YP Letters: Nothing new about war on plastic

From: David H Rhodes, Keble Park North, Bishopthorpe, York.
Cutting the use of plastics - and also unnecessary packaging - is shaping the debate on the environment.Cutting the use of plastics - and also unnecessary packaging - is shaping the debate on the environment.
Cutting the use of plastics - and also unnecessary packaging - is shaping the debate on the environment.

ON the subject of packaging and its excessive use, how many can remember the simpler times of shopping when you could ask for a dozen screws or half-pound of nails and take them away in a white or brown paper bag?

When will this “retrograde” thinking be reintroduced to the benefit of everybody? Once home, how would they be stored? Possibly in empty jam jars, medicine tins or a large biscuit tin from Christmas time.

Recycling was once the norm of the day, ask Grandad!

From: Graham Lund, Girvan.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

WE are currently being encouraged to reduce and recycle with plastics being the current bête noire of the packaging business. I remember, years ago, that cereal and soap powder makers were asked to reduce the amount of space in their boxes.

May the rest catch up and perhaps state boldly how much recycled material is in each cardboard box? Should the same not apply to the amount to the amount of phosphates still being added to added to soap powders?

From: Dave Haskell, Cardigan, Ceredigion.

COMMON sense demands manufacturers should be prohibited by law not to use plastic in any form of packaging, with retailers being fined if they accept goods wrapped in plastic – end of problem! It has all been getting out of hand – how long before individual apples are being wrapped in plastic?

From: Sam Moore, Midgley, Halifax.

CHARGING people to take waste to local tips only increases fly-tipping and councils are very well aware of this fact. They are as much part of the problem as the actual fly-tippers.

Dark sky thinking

From: A Haigh, Addingham.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

SARAH Freeman’s recent night sky article made very interesting reading regarding light pollution.

We live in a reasonable area where we are able to observe starry nights, but tend to be plagued by so called security lights, both halogen and LED.

There are at least five that illuminate our property from about 200m away, these have the habit of going on and off when the wind is in certain directions. Not only is our property remotely lit but as you travel in other areas there are lights that shine onto roads and dazzle drivers.

As Bob Mizon rightly says, there should be some strict regulations regarding the siting of these lights.

I know there are guidelines, but who takes any notice?

County’s new Royal links

From: Jean Lorriman, Waterloo, Huddersfield.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

THE recent engagement of Princess Eugenie of York to Jack Brooksbank provides, along with the Duchess of Cambridge whose father’s family hail from Leeds, further Yorkshire connections.

Once lowly Dales sheep farmers, the Brooksbanks moved to London and, along with increased wealth they became upwardly mobile through marriage. Brooksbank School in Elland was founded by Stamp Brooksbank as a gift to Elland, his birthplace. Then it was a grammar school, but when I did my teacher training from Leeds University it was a comprehensive.

The distaff side throws up even more Yorkshire surprises as Sigismund Schwann, from whom Jack’s relatives are descended, is buried at Holy Trinity Church.

Prince Andrew must, as Chancellor of Huddersfield University, be pleased with his future son-in-law’s ancestry. We could become Royal Yorkshire – but God’s Own County, or country as some folk prefer, is much the finer!

Nick Clegg’s good works

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

From: Margaret M Gouldsbrough, St Mary Crescent, Deepcar, Sheffield.

I WISH to comment on recent negative reports regarding Sir Nick Clegg. I have always found him to be an intelligent, able speaker who keeps true to his beliefs.

I have a niece who is mentally handicapped. She is now aged 60 and lives in a house with eight other people in Gleadless in Sheffield. This facility was going to close, causing anguish for residents and their families.

Sir Nick Clegg was approached and he was responsible for keeping the house open. This is one example of his concern and caring for others.

Thank you Sir Nick Clegg.

Council’s list of failures

From: Dave Hubball, Sisters Villas, Garforth, Leeds.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

DOES anybody have a contact number for the Department for Wasting Money at Leeds City Council? We have had the tram/trolleybus schemes that have gone nowhere, Kirkgate Market regeneration that’s turned it into a ghost town, cycle routes that hardly anybody uses.

Now Leeds City Council is to start charging for residents to tip rubble, soil, hardcore etc at the waste sites. How much will it cost to clear up all the fly-tipping?

Harry’s a class act

From: David Lowen, Royal Television Society, London.

YOUR feature on Harry Gration was excellent but failed to make clear the respect in which the Look North presenter is held by his fellow professionals in television (The Yorkshire Post, January 23).

Last year, admiration for his work was demonstrated nationally by the Royal Television Society when he was named the Regional Presenter of the Year. The citation stated: “Outstanding….a class act…when (Harry) is on the screen, you simply want to watch.”

Related topics: