Readers’ letters, Friday, September 29

My connection with Great Yarmouth began out of convenience rather than choice, and I was not impressed by the worst examples of urban planning I have ever seen.

The beautiful Minster with a supermarket next door, the original Nelson’s Column in the middle of an industrial estate, the neglected but still charming Waterways, I could go on and on.

Therefore, two contributions to your publication interested me. A letter decrying the renovation at Waterways (where there is still free parking) and the preview on the launch of the Civic Society of Great Yarmouth, which deserves the support of everyone who lives or works in the town.

Heritage is the way to bring in new visitors over 12 months of the year and the jobs and prosperity which comes from that. Brexit will make foreign holidays more expensive and therefore less attractive and although the town will never rival the beauties of Italy for example, it could hold its own against any small coastal town destination.

Great Yarmouth already does the hospitality, now embrace the heritage.

JUNE ROGERSON

Mallard Way,

Burgh Castle

Entrance roads need tidying up

Regarding Peter Faulkner’s comments re the A47 between Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft, I totally agree with him. I went to Newcastle recently and the roundabouts and grass verges were either neatly attended or were covered with wild flowers.

They were a joy to see. It is what I remember of my holidays there. What would the neighbours think if the councillors gardens were so uncared for?

The £400,000 for the ice rink would be much better spent on making the entrance to Great Yarmouth tidier and more cared for.

MARGARET A DUNSFOR

Amhurst Gardens,

Belton

We want to be completely out

I have seen a lovely photo of our Government cabinet ministers. But what have they got to smile about, not Brexit surely as they seem to be at each other’s throats as the cabinet is split unevenly on how Brexit can move forward.

Twenty-one ministers want a Norway style deal, Britain keeping rules that mirror EU regulations. Six ministers want a time-limited transition in a deal where Britain can make its own regulations.

Lastly two ministers want a bespoke deal that satisfies all three camps.

It appears our MP Brandon Lewis is in the Norway camp. Now correct me if I am wrong, but didn’t the constituency of Great Yarmouth vote to leave the EU, didn’t we vote and win to control immigration, and didn’t we say we want to make our own laws not Strasbourg!

Perhaps our MP would like to inform the voters of our constituency through the pages of the Mercury why he is not pressing to have our demands a reality.

JOHN L COOPER

Burnt Lane,

Gorleston

We all have view on Brexit deal

I appreciate this might be becoming boring for your readers, so this will be my last letter responding to your correspondent C Allen (September 22). As stated previously this is a ‘circular’ argument with Remainers such as myself always being pitted against hardened

Leavers. But I appreciate we all come from different sides of this argument.

I trust he will agree with me though that the state of play appears to be in stalemate but I was cheered by Theresa May’s speech in Florence that perhaps pragmatism and common sense were coming into play with a request for a transitional arrangement to be implemented after we leave in March 2019.

Your correspondent cites Boris Johnson as the virtuous person

in these unedifying shenanigans, so why did he write that somewhat disingenuous treatise in The Telegraph just before this landmark speech, citing yet again that mendacious slogan plastered over the Brexit Bus. I am sorry but all the main players in the Cabinet are only really interested in jockeying for the main job and a sensible solution for Brexit appears to come way down their list.

I and C Allen both presumably want the same thing a country that does indeed work for everyone and not just the multi-corporations and I do sincerely hope trade deals with other countries will flourish and succeed. But the general public were indeed misled if they though that extricating ourselves from the EU was going to be that Sunday afternoon walk in the park.

Leavers will have to be patient and Remainers will have to learn to live with it and what is more make the best of it.

The EU has its own problems to contend with not least Germany with its incursion of the far right, so the ‘little matter’ of Britain might not indeed be at the top of their agenda.

I have more faith in Baldrick than in this Brexit team, but like Edmund Blackadder, David Davis will no doubt take all the glory if it indeed transpires into a good and proactive deal for everyone concerned.

