Letters to the Editor - 13th March 2008

Mar 13 2008 Liverpool Daily Post

Heritage fund threat to parks

THERE is a park near where I live that gave homes to an abundance of wildlife.

Sefton is the name of the park. It was the jewel in the crown of the lakes of Liverpool. At the high point of birds nesting and buds appearing, the park has been wrecked.

There is no such park where I am from in Bristol. There was once a lovely park, Eastville Park, where there was also a beautiful lake. I hope civil engineering skills have improved since they drained that lake, cutting down trees around it, as they have in Sefton, to make the water flow more freely. The willows there were felled, together with many other trees and bushes, and the lake was drained never to recover; even as a child, I felt bereft at the change.

Apparently, it is the Heritage Lottery Fund who gave the money for the works to be carried out. They have a policy, I believe, to restore parks to how they believe they were at the time they were made. Then nature was tamed to make park or large gardens for the rich. At that time, the threat to wildlife was not critical because their park/garden was surrounded by rolling countryside and woodland, providing plenty of space and facilities for animals of all kinds to be housed and fed and to breed. Parks are surrounded now by houses and all kinds of construction for the service of humans.

It seems to me that the main culprits are the Heritage Lottery Fund, who make it a specification for receiving moneys that the parks should be “restored” in this matter.

The exhibition I have in my gallery at the moment is called In Celebration of Trees. I have watched trees being felled in both Bristol and Liverpool, and thought that I would take a positive stance for their survival. Last Sunday in the gallery, people expressed their horror and grief at the desolation which was Sefton Park, the most beautiful open space in Liverpool.

Frances Conway-Seymour, Lark Lane Atelier Gallery, Liverpool

Benefit disgrace

MIGRANT workers from EU accession states are claiming £28m per year in child benefit for children who do not even live in Britain. What an absolute disgrace and insult to British taxpayers.

The latest figures, uncovered by the Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Philip Hammond, through Parliamentary questions, reveal that last December around 21,000 awards were being made for 34,000 children. In June, 2007, 14,000 migrant workers were claiming the benefit for children living in their home countries – meaning that the total number of claims has soared by 50% in just six months.

Most of the claims originate from Poland, where 31,000 children were receiving child benefit at a cost to the taxpayer of nearly £2m per year. This is a sharp increase on September, 2007, when 26,000 children were receiving the awards.

The cost will increase further – by approximately £1m – when child benefit rates go up next month. Current benefit rules allow migrants working in the UK to claim child tax credit and child benefit in respect of children living abroad. But the Government refuses to give any information on the numbers claiming child tax credit.

There are 3.8m British children living in poverty. Yet we are sending £28m of taxpayers’ money abroad every year because our benefits system is such a shambles. When will Gordon Brown get a grip on this situation?

Cllr Martyn Barber (Con),Sefton MBC & Organising Campaign Secretary

Immigration folly

THE headline, in Monday’s Daily Post, that 200 migrants a week is good for the region, is sheer folly. Merseyside has thrived for centuries without these people, so why do they need them now?

One only has to look at the towns of Wisbech, Boston, Margate and Peterborough, to see that a major influx makes residents feel like strangers in their own town. With housing at a premium, schools full and England about to become the most densely populated country in Europe, just where are 10,000 migrants a year (every year) going to live? Maybe we should start building a few more towns the size of Kirkby to accommodate the new arrivals.

Michael Matthews, Liverpool 13

Vocational training

RE: STUDENTS suffer graduate jobs shortage. According to your headline on Tuesday, “a senior academic warned the job market was failing to create enough graduate level jobs for the rising number of people getting a degree”.

The job market is failing to create such jobs as there is simply not enough demand for the skills of the increasing number of graduates the system is producing.

The government’s long-term intention is to get 50% of young people into higher education, which will only exacerbate the situation. Increasingly, school leavers will need to look at the benefit they are likely to derive from doing a degree in a subject like Media Studies against the cost of the debt they are likely to be saddled with after three years’ study.

