The true value of Yorkshire Bank brand – Yorkshire Post letters

YOUR articles in both the main paper and in the business supplement (The Yorkshire Post, June 20) on the demise of the Yorkshire Bank name sets out the sorry story of the consequences of the CYBG merger with Virgin Money.

Mark Casci: What the axing of the Yorkshire Bank brand means for the future of banking

When I raised the name issue and had an exchange of letters with David Duffy, the chairman of the CYGB board 12 months ago, his argument was that this had all been researched and it would be accepted by the vast majority of Yorkshire Bank customers.

I followed this up and eventually I had a very civil telephone conversation with a senior CYGB executive. She insisted that the name was 
not a significant issue with Yorkshire Bank customers and that, also, it was extremely expensive to promote two different names within the same organisation.

Whatever the research suggests, I remain unconvinced that Yorkshire Bank customers, in the county with the greatest loyalty of its residents, will willingly accept after the bank merger becoming customers of “Virgin Money”.

It certainly does not appeal to me and my longstanding attachment to Yorkshire will end. I believe that the merger between CYGB and Virgin Money will prove to be commercially damaging, quite apart from being yet another example of the complete indifference of financial organisations to cultural identity and important considerations of heritage and history.

What else is there to cut?

From: Robert Holman, Farsley.

BEING a 94-year-old veteran unable to get on to a bus, my only pleasure is watching TV and having laughs at repeats of Porridge and seeing the beautiful countryside on Last of the Summer Wine.

Having stopped drinking and smoking, I have enough to pay my TV licence of £154.50 – even my telecare costs more at £156. So I don’t moan, but my question is what’s left to cut?

From: Elizabeth Hoyle, Guiseley.

HOW about raising the age of qualification for free licences to the age of 80? Those already over 75 could still receive free licences. These days 75 is not considered old and people are living so much longer. As a 73-year-old, I will be happy to wait until I reach 80. Incidentally, I think I have good value from my TV licence.

From: Sheila Smith, Dewsbury.

IN response to BBC boss Clare Sumner, I am 84 and my husband is 86. We just miss out on pension credit but were grateful for a free TV licence. What is she and the BBC going to do if all the 560,000 people who have signed the petition don’t pay? Put us all in prison?

Build more prisons

From: Bob Watson, Baildon.

THE Prison Reform Trust says (The Yorkshire Post, June 24) that more people are being sent to prison in England and Wales every year than anywhere else in Europe, and that this is “shameful”.

However, when one sees the sorts of sentences being handed down, the huge number of suspended sentences, and the insufficient terms (especially considering the length actually served), then many, I am sure, will totally disagree.

The Trust obviously consider that the number locked up should be considerably reduced, but I suspect that there will be a vast number who very much think the opposite. If prisons are indeed overcrowded, then build some more. There are too many miscreants allowed back onto our streets far too soon, and who really should be kept inside for much longer.

No to bikers in bus lanes

From: Philip Crowther, Bingley.

THE proposal of motorbikes to be allowed to use bus lanes, appears to me to be a misguided one. Queuing in traffic alongside an often empty bus lane, with an occasional bus passing unhindered, does make drivers wonder about their effectiveness.

However, also while standing in that queue, two-wheel road users can often be seen over- and undertaking their way to the front of the queue before accelerating away while ignoring road speed limits.

Should the two-wheelers be given access to bus lanes, I could see many treating them as a mini TT course and the sight of them attempting to pass a bus fills me with dread.

Managerial failings

From: Jarvis Browning, Fadmoor, York.

AFTER all these years when things should have been improved from flooding and transport, the know-it-alls are still not listening to the older generation that cleared drains and ran the transport.

This mismanagement comes from the top, not the workers on the ground who can’t do anything differently because the management rules forbid them from doing otherwise. Yet the top managers get away with it nearly every time. Something goes wrong and they blame the resources, not themselves.

Follow Javid’s example

From: Andrew Mercer, Guiseley.

BEFORE the Tory leadership hustings in Yorkshire next week, let’s hope Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt follow Sajid Javid’s example – and travel on one of the region’s trains. They might then be better informed about why Northern Powerhouse Rail needs to take precedence over Crossrail 2.