are still parked with two wheels on the grass causing deep unsightly ruts despite the fact that this is holiday amenity landscaping. According to council officials the problem is enforcement, so why don’t they try some high profile enforcement and a few well publicised fines to raise awareness?

On Crab Lane in Gorleston near my allotment, cars were always parked on the verges and the council eventually dug up, reinstated and re-seeded the verges only to have the very same cars parked on them again within days. What was the point in the council doing the work if they are not willing to tackle the cause of the problem?

Not many years ago nobody would have dreamed of parking on a grass verge or amenity area, and if you did you would soon have a policeman making enquiries. Nowadays they just drive past all sorts of infringements in their patrol cars and never even seem to stop and take a look, so no wonder the “please yourself and stuff the rest” society just gathers pace.

BARBARA BRETT

email

Help with small

boat research

I AM currently researching “small boat” operations from HMS Midge (Great Yarmouth) and HMS Mantis (Lowestoft) in the first world war. If anybody has any experiences passed on from a father or grandfather that they would like to contribute I’d be delighted to hear from them. I can be contacted at dw@interactive3d.biz or on 01493 650741 and 0789 9997698.

DAVID WILKINSON

Reassurances

over Gleadell

AS reported in the Mercury, Gleadell Agriculture has submitted an application for what is known as ‘Hazardous Substances Consent’ to store up to 5,000 metric tonnes of Ammonium Nitrate at their premises adjacent to the Outer Harbour. In the article – which conveyed the views of John Cooper – references were made to the possible effects on the South Denes and Gorleston should consent be forthcoming.

In response, the borough council – as the application’s determining authority – is consulting with the Health and Safety Executive and other statutory consultees. The true potential impacts of the proposal will be assessed according to the level of fire protection and (air) venting of the premises that will be provided.

Equally the effect of restricting new (and the possible placing of limitations on existing) development will need to be taken into account. Only when the assessments are completed will a reasonable accurate view of the implications arising from the proposal become apparent.

I can assure readers the application will be fully considered by the council’s development control committee and my recommendation(s) will be based, in the first instance, on the technical advice and analysis received from the HSE and the statutory consultees, not forgetting the views received from concerned individuals and the views of local businesses.

PETER WARNER

Head of Planning and Business Services

Yarmouth Borough Council

Privileged to be

a heritage guide

HERITAGE open days took place for four days, Thursday to Sunday over the Maritime festival weekend, providing free access to buildings and places normally closed or which charge for admission. I was privileged and honoured to be a guide to parties of 20 members of the public on tours behind the scenes at the Regent Cinema/Theatre now known as Mecca Bingo. It was a truly wonderful, fascinating and very enjoyable experience. Many thanks to all members of the Mecca staff for being so helpful and friendly. And thanks to all the enthusiastic public, who went where no one had gone before. Well, for quite a long time.

ROBERT ARTHUR ALLEY

Townshend Close

Great Yarmouth

Grandmother

was fisher girl

THE BBC2 programme about the herring fishing and Great Yarmouth brought back memories. My grandmother was a fisher girl and lived in one of the rows off North Quay. Her son, my father, was a bricklayer who often worked in the smoke houses of Burtons in the South end doing repair work. I left school at 16 and worked in the accounts office of Bessey and Palmer at 18 South Quay, and remember clearly on a Saturday morning all the Scottish fishing boats laid up across the river; they never fished on a Sunday, and we sold all the fuel they needed to run the engines. After getting married I worked and managed Reads wool shop in the arcade in Yarmouth and Saturday was the day the Scots fisher girls and the fishermen came in to buy wool to take back to Scotland or use while they were in Yarmouth. I also remember getting on the corporation buses with the utility wooden seats and everywhere was the smell of herrings. This would be from 1951 onwards.

NORMA HADDEN

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Jobless should

serve in army

I AM replying to Mrs Kym Robson in Caister about her daughter’s handbag being pinched in St George’s Park. Most young people in Great Yarmouth don’t want a job; they would rather walk the streets during the day and at night see what crimes they can do to make money so they can take drugs and drink alcohol. Both women and men should serve one year in the army or be made to clean the streets in a full-time job and be paid their dole money. If they don’t, they don’t get a penny. How many people in Yarmouth who work hate their jobs but they do them so they can pay the bills.

Most young people have no respect for their elders. I have seen them in St George’s Park during the day, walking their dogs with no lead and the dogs messing everywhere and them not picking the mess up. I suppose this is cool.

DANNY TURRO

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Catholics’ meat

abstainance

FROM last Friday, Catholics return to their historic practice of abstaining from all meat products on Fridays. For those who are vegetarians, other abstinences are demanded. From September 11 the new translation of the Mass was introduced; obligatory from Advent Sunday. Indeed the times they are a-changing!

This has all come about because of the successful visit of the Pope to Britain. We are returning to our Catholic identity.

Friday abstinence began in the first century, as written in a short work called the Didache, a book of the teaching of the Apostles. The practice has long pedigree. A few years ago Catholic writer Eamon Duffy wrote in Faith of the Fathers, that meatless Fridays were a sign of our Faith and culture and therefore lamented its modern lapsing removed us from our roots. Identity is very important. He, like us, should be very pleased.

