Curb on cycle road racing is nothing new

WRITING in response to your article (Yorkshire Post, May 4) regarding the police curb on organised cycle road racing events in the Hull areas, this is far from being a new idea.

As a past secretary for many years of a well-established cycle racing club in the Leeds area, I would, for year after year, organise a road race based on the Spofforth area.

All formalities would be completed, namely contacting the parish council, the village residents and the North Yorkshire Police, encountering no problems.

We were then suddenly informed by the police that if we wanted the racing to go ahead, we would have to have three police motorcycle outriders to monitor the race, although we had experienced no complaints or suffered any highway incidents over the many years.

We were given one week’s notice of this decision and it was a case of either cancelling the race, coupled with all the upset and chaos this would cause, or quite simply bowing to the police demands.

Being a club of about 20 members, the sum demanded of just under £400 for two-and-a-half hours of police work was untenable from club funds, the monies being paid from private bank accounts.

This incident took place in the late 1980s but although attempting to organise further events in that area, we were faced once again with hefty bills.

We finally transferred all other events to the West Yorkshire Police area whereupon no police levy was requested. It was simply a money-making scheme. With the mounting controversy about the financing and benefits of the forthcoming Tour de France and having travelled to France on three occasions to watch the Tour, I did notice that the bulk of spectators who were following the race did not touch the local hotels, but in order to reduce costs, slept in camper vans, cars and tents and followed the race across country. The few who used hotels stayed in the outer regions of the large towns.

The towns and villages which were involved in hosting the race paid for the privilege of having the race pass through their region. Let us hope that our authorities have taken all this into consideration.

Bank should be broken up

From: Nigel F Boddy, Fife Road, Darlington, County Durham.

We must separate retail banking from high-risk investment banking. Bankers have caused umpteen disasters with their crazy plans to buy up a world market share in banking.

Now the tricky business of selling off parts of the RBS group has stalled, the career bankers at RBS with their big salaries are fighting back by saying the Government can sell its shares in the bank next year. How do they know what next year’s share price will be? Don’t they just want to stay in charge of a banking group that is as big as possible?

The important point is the group should be sold off both to teach the career bankers who caused these problems that we will not reward failure and more importantly, to get back more money for us taxpayers.

Where were these bankers when all this happened? Where were they when Fred Goodwin, the man in charge, was so wrong and needed to be told? The group needs to be broken up or there will be another catastrophe for exactly the same reasons as last time. The RBS group is almost certainly worth more broken up anyway and we’d get more taxpayers’ money back that way.

These men continually need rescuing by each other and us. Why listen to them? Any other country would have lined them up against a wall and shot them all by now.

Limitations of paganism

From: Chris Schorah, Gascoigne Avenue, Leeds.

ROD McPhee’s article on paganism (Yorkshire Post, May 2) shows us why this particular belief, which claims to be “very individualistic” and “whatever you want it to be”, appeals in this age of self-obsession.

However, with such a dogma, it’s hard to see how it escapes from embracing some of our darker inclinations.

Indeed, in admitting that 
only most of its rituals are 
devoid of violence, devil 
worship or sexual practices, the article hints that paganism doesn’t evade such things.

Further, as the belief 
doesn’t recognise a God who could transcend us, it can’t 
lift us above ourselves and 
will simply confirm our 
character, however good or bad that is.

This is a significant limitation, especially compared with worshipping the Christian 
God who is a loving Father able to redeem us from ourselves and restore us to what we were created to be.

All this makes it unlikely 
that, contrary to what’s 
asserted, a person could be 
both a pagan and an effective Christian.

Prayer alone is not enough

From: David Treacher, Nelson Road, Hull.

Many attend church every Sunday to pray to God for 
many issues in this country and abroad.

But no matter how we pray, God and Jesus are not going to come down in person to do anything.

We are their instrument to 
carry out their work, all 
of us.

It’s what we do from day to day to help others that counts, including protesting, or 
writing letters to MPs and newspapers for social justice 
in the world, as well as 
having concern for others in trouble, not just attending 
church once a week to pray and sing hymns.