Why no mention of town bus links?

With the arrival for the winter season of the ice rink back in town I picked up a brochure giving details of what was on offer and where to park etc.

Looking at the map in this leaflet Temple Road was clearly shown but nowhere in the leaflet could I find any information regarding bus services to and from the town. The leaflet never even mentioned the fact the Market Gates bus station even exists!

I am annoyed that in their wisdom the local council, who published the leaflet, did not see fit to mention that along with getting to the ice rink by car you could actually use public transport! First operate a wide network of buses from all parts of the borough to Market Gates all through the day, every day, with also services, albeit reduced, evenings and on Sundays. Plus the fact that the bus interchange is less than a three-minute walk from Market Gates is something I feel that should be promoted.

We read regularly in the Mercury of traffic chaos caused by many things like roadworks and accidents etc, so you would think the local council would at least be trying to help create further jams by at least mentioning the alternative of bus services.

STEVE HEWITT

East Norfolk Transport Users Association

Sorry if negative thoughts offended

In reply to Gary Helyern: I was actually just voicing my opinion and asking questions on this matter and I did give my opinion on what could be done with the site.

In no way was I trying to put any negative thoughts about this on him and I did not suggest he said / or thought, that the homeless should have a ‘free ride’ and not have to pay anything, if it has been interpreted this way, I do apologise to Mr Helyern if he thinks that’s what I’ve said.

P LONG

Email

Could you be our charity trustees?

On September 29, Age Concern Great Yarmouth changed its name to Age Connected Great Yarmouth. The charity will celebrate its 70th birthday next year.

We have grown steadily over the last two years and recently opened the Acorn Centre in Regent Street where we provide a wide range of activities, services and information.

We are looking to appoint new Trustees to help us expand the services we offer to people over the age of 50 living in Great Yarmouth.

We need help to progress to the next level and require Trustees who can bring a new range of skills; in particular we are looking for someone with experience of human resources and someone with fund-raising abilities, but most of all we are looking for people with a genuine interest in creating meaningful and lasting connections to improve the happiness and well-being of the over 50s living in the borough.

The position of Trustee does not offer any remuneration but reasonable expenses will be paid, so if you want to be part of something that is worthwhile and feel you have something to offer back to the community please contact the office on 01493 262052 or email info@acgy.org.uk

ROY MURRAY

Age Connected Trustee

River bridge was once a good idea

John Cooper has once again come up with some total sense concerning the proposed third river crossing bridge. He is right it will cut the river in half and cause shipping hold-ups that will cause ships to use other 24- hour ports instead of Great Yarmouth.

The bridge was a great idea when there were large industries such as Birds Eye and Eerie Resistor in the South Denes area and yes, even the South Denes caravan site.

As these are no more and The Edge still a pipe dream, what is the sense of spending £120m on a useless bridge when it could be used to re-vamp the town entrance roads?

Why is Bollard Quay still not repaired after so long? it may be a shelter berth but the loss to town businesses by having all the empty berths is immense!

Ships need crew changes, fuel, water, stores and spares while local eateries and hotels are also losing out. The closing of the heliport was a big blow to town business and the river is one of our best assets or could be if maintained properly.

MICHAEL SMITH

email

Be bold in Marina replacement

I write to echo the sentiments of your previous contributor urging our council to ‘think outside the box’ and be bold in planning The Marina redevelopment.

I’ve recently returned from a concert and events hall at Swansea University. The superb building was a sponsorship gift to that city from BP.

As our town is a leader in the North Sea Energy industry it is not unreasonable for our civic leaders to gather significant sponsorship from the major oil companies and port owning authority and the centre could well bear the name of the major sponsor/backer.

The Norwegian company Statoil has significant riches as do many of the companies who have not only brought jobs to our town but also gained significantly from our port.

Many of the locally grown companies (although smaller than the oil giants) might also be coerced into joining a consortium to bring a high end arts and conference centre, with hotel and leisure facilities, to East Anglia? The whole region is badly in need of such a resource and it would of course represent a significant boost to our town’s economy.

This town can be innovative. Reference the excellent maritime museums and the award-winning Time and Tide.

Let’s appoint a team to include the individuals who pushed these centres through and head-hunt for a project leader who will deliver a space which we can all be proud of and gain from (and use)!

STUART W G KING

email

With respect, service too long

I attended the Remembrance Sunday service in very atrocious weather and I pay my respects to all who were there especially all the young children who were there in cotton shirts and woollen jumpers. They must have been soaked. Some people said the wreath laying took too long and there is room for improvement on this issue as they do it a lot faster at the Cenotaph in London so there is food for thought there.

R COLMAN

South Beach Parade

Great Yarmouth

Searching for my cousin Eileen

I am searching for a Hopton lady, who is my cousin, on behalf of her sister who lives in Perth Australia. She is Eileen Munday, who was living earlier this year in Anglian Way, Hopton. Her sister, Vera Goodson has asked me to help her locate Mrs Munday. If anyone can help, please contact me on 01483 764788 or 07711923214.