In America the return of Friday abstinence has also taken place. It must be followed unless the Friday is a major feast, such as Christmas. The reasoning is that the week reflects the Church seasons. The holiest time is Lent and Easter. The days of the week reflect this with each Sunday as a little Easter, when no abstinence and fasting was observed. Each Friday is a little Lent; thus ascetic practices should be observed.

The Church has never stopped demanding penance on Fridays. What we forgot was that the requirements of being a Catholic are good for us as disciplines and that not doing so is bad. The same logic is used by Jews for kosher eating. Ignoring these is obviously an attitude of pride.

In a materialistic, consumerist society it is good for us to stand apart and be in the world but not of it. This will become increasingly important in our aggressively secularist society.

The problem is that, as the bishops in England and Wales, as well as the bishops in America, have admitted, when no specific observance is prescribed, we tend to do nothing. This is not going to foster any holiness in us. Moreover we need to follow rituals and rites as part of how we live.

The bishops see it as a vital part of our identity and witness to the world. They also recognise that the new translation is more faithful to the original and a more spiritual experience. These times are exciting and we can believe the Holy Spirit is there with us.

STEPHEN CONWAY

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Surprised at

store’s decision

I WOULD like to reply to G Cass (Letters, September 9) in regard to Help for Heroes charity collection organised at Asda, Yarmouth. He or she suggested I don’t understand the difference between postponement and cancellation! Rather insulting I think.

The Help for Heroes charity collections were organised to be countrywide on specified days. I say organised because this is a tremendous undertaking carried out purely by volunteers throughout the UK.

If every store in the country decided to “postpone” total chaos could ensue.

Volunteers have to be recruited, often organising their lives around the event and very large boxes full of collection buckets, flags, stickers, arm bracelets plus merchandise for sale have to be distributed around the country then returned on set days because the company who carry out this task for free have to be organised well in advance and cannot be expected to perform to the whims of others. Postponement was not an option.

Obviously those who airily suggest “another time” would be acceptable do not understand what an enormous logistical operation these collections are and I was pleased to be part of the Tesco weekend.

My son was in both Iraq and Afghanistan and I am grateful he came back unscathed, unlike a great many of our troops.

I would say I was surprised that a company owned by the American Walmart did not really put themselves out to help this cause, I have found in the States that their troops are very much respected.

PAULA WINSOR (Mrs)

Bately Avenue

Gorleston

Why different

cost for roe?

I ATTENDED both Hemsby Herring Festival and the Maritime Festival, which were both fantastic, but I can’t understand why at Hemsby we had three pieces of roe in our large roll but at the Maritime it was only two pieces, although the price for each was �2.

I would also like to comment on a red-shirted man who queue-jumped in front of everyone, even the disabled couple in front of me. You can understand why some youngsters do these things when their grandparents are ignorant.

JOHN BROOKSHAW

Anchor Court,

Great Yarmouth

Town Hall closed

for building work

I WAS glad to read in last week’s Mercury that correspondent Mrs K Burge had once again enjoyed a visit to the Maritime Festival. However, it appears that she and her husband were disappointed they were unable to visit the Town Hall as in previous years.

The reason for this was that at present there is a considerable amount of construction work taking place inside and that has rendered it unfit for the general public to have access as before.

I do not know who told her it was closed because of cutbacks but she was certainly misinformed.

The Festival has been a great success over the years and thanks are due to the small group of organisers who give their time and effort to make it so.

Cllr JIM SHRIMPLIN

We should keep

jetty heritage

WHEN listening to a debate on our local radio station on the subject of should goldfish be given as prizes at various events etc in Norfolk, when a gentleman pointed out he thought this was wrong.

A Yarmouth borough councillor said he did not realise there were so many small-minded people about!

But those councillor who voted for the demolition of Yarmouth’s famous jetty should take a look in the mirror for being small-minded! The people of Gorleston and Great Yarmouth would be proud of a re-built jetty with its historical connections to England’s greatest naval hero, Lord Nelson, when money is available.

When my husband and I told our mother they wanted to demolish the jetty (she is 100 years old and very bright), her reply was that we might as well be called Yarmouth as we will never be Great anymore.

MRS Y BECKETT

Larch Drive

Bradwell

Thank you for

the music

A FEW weeks ago, I had the privilege of introducing Gorleston Community Choir, under the direction of their leader Jackie Whiting, onto the stage of the Pavilion Theatre. It was their first appearance on that stage and from the reception they received, I imagine it will be the first of many.

Ironically, while compere, I spoke of the sad losses our local theatrical “family” had sustained in recent months. Little did we know that in a matter of a few weeks, we were to lose yet another valuable member so soon. The untimely death of Jackie Whiting was a cruel blow to family, choir and community alike.

Not quite 50 years old and nearing her 25th wedding anniversary, Jackie’s short, energetic and fascinating life, upheld to the end by her strong faith, has left a legacy to the town which will be continued and enhanced by her son Christopher and the family, and that was her wish. I know we will continue to support them and with Abba we say: Thank You For The Music, For Giving It To Us.”

