Time to derail this white elephant

WHAT a huge waste of resources just to save a few minutes’ travelling time (James Reed, Yorkshire Post, September 10)!

It’s clear that the fanciful HS2 proposals would:

Despoil vast tracts of nationally-important wilderness;

Create visual pollution with huge viaducts, embankments and lights glowing through the night;

Bring constant noise to currently tranquil rural and small-town areas.

Even if such destruction and disturbance could be justified, the project will only be accessible by a privileged few, as access points will be well outside town, and only amenable to those who have use of a car.

Furthermore, we already have a suitable transport network – and the funds that will be thrown away on this white elephant could be applied much more effectively to the upgrading of the existing network.

The case is overwhelming: HS2 should never be created to blight our lives.

Check bill for gas charges

From: Trev Bromby, Sculcoates Lane, Hull.

BECAUSE of the Government’s car crash policy to force power companies to create easier-to- grasp bills, had I stayed with npower, my gas bill would have risen by 674 per cent! This, from a government vexed by power companies hiking charges by six per cent.

Newly introduced standing charges per day are: npower 40p, British Gas 25p, EON 10p, Equigas nothing.

Some may say 674 per cent rise? I don’t believe it! So for all you low energy (gas) users, here it is: 89.52 kwh over 67 days with npower amounts to £30.42 but over the same period with Equigas, the amount is £4.51.

The Government’s failure to put a cap on standing charges has made the big six trough dwellers full to bursting point. But, be assured they are working within the rules – now where have I heard that one before?

I say to all able-minded people, please warn your grandma and elderly neighbours about this new threat to eat or heat.

Now check your electricity bills!

Fellowship 
for veterans

From: Captain Creswell White, Fellowship of the Services, Thornbank House, Mountenoy Road, Moorgate, Rotherham.

IN these days when our shrinking Armed Forces are being asked to do more and more, and with our servicemen at long last coming home from places like Iraq and Afghanistan, many with injuries and emotional or mental challenges, may I bring to the attention of your readers an unsung organisation that makes fellowship and companionship its central tenet, an organisation that may be of help to our service men and women in their troubled times?

With the centennial anniversary of the start of the Great War just a few months away, now is perhaps an appropriate time to bring some publicity to this organisation founded by ex-servicemen for ex-servicemen in 1927, during the dark and difficult days after the Great War.

The Fellowship of the Services is a brotherhood of ex-service personnel drawn from all ranks of Her Majesty’s Forces. Membership numbers are dwindling in many fellowship messes around the country and after the wars and conflicts of recent years, military personnel may need and cherish the warmth of fellowship and companionship that this organisation can provide.

Raising the lottery stakes

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

I WAS surprised this week when renewing my five-weekly, advanced, single-line lottery entry to be told this wasn’t possible at this particular time, as the £1 lottery entry stake was being increased from October 5, 2013.

Well, to say it was being increased is a little misleading – the entry stake is being doubled to £2 a line. Is everyone else aware of this?

Of course no-one is compelled to spend money on the lottery and need not cost a person any more money as the number of line entries can be reduced or indeed, stopped completely.

The trouble is many people enter the same numbers each week, or multiple lines of the same numbers, and these numbers have become firmly fixed in their memories and thus they will be loath to eliminate any – for fear that the no-longer used entry will, inevitably, produce the jackpot win. For those who will feel they must maintain their multiple entries because of this, the doubling of the entry stake will be a very unwelcome increase in their weekly outgoings.

Is this another Government scheme to bolster the Treasury’s coffers, believing we have now become addicted to gambling in the desperate hope a win will solve all our problems?

Safety first 
at reservoir

From: Michelle Lewis, Director of Corporate Communications, Yorkshire Water.

I AM writing further to some recent articles relating to our important work at Butterley reservoir near Marsden and to clarify some points around it.

We are obliged to undertake reservoir safety works at Butterley because the existing spillway cannot comply with reservoir flood risk mitigation requirements. Our work will ensure that the spillway complies with the Reservoirs Act and that it continues to provide the community of Marsden with an appropriate level of protection.

Unfortunately, it is the features that make the structure so aesthetically pleasing that pose the greatest risk to public safety.

Other options were thoroughly investigated and the reasons for their rejection are fully detailed in the planning application. In a nutshell, none offer the same level of safety and it is this which is of paramount importance to us.

Contrary to recent comments, it is our understanding that English Heritage has not objected to the planning application. They have also made it clear that it is for Kirklees Council to decide whether the public benefit of ensuring the reservoir is safe for the residents of Marsden outweighs the need to retain the existing structure.