JUDITH A DANIELS

Winifred Road,

Cobholm

Drone could hold a lifejacket

I was in the Royal Air Force in the trade of safety equipment which serviced and looked after life jacket, dinghies and parachutes, for 12 years, four of those years at RAF Coltishall so being so near the sea everything had to be top class.

I buy the newspaper and was interested in your item on the Caister life oat drone. A great idea as it should give the crew an early warning.

After thinking about the drone I wondered whether it could be used from the beach or river banks or even the Broads.

My idea is to attach a nylon cord to a drum and a small lifejacket to the other end. The lifejacket is inflated by a water activated Co2 cylinder which is fitted to the side of the jacket.

DAVID FREEMAN

Birkbeck Way,

Thorpe St Andrew

Astonished by speed of a UFO

Last month I was in the garden mowing my lawns and weeding my borders when I finished I went in to make a coffee. Then I went straight back to my front door looked up outside for several minutes at 5.50pm. I could not believe my eyes, if you were to blink you would have missed it.

I saw this object fly over my head at an extremely high altitude travelling at a high rate of speed, heading from east to west over my flat. The sky was mostly bright clear blue with scattered clouds.

I could not believe my eyes what I have seen, the speed it was travelling... I left my front door to go round to the front of my flat hoping to catch it leaving, it was long gone out of sight. The direction it was heading I think it would be over the USA in seconds.

CARSON GODBOLD

Western Road,

Gorleston

Farage correct about Europe bid

So Nigel Farage was right what he has been saying for years that the EU wants a new super state with one currency and one flag and one leader at the head for a number of years and we all know who that will be. It’s a good thing that we’re getting out of that expensive club because all they want is our money, I don’t think the British people would ever give up our flag.

MR R COLMAN

South Beach Parade,

Great Yarmouth

Huge cark park on North Denes?

Yarmouth is a peninsula. A master plan with a purpose, a new theme is needed. We are only using half of our exposure. The narrowest part of the beach between the harbour, north to the Britannia Pier.

Beyond that, no interest at all apart from a car parking area, the plague of any town. Organisation is needed because of the size and shape of cars and the influx of the cars. What if we could accommodate all cars in one area? A large car park, every motorists dream. We could make this dream a reality.

We have space on the North Denes where there could be a large area easily big enough to accommodate a quarter of a million cars.

At a price for the day, shall we say £5 or like, with various modes of transport conveying people down the promenade.

Create a pleasant walk through the Waterways’ beautiful gardens with water features and tea gardens. From the car park to where ever?

Bring back tennis courts and bowls areas and put a calming relaxing area before the usual noisy bit. A real transformation.

The promenade could be double yellow lined both sides with strict appliance. The rest of the town could perhaps expand from this, one problem, it’s a peninsula with an entry and exit problem.

A town whose ambitions are restricted by its size. But if we can get a grip on the motor car problem, we are halfway there.

JACK DYE

Gonville Road,

Gorleston

Save museum for town heritage

Once again we have visited the David Howkins Museum and always it is an absolute pleasure to enjoy all the interesting and wonderful memorabilia. Valerie has collected over the years in memory of her son David.

It was very busy on Saturday with visitors to Great Yarmouth, elderly people reminiscing of days gone by, little girls amazed in wonder at all the dolls and teddies.

It’s wonderful to have this legacy in the town and in this beautiful building, I believe it should be preserved as part of our heritage.

Maybe a dementia friends pop up coffee morning space for carers to take people living with dementia and their families, plus other themed events such as children’s teddy bears picnic birthday parties, children’s Halloween, a Christmas grotto and other themed events ie fairytale stories, pirate and princesses.

I wish Eva Howkins every success in keeping the museum open for generations to come and enjoy.

L READE

Caister

Good manners is to be expected

Three cheers for Great Yarmouth High School for standing its ground on its rules and principles, long-overdue in all schools, academies, and colleges.

