YP Letters: Road tunnel scheme under Pennines is a dead end

Should a tunnel be built under the Snake Pass?

PLANS for a Sheffield to Manchester road tunnel are not compatible with any realistic plan to create a strong and sustainable economy (Andrew Jones, The Yorkshire Post, August 31).

There is an urgent need to radically reduce carbon emissions, if we are to meet the challenge posed by climate change. While a gradual move to electric vehicles will help over time, there is also a need to limit the amount we travel, especially by car.

Tunnel digging is an extremely energy-intensive activity so  such a project would involve far higher construction emissions than any equivalent ground level road.

Much investment is needed in this part of the country but it should be mainly directed towards projects that contribute to a sustainable economy which will bring wider benefits to everyone, now and into the future.

These would include public transport, home insulation and renewable energy schemes.

From: Jarvis Browning, Main Street, Fadmoor, York.

IF one can’t get to Scarborough by car because of traffic and the A64 is only partly dual carriageway, why not use the train, which must be quicker  and is double track most of the way?

No better way to travel, sit back and enjoy the views – and all hands-free!

Shifting meanings

From: Mr V Platt, Cold Bath Road, Harrogate.

I’M not an intelligent (whatever that is?) man, but I do have a modicum of common sense, but one thing I can’t get my head round is the not-so-recent craze that seems to be taking over our thinking.

Unlike Latin, I know the English language is a living language so therefore subject to change, but isn’t change – any change – supposed to be for the better?

Will some knowledgeable person out there please enlighten this pensioner as for what purpose we are being subjected to nonsensical changing of the meaning of words? Here are just a few examples:

Girls are now ‘guys’.

School children are upgraded to ‘students’.

Garden sheds are downgraded to ‘man caves’.

Railway stations are shunted into ‘train stations’.

Footballers used to take a ‘dive’, now they are ‘acting out a simulation’ (how daft can you get?)

Just who is responsible? Newspaper editors? Advertising companies? The BBC? The EU? Or maybe just someone who is ‘economically inactive’? I would love to know.

Sporting concerns

From: John Appleyard, Firthcliffe Parade, Liversedge.

WE can all sing the praises of the success of our sportsmen and women at the Rio Olympics, but it should be a concern to hear that participation in time spent on school sport has gone down.

A million fewer people are swimming today than 10 years ago and almost half of 11-year-olds cannot swim 25 metres.

Fifteen years ago it was reported 38 per cent of 11 to 16-year-olds were swimming at least once a month.

In 2008 a Labour government announced a package worth £140m of grants for local authorities wishing to give free swimming to all over 60s and all 16s and under from April 2009. The coalition scrapped this funding in 2010.

The Government should show concern at these figures – parents of course also have a responsibility to teach their kids to swim at an early age.

Fracking will need subsidy

From: Anne Nightingale, Station Road, Helmsley.

LORRAINE Allanson states it would take thousands of wind turbines over the next few years to keep the lights on (The Yorkshire Post, August 23), but fails to say how many thousands of fracking sites would be needed if unconventional gas exploration were to go ahead.

Our landscape would be unrecognisable with all the associated environmental,  health and infrastructure  needs associated with this industry.

Apart from all the problems fracking would cause, it is not economically viable to proceed unless supported by tax breaks and significant subsidies paid for by us, the taxpayer.

Act now to curb unions

From: DS Boyes, Leeds.

SIR Bernard Ingham certainly knows what he is talking about when commenting on seemingly out-of-control unions holding the public to ransom.

Unlike many politicians or commentators, he has seen  life at every level from the most humble beginnings to the corridors of power at Westminster.

He may have overlooked one of the most obvious and simple solutions to union militancy – the need to repeal the 1906 Trade Disputes Act of Parliament, which allows unions uniquely to escape the financial consequences of their actions.

Maybe it’s time for Theresa May to have a look at the Statute Book and see if some revision is overdue?

Faith and law of the land

From: Iain Morris, Caroline Street, Saltaire.

ANY religion should teach  you to desist from breaking the laws of your own country and to follow the law of the land  (GP Taylor, The Yorkshire Post, August 31).