DUSTY MILLER

Meadow Court

Gorleston

Let residents have extra permits

IF the residents’ parking permit scheme could generate more revenue there would be less threat to terminate. Perhaps we could sell a few �5 or �10 parking permits to regular shoppers or visitors from our local country areas?

Why only one visitor permit per household? Most of us have more than one visiting friend or relative – we have children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Grandad is often by the gate watching out for the warden. The neighbours help out on occasions but I would much rather have extra permits. Perhaps the guest house permit system could be more widely available to households willing to pay for extra permits?

K R HIGH

Crown Road

Great Yarmouth

Gorleston parking

surface question

HAVING experienced a fall in the car park behind the QD Store in Gorleston High Street on September 8, it occurs to me to wonder who is responsible for the surface of the car park which bears a charge and restrictions for use. Whoever – no marks for this one!

Miss R L FARMER

Marine Parade

Gorleston

Please don’t litter and hurt wildlife

I AM Charlotte and am seven years old. I live in Gorleston and I would like to report one or two things. A few months ago I went to Victoria Park in Gorleston with my mum’s friend and started picking up litter then realised it was everywhere.

A few months later me and my sister and mum went back. A man told us there was a deer and it ran into the bush, so we went to investigate. We did not see the deer but we saw rubbish and it was disgusting. I imagined how it would be for the poor deer. I would like to ask people who read your newspaper to stop throwing litter on the floor, if not it will hurt wildlife such as deer, birds and other animals. On the way back, I found part of a necklace and I hope you would find an owner. It is an oval shaped locket with patterns of flowers.

CHARLOTTE

Elmgrove Road

Gorleston

11-plus wrongly

labelled children

I READ Mr Morris’s letter (Mercury, September 16) with interest and I greatly admire the determination and hard work which enabled him to achieve the qualifications leading to his desired career after being publicly labelled as a failure. Would I have been able to do that I ask myself?

Scholarships for free places at Grammar Schools were introduced by government in about 1902. However entry was optional so only children who wanted to compete took part. In the thirties an academic named Burt convinced the government that IQ testing was virtually infallible so the 11 plus was introduced for all children.

They could not see that a system that labelled the majority of young children as failures was wrong both educationally and psychologically. Although some like Mr Morris managed to shrug off the label, many did not and remained discouraged for a long time. We now know that Mr Burt was fiddling his stats anyway. Today most counties operate a successful comprehensive system. Only a few Tory strongholds such as Kent and Surrey continue to select.

LIONEL BALLS

Bure Close,

Great Yarmouth

Has time run out

for Yarmouth

IN the last eight years, members of Great Yarmouth Borough Council have promised much, and delivered nothing. This was once a vibrant place, but now time has run out. There is no time left to fix the harbour where so much was promised by the then leader of the council, more jobs, tourists on ferries, and lorries.

We, the people of this area, should have realised it was never to be, it was a Trojan horse. Why? No infrastructure. The first thing you would do, knowing, that’s if it was going to happen, was rebuild roads to take these large lorries.

Build something weather wouldn’t matter; use spaces that are now derelict. Look around, if places like Stratford can revitalise itself, be it through the Olympics, so can we.

It seems to me, that whatever the public asks for, the council is hell bent in doing the opposite, and always take their time in decisions. Recent instances include residents’ parking; do the councillors making the decisions live there or work there? No, so how can they come to the decision they have. Then we have taxis: are there any taxi drivers on the council? No. So how can they judge what the cabbies need?

If the council had done its job in regards to the harbour, a better railway station befitting a 21st century holiday resort, a new vibrancy in the area with the pier being used as it should, the cabbies and the parking would not have been an issue. If you build it they will come…

DAVID BROWN

Yallop Avenue

Gorleston

Mother’s dying

wish for doctor

WHAT a lovely story about Dr Deane and the recording of his wonderful dedicated selfless work for the people of Gorleston. I myself am a Gorleston man, my late mother Mrs Joan Coe and I used to be his patients. She left the area moving to Harleston in Suffolk some 50 years ago. When my mother was dying about four years ago she held my hand and said: “Go and get Doctor Deane he’ll know what to do, he’ll look after me!” The fact she had not been seen or had contact with Dr Deane for some 50 years said it all. Her subconscious still held tight and valued his compassion and skill. I wonder what he would have made of today’s affairs where it’s very hard to get to know and form life-long relationships with the same doctor.

MICHAEL BROWN

formerly Nile Road

Gorleston

Find space for

traditionalists

IN reply to the letter relating to Belton Church (September 16) it was delightful to hear the correspondent was made very welcome and enjoyed the visit. Even more welcome were the writer’s comments and pleas on behalf of the congregation’s traditionalists. Many have worshipped and supported the church for 30 to 40 years but requests for the occasional traditional service have been ignored for over 20 years. The latest response is go to another nearby church for such a service.

Big plans are afoot to heat Belton Church and use it throughout the year. Once the pews have been removed and the traditionalists removed to Burgh Castle, what will we be left with; a continuation of the noisy, casual travesty of a service and still no consideration for those who long to workship in a traditional manner. Will someone please listen to this plea?

Name and Address withheld