Elderly unable to keep pace with technology being left adrift - Yorkshire Post Letters

I READ with interest the recent article regarding the renewal of elderly passengers’ bus passes (The Yorkshire Post, March 25).

Last year my now late father, who was 93, asked me if I could renew his bus pass.

As I knew he had in the past renewed it at a library that was my first port of call. Sadly, they now didn’t offer the service. Secondly a main Post Office, again, sorry, no. I then went online, only to discover you couldn’t simply renew it, you also needed a new photograph to be sent.

So, we then had to take another photo of Dad and off to the bus station in central Leeds I went. The first thing I was asked was “have you brought another photo, we can’t renew passes without one?” Thankfully I had, so the pass was renewed. Dad could never have managed to do all of this on his own.

At a similar time he had also been told by his paper delivery service that all bills were now to be sent via email, cheques were not acceptable and payments had to be made by direct debit.

Again, I had to deal with this for him – he had no computer, no email address and his bank account didn’t allow for direct debits. It seems, in this day and age we are all expected to be computer savvy and able to use and understand all the up-to-date technology – we are pushed towards it whether we want to be or not. Sadly, there seems to be little consideration or allowances given to the people, for whatever reason, are unable to keep pace with technology.

HS2 not about faster travel

From: Philip Crowther, Bingley.

Mr G L Hall wrote (The Yorkshire Post, March 26) about his objection to spending £100 billion on HS2 and repeated his main reason, that the scheme saved 20 minutes on a journey to London.

This argument has been put forward many times by those against HS2 but is totally misleading. The primary reason for HS2 is capacity not speed.

Over many years due to modernisation, trains have got faster and more frequent plus in the coming years they will get longer to deal with passenger demand. However, the system they run on has not been able to expand accordingly due often to the limitations of the Victorian design. A short-sighted Government post war reduced the system size and now we are paying the price to expand it again.

Therefore, we now have a system that is bursting at the seams struggling to cope with current demand. So the future, and we are talking about the next 50 years, means extra capacity is needed for long distance traffic. Hence HS2.

Most people see the expenditure north of £60 billion as an enormous sum in these times when we are being punished by austerity. However it is spread over the 20-year development and will bring thousands of new jobs with an end use bonus, whilst, for example, the billions to be spent on Trident will not offer similar benefits.

So on balance I believe HS2 is needed, as long as improvements to local services in the North are also developed as they are in the South, buts that’s another argument.

Memories of the Ripper

From: Ben Marshall, Liversedge.

I AGREE with the letter about the Yorkshire Ripper BBC documentary (The Yorkshire Post, March 28) and Christa Ackroyd’s kind words and sobering memories from that time in a previous edition too.

I’m pleased that the un-PC language used at the time wasn’t edited out to show viewers how things have changed. But the language was nowhere near as sad as the victims’ children talking about their awful life-changing experiences.

I have read books, watched other documentaries and the Alun Armstrong drama portrayal (of Chief Constable George Oldfield) on the subject and the massive enquiries including the famous £5 note with Midland Bank Shipley, plus Bank of England staff, the Corsair tyre investigation plus the infamous buffoon who did the “I am Jack” tape recording show how hard the police and others were trying, despite some ignoring of other potential victims.

In today’s world, the information and collation about evidence like car tyres can probably be checked in five minutes by computer and ANPR camera, which again shows how far we have come.

Tragically this is no comfort whatsoever to any of the victims’ families though.

End of SENs a bad mistake

From: Terry Morrell, Willerby.

A GENUINE desire to provide opportunities for many people to take up a career in nursing disappeared when the role of State Enrolled Nurse ended. This career path made available route for many wanting to provide care without the pressure of university.

This grade gave very adequate training and relieved those with the SRN status of many less onerous tasks.

Letting down BBC viewers

From: Mrs B White, Buda Lane, Kirk Sandall, Doncaster.

How can the BBC justify spending £87m, including a £27m overcharge, on a new set for Eastenders, at the same time considering ending free TV licences for over-75s in 2020?

From: Peter Hyde, Driffield.

Blue Planet Live promised to be a very interesting programme but sadly far too much time is spent on the presenters instead of the actual wonderful potential possibilities of the subject matter. Less presenter and more subject matter is the way to improve matters.