Is anyone out there listening?

DOES anyone of “standing” take note of the issues raised on your comments/letters page and do “they” (ministers, Church, local councillors etc) respond and “do” something? I have great difficulty understanding why British troops are still in Afghanistan dying, or coming home, then going back again on further tours when we appear to make no more impact on the enemy (not even ours!) than the Russians did, and they withdrew their forces, which were probably, numerically stronger than ours. I thought we were in recession and could do with the money saved by returning our troops home.

Too many shops

From: Gerald Hodgson, Spennithorne, Leyburn.

JAYNE Dowle’s article on high street shops (Yorkshire Post, November 28) prompts me to make the point that there has been a vast increase in retail space in this country in the last 30 or so years. This increase, as is now all too apparent, has been supported by an unsustainable increase in spending on credit. To this we must now add the impact of internet shopping.

The truth is that we have far more shops than we need. I suggest that a large number of shops in secondary positions should revert to residential use. We need houses much more than we need shops.

Road rights

From: D Harrop, Malton Street, Sheffield.

CYCLING as a road sport has a long history in England. Of the very many cycling clubs still going strong today there are some which are over 100 years old, and throughout that period of time club cyclists have thrashed out the miles on the roads and lanes of this country.

As cycling is a social activity, they have always ridden two abreast, despite adverse criticism from elements within the motorised fraternity. Cyclists, however, are a tough and tenacious lot; they maintain the right to exercise their sport, to occupy road space in a competitive environment – as they have always done.