YP Letters: Vanity of HS2 cannot be justified

From: John Seymour, Church Fenton, Tadcaster.
HS2 protesters in Bramley, South Yorkshire, with local MP Sir Kevin Barron.HS2 protesters in Bramley, South Yorkshire, with local MP Sir Kevin Barron.
HS2 protesters in Bramley, South Yorkshire, with local MP Sir Kevin Barron.

WHAT a brilliant article by Jayne Dowle (Years of blight are too high a price for faster rail link, The Yorkshire Post, July 7).

I could not have put the arguments against HS2 better myself. We are both from Barnsley, and although I am a generation older, our thoughts are uncannily alike.

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How can spending money like water on such a vanity project be right, when the NHS, education, the penal system, just for starters, are all falling apart at the seams, with the Government having the audacity to stick to a one per cent annual pay cap for public sector workers, when we can still travel from London to York in two hours?

Yes, jobs will be created in engineering and construction industries, paid for by every taxpayer, but the country is not selling exports which are really what is needed.

The problem is that the majority of the population, who will not be affected by HS2 or travel on it, could not care less. From what I see, the majority of MPs follow the party line like sheep in a bid to keep their jobs.

Only a huge financial crash, which will affect everybody, is likely to stop HS2, perhaps, instilling basic Barnsley common sense and forcing our leaders to act more responsibly.

From: Anne Painter, Spring Lane, Wakefield.

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WITH reference to Jayne Dowle’s article on HS2, the proposition to build a rail link costing in excess of £80bn is not an indulgence, it is insanity. It is a ridiculous idea and is akin to building millions and millions of helicopters for hire or just simply digging a giant tunnel which would connect the whole country together in love and harmony.

Meanwhile, back in the real world, there is no money left, no money, all gone. Before we all pour any more borrowed cash in to this nonsensical dream, everyone should stop and think about this for one tiny minute, don’t you think?

Set our own safety rules

From: MP Laycock, Harrogate.

LORD Haskins (The Yorkshire Post, July 4) asks for the Grenfell Tower tragedy to “be the end of reckless deregulation”.

We can all condemn “reckless deregulation” even if we disagree as to what is “reckless”.

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It is quality, not quantity, of regulation that counts. Lord Haskins recognised this when he called for “better regulation” rather than “deregulation”.

Too much regulation can make us less safe, not more so, by confusing people as to which rules are important.

It is argued that “if there had been EU-wide fire regulations, the Grenfell tower tragedy might never have happened”.

EU watcher, Christopher Booker, has pointed out that there is already an EU-wide fire standard, EN 13501, about cladding. He also notes that, back in the year 2000 following a fatal fire in Scotland, MPs called for a new and better standard to be introduced. However, this could not be made law, because fire safety was now an “EU competency”.

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It is high time for us to take back control of our own safety rules.

Slow lane for North’s roads

From: Alec Denton, Guiseley.

YOU have very properly devoted a lot of column inches recently to the problems on the A64 between York and Scarborough caused by the lack of a full dual carriageway.

However this stretch of road is not the only road in serious need of attention, a point brought home to my wife and I when returning home from a visit to Lincolnshire last Friday.

The problem we encountered was another A64 problem that also affected traffic on the A1(M).

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The volume of traffic was admittedly heavy at 5pm, but it was the lane changing manoeuvres by drivers using the A1(M) between Junctions 43 and 44 at 5pm on a Friday that were really quite alarming.

The lane changing was caused by M1 traffic merging with the A1(M) traffic at the same time as a large number of vehicles were attempting to enter the left-hand lanes to leave the motorways at the A64 Leeds/York exit.

Merging traffic had no time to settle before vehicles started to cross in front of them, so late lane changing was rampant and made worse by drivers delaying their lane change to try and gain an advantage in the lengthy queue on the approach to the junction.

The wholly predictably queue was made much worse by the two approach lanes reducing to a single lane as traffic neared the junction.

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One can only assume that this example of dangerous road engineering exists due to cost-cutting in the North to fund work in London and the South East,

I am sure your readers can quote many other examples from our region, but one that particularly annoys me is the final 10 miles of the A65 between Kirkby Lonsdale and the M6, where the A65 becomes little more than a glorified country lane that has been crying out for improvement for years.

Sad lack of free TV sport

From: Helen Atkinson, Scampston.

WE have just revelled in the excitement of the entertaining and enthralling Lions final Test match commentary on Talksport radio against the All Blacks.

Alas if only we had been able to watch it on live television via the BBC or ITV.

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Just think how inspiring such an epic quality rugby match and series would have been for young children to take up the sport of rugby.

The same comments apply to Test cricket.

There is little wonder we are seeing the rapid decline of local cricket leagues.

Please can we address Sky’s dominance of the coverage of sport on television?