I went to school where good manners and respect wasn’t an issue, it was expected.

I have spoken to the school who said in one week the school has changed for the best.

You have a teenager at any of the academies in the area are you wonder what they are up to; just walk past the play area on Mill Lane, Bradwell after school has finished. There you will see and smell the smoking of weed, also on the seating outside Morrisons after school. Plus the rubbish they leave behind.

Gorleston recreation ground is a disgrace with discarded cans and food wrappers.

But did you know our council sends someone to pick up after them, our next generation?

I suggest to a young girl that she could put her sandwich wrapper in the bin and I got a one finger salute.

S WATSON

Gablehurst Court,

Gorleston

Thank you for paint recycling

I am writing to say a very big thank you to people in Great Yarmouth for helping their local Crown Decorating Centre on Harfreys Industrial Estate to achieve record recycling results.

The figures for our annual Kick Out The Can unwanted paint recycling scheme are now in and we have achieved by far the best response ever.

This is the fourth year we have now run the campaign and each year the public has shown more and more support in returning containers of surplus paint to Crown Decorating Centres across the UK.

Over the four-week campaign, earlier this year, the final total amounted to an amazing 28,000 cans of unwanted paint being returned to stores compared to 20,000 in 2016.

Sheds, cupboards and garages across the country are thought to hold around 54 million litres of unused paint, and this annual scheme aims to give a new lease of life to the product.

All of the paint brought into the stores is now being reprocessed by our social enterprise arm, NIMTECH, and then it will be distributed to deserving community projects across the UK.

We are delighted that local people have once again taken the trouble to bring their unwanted paint into the store and contributed to a real recycling success story, and if you know of any charitable or community groups who would benefit from a donation of paint, please feel free to get in touch at www.nimtech.org.uk.

Once again, thank you for helping us to recycle old paint for a greater community good – we couldn’t have done it without you.

MARK LLOYD

Sustainability Manager

Crown Decorating Centres

Letters, September 22, 2017

My connection with Great Yarmouth began out of convenience rather than choice, and I was not impressed by the worst examples of urban planning I have ever seen.

The beautiful Minster with a supermarket next door, the original Nelson’s Column in the middle of an industrial estate, the neglected but still charming Waterways, I could go on and on.

Therefore, two contributions to your publication interested me. A letter decrying the renovation at Waterways (where there is still free parking) and the preview on the launch of the Civic Society of Great Yarmouth, which deserves the support of everyone who lives or works in the town.

Heritage is the way to bring in new visitors over 12 months of the year and the jobs and prosperity which comes from that. Brexit will make foreign holidays more expensive and therefore less attractive and although the town will never rival the beauties of Italy for example, it could hold its own against any small coastal town destination.

Great Yarmouth already does the hospitality, now embrace the heritage.

JUNE ROGERSON

Mallard Way,

Burgh Castle

Entrance roads need tidying up

Regarding Peter Faulkner’s comments re the A47 between Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft, I totally agree with him. I went to Newcastle recently and the roundabouts and grass verges were either neatly attended or were covered with wild flowers.

They were a joy to see. It is what I remember of my holidays there. What would the neighbours think if the councillors gardens were so uncared for?

The £400,000 for the ice rink would be much better spent on making the entrance to Great Yarmouth tidier and more cared for.

MARGARET A DUNSFOR

Amhurst Gardens,

Belton

We want to be completely out

I have seen a lovely photo of our Government cabinet ministers. But what have they got to smile about, not Brexit surely as they seem to be at each other’s throats as the cabinet is split unevenly on how Brexit can move forward.

Twenty-one ministers want a Norway style deal, Britain keeping rules that mirror EU regulations. Six ministers want a time-limited transition in a deal where Britain can make its own regulations.

Lastly two ministers want a bespoke deal that satisfies all three camps.