The apprenticeship route allows trainees to “earn while they learn” and gives them the real skills they need for the workplace along with a recognised qualification at the end. Apprenticeships are not just in vocational subjects like engineering but also in more academic areas – more than 5% of apprenticeships are in accountancy, for example.

John Bennett, Kaplan Financial, Liverpool

Apprentice route

YOUR article about graduates should make a lot of people wake up and smell the bacon. University is not for everyone. And, more importantly, not everyone needs to go to university.

Instead of encouraging more and more young people to spend four years of their lives racking up debts, the Government should be helping them decide whether it is right for them or whether they would in fact be better off doing an apprenticeship or some sort of vocational training rather than living it up in ivory towers and coming out broke.

L Miller, Southport

Bright future

I LEFT Liverpool in 1987, as the city offered no future to my career or family; it was with a heavy heart and much sadness. We have heard so much about the city over the last few years, so over the half-term holiday we visited Liverpool for four days.

Imagine our amazement as we drove into the city centre to witness the regeneration. Liverpool has changed beyond recognition, St George’s Hall looks magnificent, the museums are fabulous, the shopping area is transforming like no other city, the waterfront is unbelievable with the Arena, conference centre, new museum, the Albert Dock, the canal link, and the cruise liner berth. Liverpool has changed for the better.

We spoke to many people as we travelled around, asking about the politics and economy of the city; political extremism has gone and the council are really forward thinking – the words of the people not me. Liverpool has changed and so have our perceptions.

We’re coming back in the summer, as there was so much to see and do. Congratulations, Liverpool – you deserve to be Capital of Culture.

Derek and Pauline Harris, Brighton

Dangerous habit

CAN somebody explain to cyclists that riding two by two is dangerous. Living on small country lanes, you would think it would be tractors that cause problems – no, it is gangs of cyclists whizzing around in groups. They must feel safe in numbers but it can cause reckless driving by impatient drivers.

I have seen police cars waiting behind cyclists three-abreast and not taking any action. There is no law to stop the practice of cycling side by side, but maybe there should be, if not for their own safety then for that of cars. They may look flashy in their lovely skin-tight clothes but many seem to have the road sense of a three-year-old.

Remember car drivers pay for the privilege to ride on roads, cyclists don’t. A little bit of common sense goes far, unlike a car that is stuck behind a peloton of cyclists.

P.Rice, Ormskirk

Everyone was at it

IN REPLY to P Hope’s letter regarding plates and crockery being thrown overboard to avoid washing them (Daily Post, Tuesday, March 11).

I was the Motion Picture Projectionist on board the Cunard ship RMS Mauretania, from 1952 to 1954.

When cruising in the West Indies, the ship would drop anchor at places like Jamaica and Curacao. The sea at these ports was so clear it was possible to look down to the sea bed. It was littered with crockery that had been thrown from the ships.

The practice appears to be universal to all cruise ships and it probably still is.

Alfred H Mahon, Wallasey

Strike a balance

THEY’VE started to move the old U-boat. From its home by the docks, to Woodside.

They’ve sliced it all up like salami. So people can see right inside.

It seems an odd sort of attraction. To site where the convoys once sailed.

So please bring back HMS Whimbrel. To ensure that a balance prevails.

Janet V Thorning, Greasby

Joint venue

IF DIC, owned by Sheikh Mohammed Al Maktoum, take on a large holding in Liverpool FC, hopefully we can have a racecourse built on Stanley Park instead of a football ground. Then both the Grand National and the Derby can be staged in Liverpool.

RJ Furnival, Port Sunlight

Keep it local

I RECENTLY received my renewal for my bus pass. All the information for processing has to go to Hull.

Why? Merseytravel should process bus passes on Merseyside and give people in Merseyside employment. Why Hull?

Mrs FM Fleet, Wavertree