Disqualify unfit bankers from roles

ARE bank directors unfit for office? For several years now the financial Press has reported almost daily on the severe failings and misconduct of our clearing banks and the billions in fines and penalties levied against them. The fines are suffered by the customers, employees and shareholders and not the culpable directors who take massive bonuses but are never penalised for their failings.

The mechanism for assessing and penalising unfitness to act as a director is available under the Companies Director Disqualification Act 1986 with disqualification orders for up to 15 years.

This Act is regularly used against hard working tradespeople operating a small limited company which fails through little fault of their own. The Secretary of State vigorously pursues these easy targets.

It is time the Secretary of State, Vince Cable, reviewed the conduct of all the directors of the penalised banks because only one disqualification order would quickly restore proper levels of responsibility and accountability.

This is not just another “bash the banker” outcry but a call to the Secretary of State to get tough.

Struggling with sums

From: Allan Davies, Grimsby.

YOUR article “Parents Tell of Maths Struggle” (The Yorkshire Post, October 27) comes as no surprise. Despite those who hark back to some mythical golden age, it was ever thus.

When the aircraft industry expended rapidly from around 1938, there was a shortage of craftsmen capable of working to the fine limits required. They had worked in halves, quarters and eighths. Micrometers and thousandths of an inch were beyond their experience and they were unable to convert say 25/32 or 59/64 to decimals and thus to thousandths. My father was one of them.

Thirty years later when decimal coinage was introduced, FE colleges ran classes on converting old to new measures. .

Colleges held similar classes when VAT at eight per cent was introduced. I have long taken the view that there is an antipathy to maths and science.

Rules cause
fly-tipping

From: JH Madden, Guiseley.

PERHAPS you could send a copy of the article “Ministers Must Act Over Recycling Rates” (The Yorkshire Post, October 22) to the Leeds City Council as they seem hell-bent on promoting fly-tipping. My car is a Mitsubishi L200 which they class as a pick-up. It is not used as such because the back is set out for the comfort of my dogs. I am only allowed to visit the tip six times a year, but I am not allowed to take my 4ft by 3ft trailer. In fact earlier this year they reported me to the police for illegal tipping when I took my trailer full of tree cuttings from my garden to the local site.

I used to call in quite often with bits of material that won’t go in the green bin and kept a dustbin for glass bottles which I would empty at the site once or twice a year. Only one place for this stuff now, the black bin (or some quiet country road). Is it only the common man who has any common sense these days?

No evidence of persecution

From: Adrian Blackmore, Director of Shooting, Countryside Alliance.

THE RSPB’s Birdcrime Report which covers 2013 (The Yorkshire Post, October 29) makes sweeping allegations against the shooting community and grouse shooting in particular. An examination of the report shows that these accusations cannot be sustained on the evidence provided. There is nothing in the report which justifies the statement that “the RSPB believes it is the shooting industry as a whole, not individual gamekeepers, that is primarily responsible for raptor persecution in the UK”.

The Countryside Alliance does not condone wildlife crime in any way. However, the number of reported incidents is significantly higher than those actually confirmed, making the headline figures extremely misleading. As it happens, populations of almost all our birds of prey are at their highest levels since records began.

City council’s arrogance

From: Mr SB Oliver, Heckmondwike.

THE letter from David Bentley (The Yorkshire Post, October 30) asks if York City Council will be sending refunds to the motorists who were unlawfully charged penalties for using Lendal Bridge.

A few weeks ago, I read somewhere that York Council did intend to refund motorists, but they would only do so if those motorists sent in a request.

If this is still the case, then York Council is displaying an arrogance of colossal proportions. This is the same as a shop only giving change provided the customer asks for it.

How many of those thousands of motorists will not know that the penalty was found to be illegal? How many of them were visitors from numerous distant places and will never know this result?

There should be some legal recourse to force York Council to issue refunds for every one of the tickets, preferably with interest added as well.