RON MOLE

Orchard Mains

Woking

Town seems distant in my view

Over the years I have not made a twitter of a sound over the distance I am from Great Yarmouth. Living as I do at the south end of Gorleston I have never felt further away than I do now. Even when we had the ferry boat I was three miles from Yarmouth and because of it being a peninsular you entered it from the wrong end.

All industry in Yarmouth is at the south end but the entry was always via the north end of the peninsular, which is where the residential population lives. Business and residential transport have converged now with the ourter harbour and wind farm buildings.

Now the surge of traffic into and out of Yarmouth will become immobile through the town. A bridge at the south end of Yarmouth is essential.

JACK DYE

Gonville Road,

Gorleston

The £125m will be just for a bridge

Listening to people talking in a Great Yarmouth supermarket about the third river crossing bridge plan, I couldn’t hold my tongue after one said we should be spending the money on something else.

I intervened and said we couldn’t because the money has been bid for (no doubt with competition from other parts of the UK for a similar sum) to enable a bridge over the River Yare and nothing else.

Why can’t people understand this? It’s like saying the £50m grant for the outer harbour should have been used for something else such as the Waterways!

Government doesn’t just hand over money and say spend it on what you want. That’s just plain ridiculous and I wish people would understand.

G NORRIS

email

Make a success of our new cinema

I have just had the opportunity of visiting the Palace Cinema in Gorleson on Sea, since it changed back to a cinema from a bingo hall.

It was so nostalgic, as when I was a child it was a great treat to be taken to the cinema on Saturday nights with my parents.

It was a sad time when The Palace and the Colliseum cinemas were both closed making our nearest cinemas either in Great Yarmouth or Lowestoft and at that time owning a car was not such a common thing. I just hope the people of Gorleston and surrounding areas will make use of this lovely venue, as so much money has been invested in our High Street.

There were some people from Lowestoft at the cinema when I was there and they were very impressed.

P CARTER

Bradwell

Extolling virtues of theatre shows

I write to extol the virtues of our much loved Pavilion Theatre and of our incredibly talented local theatre companies who enliven our dark winter evenings.

The recent sparkling production of a rags to riches story from Gorleston Theatre Co in Me and My Girl; Pegasus Productions taking us back to wartime Britain and ration books, endearing us to A Pig with Blue Eyes; to a story of the American Depression in which a feisty little orphan brought a smile to a weary president showing us once again the future of theatre lies in the hands of our youth theatres.

My joy is uncontained when I consider the small part I have been privileged to play in these wonderful companies. I know that when Stage Door brings us their version of Oliver there will be yet more rich pickings as Dusmagrik have shown us in the past.

Long may they continue to entertain us!

DUSTY MILLER

Links Road,

Gorleston

Housing is taking over our borough

Having lived in the Burgh Castle area for over 10 years and I also lived in Bradwell for more than 12 years – two different locations now covered in housing development. I lived on the Magdalen Estate all through the 1960s and most of the 1970s, the 1990s and on into 2006 when I moved to Burgh Castle.

Well, what a mess they are making of the areas. Roads and pavements dug up, roads blocked off for months on end, misery and mayhem. Plus expense and all for a lot of people to turn the area from Hemsby from Lowestoft into another Thetford overspill.

By the way, I was at Thetford at the time they were building large asbestos sheds and I heard local people complaining about the devastation done to their town.

On TV one local said bitterly they had ripped the heart out of the town and you can see what is happening here. As one letter writer said we are fed up with hearing about houses and housing estates to the exclusion of everything else.

M DIMMACK

Butt Lane,

Burgh Castle

Metal barriers up to stop a surge

Good idea or a bad idea? That is the question. Although we could do with another bridge crossing to ease the traffic congestion in our town and make the traffic flow easily in and out of Great Yarmouth would that money not be better spent elsewhere? It’s quite a big sum, £125m.

Three years ago, I wrote to MP Brandon Lewis concerning flood defences. I send him a diagram as well.

As you are aware, three to four years ago, we had a tidal surge. We were very lucky that night. Great Yarmouth beach was swamped with sea water which was right up to the wall where people walk along. The sea was over that and onto the main road on the seafront.

We all know global warming is making sea levels rise but do we have to wait until it happens before something gets done to protect out homes from flooding.

I suggested to Mr Lewis about building a concrete wall with a curb on it about four-five feet high on top of the existing wall, all the way along the seafront.

Metal doors could be fitted to allow people onto the beach and if a tidal surge does happen they could be closed. Other seaside resorts have high walls for protection but what has Great Yarmouth got? Nothing. We are open to the elements of the sea.

So would that money for the bridge be of more use in protecting homes and businesses?

What good would a new bridge be if cars and lorries can’t use it because the roads to it are under a foot of two feet of water? But I am not holding my breath.

A THOMPSON

Address withheld

Prisoners worked in region’s farms

I read with interest your article about German POWs in Acle. I have been tracing my family ancestry for a few years. My father was born in 1940 in St Cross South Elmham, moved to Barsham near Beccles aged five year and lived in Broome before moving to London aged 20.

