Cheaper way to boost rail speed to North

YOU are urging support (Yorkshire Post, March 18) for the London to Birmingham high speed rail plan, with possible future links to Leeds and Manchester, which is forecast to cost £32bn just to reach Birmingham, and is forecast to reach Leeds by 2032-33.

I have very little sympathy with the loud protests from people living in the Chilterns, but I am not convinced that the proposal will yield the best cost / benefit figures for Yorkshire. Government departments have been notoriously inefficient at predicting the costs of large-scale long-term projects, so, on the basis of previous experience, what are the chances of £32bn London to Birmingham being correct? Zilch seems an appropriate word. Then, what are the forecast costs from Birmingham to Leeds and Birmingham to Manchester? And, of course, 21 or 22 years seems a long time to wait.

There is another solution which is both cheaper and would give benefits more quickly. In 2009, it was estimated that electrification of the Midland Mainline, St Pancras to Sheffield, would cost at least £130m. This is essentially electrification from Bedford to Sheffield, though, I suspect, it could be Bedford to Leeds, without costs rising horrendously. After all, the track all exists.

Midsomer madness

From: Roger Crossley, Fall View, Silkstone, Barnsley.

I WOULD like to add my support to John Watson’s excellent letter (Yorkshire Post, March 19) concerning the suspension of the producer of Midsomer Murders for expressing a view that the absence of ethnic minorities in the programme best reflected the fabric of small rural English villages.

The really serious issue, which Mr Watson emphasises, is the insidious existence of this level of thinking, which now seems to be deeply embedded in our institutional fabric. A lot of damage is being done to the confidence and security of corporations and individuals alike, in expressing fact and opinion.

The “shocked and appalled” ones should explain themselves very clearly in public, or otherwise pack up and shut up.

Science not sniggers

From: Robin Arundale, Butts Lane, Tibthorpe, Driffield.

THE ill-tempered rant by Ken Holmes (Yorkshire Post, March 19) on the measuring of swans’ bottoms was also ill-informed.

The swans to which he refers, nominally owned by the Queen, are our native Mute Swan. However, the swans being measured in this instance are the migratory Bewick’s or Tundra Swan which have shown a worrying decline in numbers in recent years.

Measuring their accumulated fat reserves may determine if this is a factor influencing whether these birds are acquiring sufficient food on their UK wintering grounds to sucesfully undertake the journey back to their breeding areas in arctic Russia.

This is a perfectly respectable scientific study which may contribute to the survival of these birds.

Unfortunately, because the fat deposits are at their rear end, the media has latched onto it being about “bottoms” (snigger, snigger) and has therefore skewed the public perception of this serious research.

It is also perhaps worth making the point that this research was undertaken by the registered charity The Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust and was therefore at no cost to the taxpayer.

Sad threat to Scouting

From: Don Booker, Hall Place, Monk Bretton.

THE Scouting movement is the world’s biggest and most successful youth organisation and costs nations nothing.

How sad to read “Scouts unprepared for rent increases” (Yorkshire Post, March 17) because “enormous” rent increases are being imposed by councils facing Government spending cuts.

One can appreciate the financial problems facing authorities, but it is so easy to just increase rents to ease problems rather than take a close look at what is being offered.

Scout and Guide leaders are professionally-trained and offer exciting and adventurous programmes and activities.

It is not just pioneering, cooking on an open fire or tracking these days. Boys and girls in Scouting have over 200 activities on offer.

Councils would spend millions developing a structure for young people similar to those offered by the Scout and Guide movements.

If the world followed the aims of these youth organisations, their promise and law, it would not be in the state it is today.

A lesson from Libya

From: John Halkon, Hermitage Court, Richmond.

THE Government continues with its proposals to decrease in numbers our valued and respected armed services and yet still wishes with the help of others to police the world.

I am dismayed by its recent decisions to sack near-qualified RAF pilots, scrap aircraft and home bases and reduce the size of the Navy.

In view of the Libya situation and our expected involement, is it not the time they reconsidered their recent decisions as who can tell in the hotbed which is the Middle East, who and what will next inflame the situation.

I expect they wish they had the Ark Royal sailing off the Libyan coast, or maybe they are going to borrow from the French.

This is not what I voted for.