It appears our MP Brandon Lewis is in the Norway camp. Now correct me if I am wrong, but didn’t the constituency of Great Yarmouth vote to leave the EU, didn’t we vote and win to control immigration, and didn’t we say we want to make our own laws not Strasbourg!

Perhaps our MP would like to inform the voters of our constituency through the pages of the Mercury why he is not pressing to have our demands a reality.

JOHN L COOPER

Burnt Lane,

Gorleston

We all have view on Brexit deal

I appreciate this might be becoming boring for your readers, so this will be my last letter responding to your correspondent C Allen (September 22). As stated previously this is a ‘circular’ argument with Remainers such as myself always being pitted against hardened

Leavers. But I appreciate we all come from different sides of this argument.

I trust he will agree with me though that the state of play appears to be in stalemate but I was cheered by Theresa May’s speech in Florence that perhaps pragmatism and common sense were coming into play with a request for a transitional arrangement to be implemented after we leave in March 2019.

Your correspondent cites Boris Johnson as the virtuous person

in these unedifying shenanigans, so why did he write that somewhat disingenuous treatise in The Telegraph just before this landmark speech, citing yet again that mendacious slogan plastered over the Brexit Bus. I am sorry but all the main players in the Cabinet are only really interested in jockeying for the main job and a sensible solution for Brexit appears to come way down their list.

I and C Allen both presumably want the same thing a country that does indeed work for everyone and not just the multi-corporations and I do sincerely hope trade deals with other countries will flourish and succeed. But the general public were indeed misled if they though that extricating ourselves from the EU was going to be that Sunday afternoon walk in the park.

Leavers will have to be patient and Remainers will have to learn to live with it and what is more make the best of it.

The EU has its own problems to contend with not least Germany with its incursion of the far right, so the ‘little matter’ of Britain might not indeed be at the top of their agenda.

I have more faith in Baldrick than in this Brexit team, but like Edmund Blackadder, David Davis will no doubt take all the glory if it indeed transpires into a good and proactive deal for everyone concerned.

JUDITH A DANIELS

Winifred Road,

Cobholm

Drone could hold a lifejacket

I was in the Royal Air Force in the trade of safety equipment which serviced and looked after life jacket, dinghies and parachutes, for 12 years, four of those years at RAF Coltishall so being so near the sea everything had to be top class.

I buy the newspaper and was interested in your item on the Caister life oat drone. A great idea as it should give the crew an early warning.

After thinking about the drone I wondered whether it could be used from the beach or river banks or even the Broads.

My idea is to attach a nylon cord to a drum and a small lifejacket to the other end. The lifejacket is inflated by a water activated Co2 cylinder which is fitted to the side of the jacket.

DAVID FREEMAN

Birkbeck Way,

Thorpe St Andrew

Astonished by speed of a UFO

Last month I was in the garden mowing my lawns and weeding my borders when I finished I went in to make a coffee. Then I went straight back to my front door looked up outside for several minutes at 5.50pm. I could not believe my eyes, if you were to blink you would have missed it.

I saw this object fly over my head at an extremely high altitude travelling at a high rate of speed, heading from east to west over my flat. The sky was mostly bright clear blue with scattered clouds.

I could not believe my eyes what I have seen, the speed it was travelling... I left my front door to go round to the front of my flat hoping to catch it leaving, it was long gone out of sight. The direction it was heading I think it would be over the USA in seconds.

CARSON GODBOLD

Western Road,

Gorleston

Farage correct about Europe bid

So Nigel Farage was right what he has been saying for years that the EU wants a new super state with one currency and one flag and one leader at the head for a number of years and we all know who that will be. It’s a good thing that we’re getting out of that expensive club because all they want is our money, I don’t think the British people would ever give up our flag.

MR R COLMAN

South Beach Parade,

Great Yarmouth

Huge cark park on North Denes?

Yarmouth is a peninsula. A master plan with a purpose, a new theme is needed. We are only using half of our exposure. The narrowest part of the beach between the harbour, north to the Britannia Pier.

