YP Letters: Ram raiders blighting Leeds city centre

THE story of Leeds bidding to retain safe-city Purple Flag status was immediately followed by the report of the third ram-raid burglary within a year on a prominent Leeds business.

The Purple Flag scheme is a badge of honour for Leeds recognising safe and enjoyable nights out – we must not lose it as other places have.

But there is a blight of high profile crime that keeps happening again and again in the city centre.

We have to be seen to be taking action and supporting our local businesses. We need detailed plans from the council on what more can be done.

There is, of course, a fine balance to be struck between protective measures and ensuring the city centre is a welcoming, accessible place, but I fear that at the moment we have not got that balance right if criminals are able to act at will repeatedly targeting Leeds businesses.

I am all for supporting our partners and the police with sensible and appropriate measures that will improve and enhance our great city, but at the moment I have yet to see what the council’s response will be.

We should be rightly proud of our city centre and its massive contribution to the city’s economy and the significant number of jobs created.

There is no room for complacency, we need to do all we can to ensure that the city centre businesses can operate in safety.

From: Richard Saberton, Wakefield.

WAKEFIELD competing with Leeds? We really are into ‘David and Goliath’ territory now and in the real world David usually gets stomped!

Wakefield is ok but an end of term report would read “shows promise but could do better”. The city never seems happy in its own skin, always trying to ‘keep up with the Joneses’ or in this case Leeds. It’s a sad fact that if you want to know what Wakefield will do in five years time, look at what Leeds is doing now.

Still look on the bright side, you may have to work in Leeds but at least you can come home to Wakefield!

Exams not education

From: Mick Webb, Leeds.

IN response to letters and columns re GCSE exams, children from the age of six or seven can, at a price, be sent to certain schools with the sole intention of learning the art of passing exams (Jayne Dowle, The Yorkshire Post, August 270.

They learn parrot-fashion and have no real understanding of the subjects they are being taught.

Exam results are not a total indication of intelligence, there’s many a successful entrepreneur who left school with no qualifications. On the other hand there was a well educated, ex-Eton boy who became Prime Minister, made a complete mess of the job and left us with Brexit and the current political mess.

Careful look at sell-by label

From: Ron Jevons, Muncastergate, York.

LET me firstly admit to having noted ‘use by’ and ‘sell by’ dates without duly reading the rest of the information provided, for I now note that what is of more concern is the subsidiary information stating how long food should be kept in the refrigerator once opened.

On many items, I have only too recently noted that the recommended life span of many products is only two or three days once opened. With only two of us in the household it is quite difficult to consume half, let alone the whole, of many products in the time stipulated. Perhaps chilled products should be sold in smaller portions.

Put boot into scare stories

From: Derrick Bond, Shadwell,

First we had fruit and veg growers, now we have football club chairmen claiming Brexit will be terrible for us all.

You would have thought a club chairman would want to save money on players, but apparently they are more than willing to pay extortionate agents’ fees to buy players from abroad.

All this fake scaremongering is pathetic. After Brexit, the cabbages will still get picked and the footballs will still get kicked.

Labour pigmy

From: Chris Sharp, Leeds.

Jeremy Corbyn and his cohorts are not and never will be able to think or act like Clement Attlee and Nye Bevan, they were giants of the political world (Bernard Ingham, The Yorkshire Post, August 22). Jeremy Corbyn and his entourage are pygmies in comparison. The man is not fit to lead a party, never mind a government.

TVs over food

From: Peter Hyde, Driffield.

I HAVE to agree that food banks are the saviour of many poor families who would struggle without them (The Yorkshire Post, August 25), but I do sometimes wonder just how many who are driven to them because of smoking, drinking and gambling. The possession of a huge TV, and the latest model of mobile phone, is put before basics like food.

Windows folly

From: ME Wright, Harrogate.

BRIAN Sheridan highlights the folly of leaving engines running in traffic hold-ups, bus terminal etc (The Yorkshire Post, August 25). During the recent hot spell, I noticed many cars parked, with windows closed, engine running and exhaust spewing, presumably to keep the air conditioning going. Is this is more de rigueur than simply opening the windows?