Saturday's Letters: Forward thinking at last as organisation is axed

From: M Cooper, Methley Lane, Leeds.I WAS extremely disappointed to read that Yorkshire Forward's budget was to be cut by £44m.

My disappointment disappeared completely when I learned in the Budget that it was to be abolished altogether. This organisation has excelled in the knack of wasting taxpayers' money.

According to Yorkshire Forward's PR campaigns, they should have produced tens of thousands of jobs in Yorkshire – at what massive cost?

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I would imagine that the only real jobs produced are the 450 overpaid under-worked, under-achieving jobs in the organisation.

From: Mark Roper, executive director,

CECA (Yorkshire & Humberside) Ltd, Conyngham Hall, Knaresborough.

IN the emergency Budget, the Chancellor pledged to invest in rail schemes in Yorkshire and the North-West and made a pleasing number of small steps to make the region a good place to do business.

From Tuesday, business start-ups can enjoy certain NIC exemptions, and some of the existing financial support schemes for SMEs and others have been refocused. We also should enjoy, from 2011 for two years, a regional growth fund to help deliver capital projects.

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But while all this very good news, we should not lose sight of the fact that spending is going to be cut by 100bn by 2015.

This is going to mean that our built environment, especially infrastructure such as road and rail, will feel the strain.

Transport plays a huge part in our productivity, social mobility and quality of life, but to realise its potential we must invest in road and rail infrastructure.

I believe this region will share my concern that this is going to hold back jobs and put a break on our economic recovery.

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The Chancellor has had to make some tough decisions and the emergency Budget reflects this, but we must not lose sight of the importance of keeping our region moving and our economy growing.

Summer's blow for wind power

From: Stuart Clark, Aberford Road,

Garforth, Leeds.

MIDSUMMER day was under high pressure, with clear blue skies and little breeze, conditions which can also be found on mid-winter days when the temperature is minimal.

Travelling from Garforth to Lincoln, I noted the power stations of Ferrybridge, Eggborough, and Drax, situated on the banks of the Aire, West Burton, near Gainsborough, and Cottam, nearer to Lincoln, on

the Trent.

In the still air, the plumes from the chimneys were vertical and the condensation from the cooling towers resembled ice cream twirls topping cones, rising to forma cloud.

Each suggested quite a lot of power was being generated.

On such days, what price wind turbines?

From: Richard Godley, Meadowfields,

Whitby.

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REgarding the possible scrapping of the 60m subsidy to windpower (Yorkshire Post, June 21), the overall 3.2bn allocated to climate change is a big chunk to offset some of the profligate spending of the previous government and we should not use it on a scientifically unproven big con for political popularity.

Driving lesson from Jersey

From: Ian R Bolton, Knightsbridge Walk, Bradford.

MY wife and I have just returned from a holiday in Jersey where we found various items to do with motoring which we could well to adopt. These are:

Courtesy by drivers. For example, pulling up at zebra crossings to allow you to cross. They felt it to be a duty not an imposition, which I feel many drivers in England think it is.

Because of the width of the roads, the maximum speed limit is 40mph. A thought for the roads in our countryside.

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They pay no road fund licence. Instead, the price of petrol is increased accordingly. This way you pay for what you use.

Might this be a green idea. Also if we did not pay road fund licence how many civil servants would we save?

All cars had to display a certificate of insurance. I believe a failure to display this meant severe penalties.

How about no insurance disc and your car is confiscated?

Leave moors to the experts

From: Malcolm Rainforth, Southfield Avenue, Ripon, North Yorkshire.

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A LOT has been spoken in the past few weeks about waste, cuts etc and your recent headline read: "Millions wasted in the uplands" (Yorkshire Post, June 16).

For generations, the moors have been managed by gamekeepers, farmers and the moor owners who have done a good job. I have been involved in moor maintenance for more than 30 years.

But then along comes Natural England, English Nature, the RSPB and National Parks, all trying to put their potty ideas into practice and ruin it all.

Oafs who didn't know a moor from a field of wheat until they learned it out of a book at college or university telling men whose fathers, granddads and great-granddads, were looking after the uplands, what they can and can't do, with potty ideas costing millions that the country cannot afford.

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The moors can be managed very well, and have been without those so-called experts.

Recognition at long last

From: Barbara Garden, Strickland Avenue, Shadwell, Leeds.

AT last, there is to be a memorial to the bomber crews, more than 55,000 of whom gave their lives to keep our country free. It is not being paid for by the nation and will be built if Bomber Command can raise the 2m to build it.

Coun Alistair Moss, of Westminster Council, is reported to have said: "It is in gratitude to those exceptional people who were brave enough to fight for us and it will stand as an iconic London monument how good came to triumph over evil."

It is surely a sign of the country's ingratitude that it has taken so long to contemplate this memorial and that Bomber Command should have to find the money.

'Criminal' waste by government department

From: Barrie Frost, Watson's Lane, Reighton, Filey.

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THERE can be no clearer indication that some civil servants are completely oblivious to the perilous state of Britain's economic situation than is shown by the appaling waste of hundreds of thousands of pounds of furniture discarded by the Department of Education in Sheffield.

They also seem totally unconcerned and unaware that the swingeing cuts imposed on everyone else should also apply to them.

The Department of Education in Sheffield has moved from its present premises, in Moorfoot, to St Paul's place, which, although only a short walk away, apparently necessitates all new office furniture (Yorkshire Post, June 19).

A total of 2,500 office chairs, 1,600 desks and more than 1,000 filing cabinets and cupboards, many of them almost new, have been deemed unworthy of being transferred to the new offices and have simply been thrown away.

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Do those who approved such "criminal" expenditure realise that the money used so frivolously on unnecessary equipment had to be earned by others and should be used far more beneficially?

The reason, or should it be excuse, for this extravagance, is that the desks were too big to fit into the new offices. Were all of the 1,600 desks too big? What was wrong with all the 2,500 chairs? Will answers be forthcoming or is it expected that the passing of time will see this huge waste fade from our memories?

Many projects have recently been cancelled which were far more important than replacing perfectly sound office furniture, so are there different rules that apply to civil servants?

I suppose it is too much to expect that those people able to authorise such needless expense will no longer be in a position to do so in future; that MPs will demand an explanation and that, like many other items which have recently been axed, this purchase will be cancelled.

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Otherwise, won't it be confirmed that there are, in fact, different rules for different people.

The benefit of contraception

From: Pat Walker,

Trenic Drive, Headingley, Leeds.

JAYNE Dowle (Yorkshire Post, June 21) says we must never look the other way for the sake of other children like Shannon Matthews.

Surely we should stop women getting pregnant when they can't bring up children without social services/welfare help? Contraception can now be given in a three-monthly shot in the arm.

Perhaps make that a requirement of getting benefit?

Return to the good old days

From: Wesley Paxton, Hawthorne Avenue, Willerby, Hull.

MARGARET Claxton (Yorkshire Post, June 21) is correct to reminisce about cheap rail excursions to the seaside, but we need not go back

that far.

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As recently as the mid-1970s, there was an evening excursion from Hull to Bridlington for an amazing 10p return.

We went out at about 6pm and returned about 9.30pm; it was summer so it was still daylight.

Not surprisingly, the train was well patronised.

Twenty pence (two tickets) then bought you almost 1.5 litres of petrol, so about 80p per ticket today seems par for the course.

Any chance?

Travel cover explained

From: Roger Ramsden, chief executive, Saga Services Ltd.

I WRITE regarding an article you published last week, based on a Which survey into insurance for the over-65s (Yorkshire Post, June 18).

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You quote some premiums for single-trip travel and attribute these to Saga; however, they are actually the premiums for Bupa Premier travel insurance that Which used in the article.

I'm not sure why, but Saga's travel cover wasn't included in Which's report, except to say that we offer cover for pre-existing medical conditions when many others do not.

Art attack

From: B Ford, Wynmore Crescent, Bramhope.

WHEN a picture is sold for 22m (Yorkshire Post, June 23), it raises the question as to whether or not arts require a huge subsidy funded by the taxpayer?