Beyond that, no interest at all apart from a car parking area, the plague of any town. Organisation is needed because of the size and shape of cars and the influx of the cars. What if we could accommodate all cars in one area? A large car park, every motorists dream. We could make this dream a reality.

We have space on the North Denes where there could be a large area easily big enough to accommodate a quarter of a million cars.

At a price for the day, shall we say £5 or like, with various modes of transport conveying people down the promenade.

Create a pleasant walk through the Waterways’ beautiful gardens with water features and tea gardens. From the car park to where ever?

Bring back tennis courts and bowls areas and put a calming relaxing area before the usual noisy bit. A real transformation.

The promenade could be double yellow lined both sides with strict appliance. The rest of the town could perhaps expand from this, one problem, it’s a peninsula with an entry and exit problem.

A town whose ambitions are restricted by its size. But if we can get a grip on the motor car problem, we are halfway there.

JACK DYE

Gonville Road,

Gorleston

Save museum for town heritage

Once again we have visited the David Howkins Museum and always it is an absolute pleasure to enjoy all the interesting and wonderful memorabilia. Valerie has collected over the years in memory of her son David.

It was very busy on Saturday with visitors to Great Yarmouth, elderly people reminiscing of days gone by, little girls amazed in wonder at all the dolls and teddies.

It’s wonderful to have this legacy in the town and in this beautiful building, I believe it should be preserved as part of our heritage.

Maybe a dementia friends pop up coffee morning space for carers to take people living with dementia and their families, plus other themed events such as children’s teddy bears picnic birthday parties, children’s Halloween, a Christmas grotto and other themed events ie fairytale stories, pirate and princesses.

I wish Eva Howkins every success in keeping the museum open for generations to come and enjoy.

L READE

Caister

Good manners is to be expected

Three cheers for Great Yarmouth High School for standing its ground on its rules and principles, long-overdue in all schools, academies, and colleges.

I went to school where good manners and respect wasn’t an issue, it was expected.

I have spoken to the school who said in one week the school has changed for the best.

You have a teenager at any of the academies in the area are you wonder what they are up to; just walk past the play area on Mill Lane, Bradwell after school has finished. There you will see and smell the smoking of weed, also on the seating outside Morrisons after school. Plus the rubbish they leave behind.

Gorleston recreation ground is a disgrace with discarded cans and food wrappers.

But did you know our council sends someone to pick up after them, our next generation?

I suggest to a young girl that she could put her sandwich wrapper in the bin and I got a one finger salute.

S WATSON

Gablehurst Court,

Gorleston

Thank you for paint recycling

I am writing to say a very big thank you to people in Great Yarmouth for helping their local Crown Decorating Centre on Harfreys Industrial Estate to achieve record recycling results.

The figures for our annual Kick Out The Can unwanted paint recycling scheme are now in and we have achieved by far the best response ever.

This is the fourth year we have now run the campaign and each year the public has shown more and more support in returning containers of surplus paint to Crown Decorating Centres across the UK.

Over the four-week campaign, earlier this year, the final total amounted to an amazing 28,000 cans of unwanted paint being returned to stores compared to 20,000 in 2016.

Sheds, cupboards and garages across the country are thought to hold around 54 million litres of unused paint, and this annual scheme aims to give a new lease of life to the product.

All of the paint brought into the stores is now being reprocessed by our social enterprise arm, NIMTECH, and then it will be distributed to deserving community projects across the UK.

We are delighted that local people have once again taken the trouble to bring their unwanted paint into the store and contributed to a real recycling success story, and if you know of any charitable or community groups who would benefit from a donation of paint, please feel free to get in touch at www.nimtech.org.uk.

Once again, thank you for helping us to recycle old paint for a greater community good – we couldn’t have done it without you.

MARK LLOYD

Sustainability Manager

Crown Decorating Centres