One of my father’s memories was his uncle Arthur having a photo on his mantelpiece of some men enclosed in a barbed wire fence. My great uncle Arthur was a farm labourer and I suspect the photo was of a POW camp near a farm where he was working. I know he worked at Cundy’s Dairy near Bungay for a few years with a break in between until 1960.

In his early working life Arthur may have worked as a scullery boy/kitchen porter at Flixton Hall. As you are aware there was a POW camp at Flixton airfield. My dad recalls that there were a couple of Italian POWs working on the farm his father worked on in Broome.

Whilst doing my family research I have also done some research about POW camps in the local area and I am in touch with a few people who have shared their memories.

More recently I am in touch with a chap who knew the commandant of the camp at Seething. He recalled the prisoners were taken to Finches Well near Bungay for swimming.

RAY POLL Deepcarr,

Sheffield

Apology for the timings mishap

Last week Liz Spires’ letter was published regarding our Remembrance Service at St Andrew’s Church in Gorleston. Unfortunately the service timings didn’t go according to plan and the two-minute silence was not observed at 11am precisely.

I am deeply sorry for any upset, dismay and anger this may have caused. I hope Liz is able to attend next year’s Remembrance Service and that she will have reason to write again to say “They got it right.”

Reverend BRIAN HALL

St Andrew’s Vicarage,

Gorleston

Call to support our libraries

I have to agree with Owen Palmer (17 November 17) that we do indeed have hope invested in our young people, who often show us ‘grown-ups’ the way in inspiration and are our tangible investment in the future, however our governments manipulate this!

I am a Friend of Great Yarmouth Library and it is always such a pleasure to have their input in the dynamic vibe that inhabits this place. Libraries in the country are still facing uncertain futures but in this area we appear to be ‘bucking this trend’ and long may it continue. All generations gather there with all their input and imagination to make it fruitful and vital.

At present there is a great exhibition presented from Wide Angle Young Volunteer Photographers and wonderful images of the town and its inhabitants have been captured. There is an inherent vibrancy and naturalness to these photographs and well worth a visit. There is also some very lovely images incorporating the Community Textile Collage, another tangible ‘keepsake’ of our town and reflecting its intrinsic culture and heritage.

There are a group of great volunteers who maintain our lovely garden and work tirelessly all year round to make the approach to the library, indeed a pleasure. They persevere in all weathers and make me feel guilty as I scuttle past into the warmth of this building. As Caroline Fernandez mentioned in last week’s paper it was also awarded an In Bloom Silver Award.

Staff and volunteers help to make our library so versatile in its approach and is a real community hub. There are no generation gaps here and always plenty to keep you occupied, whether it is researching family history, having a coffee in the very welcoming cafe or just relaxing with a good book. The offer goes on and on with so many varying activities and groups. The dedicated staff appear to make light work of this consummate feel of belonging to a service that is really worthwhile and so needed in our fragmented and often disconnected society.

So please do support your libraries because to my mind, they are worth the Council Tax all on their own, because they are not exclusive or elitist places but warm, inviting buildings where everyone regardless of age or nationality are made to feel welcomed and included and provide a real home from home atmosphere in a safe and inspiring environment.

JUDITH A DANIELS

Winifred Road,

Cobholm

More fearful as I have got older

I hope our late night shopping and ice skating experience in the centre of Great Yarmouth will not be marred by those sleeping rough in the closed doorways of Marks and Spencer.

Don’t get me wrong, I feel sorry for anyone having to sleep rough; but I have been assured there are places they can go.

Another thing upsetting me at the moment is also the small group of drinkers who gather on the benches near the old Marks and Spencer store. They are sometimes very loud and I feel quite apprehensive when passing by them.

As I have grown older, I have also grown more wary and fearful. Why is this? As a younger person I don’t think I had any such wariness about my fellow human beings.

Using a mobility scooter has also made me feel more vulnerable when I am out and about, but it should be a good experience to get out of the house and travel around under my own steam as it were. But crossing roads seems to bring out the worst in both pedestrians and car users.

I had a car driver gesticulate quite rudely at me as the traffic lights changed halfway over the crossing near St Nicholas Road from the Market Place. If I could have gone faster I would have, but I couldn’t.

I have at last got off my chest what I have been saying to friends and relatives. I hope some people will take note and be patient, and kind.

Name and Address withheld

Yarmouth wins in the bridge stakes

It is quite amazing that Great Yarmouth has been awarded £98m in the Budget towards their third crossing in a project that was first initiated only a couple of years ago.

Meanwhile, Lowestoft continues to wait, now more than some 70 years, for their’s. I just wonder whether the fact that the Great Yarmouth MP has positions within the government has been a factor. Oh, that I should think that there is such a thing as influence.

There is something more than rotten in the state of Denmark here, and I mean the full meaning of the Shakespearean phrase and not just that something is wrong. Why, oh why, has Lowestoft had to wait for so long, and not a spade yet turned?

ANTHONY MORGAN

Station Road

Lowestoft