Letters to the Editor - 24th March 2008

Mar 24 2008 Liverpool Daily Post

Disappointed with Bluecoat

HOW disappointed in the extreme, was I, when I visited the newly refurbished Bluecoat Chambers?

No secluded nooks or crannies in the cafe, just an open sterile area, which will be draughty in summer and chilly in winter, with a constant stream of people walking through it to the garden.

Oh yes, the garden. I think I should call it a barren piece of wasteland, which has the ambience of a defrosting refrigerator.

What happened to the tranquil, curvaceous and intimate hideaway that was an oasis in the heart of the shopping centre, where one could sit on the wooden benches and have lunch in peace?

In its place, we have a rectangular area, with uninspiring plots of planted land, which, given time, will remain uninspiring; and a plastic set of table and chairs, which I suspect, will not be in great demand.

When will the birds return, and why would they want to? The cafe should be in a quieter area of the building, and the garden should have been built closer to the original design.

I can only surmise that the vast amount of money thrown at the project was to secure and strengthen the building.

I’m not against progress and change, but for the better... please.

Paul Deeks, Aughton

No power

WHILE I agree with Cllr Leah Fraser’s sentiments relating to the planned closure by this Government of 2,500 post offices (Letters March 17), the real problem has been caused by laws dictated to us from Brussels.

Under Article 88 of the Treaty of Amsterdam signed by the Labour Government, Britain will no longer be able to provide the £150m traditional Social Network Payment which has kept small local post offices in business.

On top of this, Post Office Directive 97/67/EC is responsible for imposing the new confusing regulations on sizes and weights of letters and packages and also postal services into greater competition with firms such as the German state-owned DHL.

The Government has allowed this to happen, yet blames the postal workers for failing to attract greater business.

Conservative, Labour and Lib-Dem politicians make much of this but will not admit they are too powerless to do anything about it in the face of these EU rules.

I suspect the outcome of the any debate in the House of Commons will only delay any further closure announcements until after the local elections in May.

So much for the supposed benefits of our membership of the EU which the Conservative, Labour and Lib-Dems continue to support to our ever-increasing cost.

Phil Griffiths, UK Independence Party

City let down

THE Government has well and truly let Liverpool down, and though if the comments of Andy Burnham are anything to go by it seems quite proud to have done so.

I cannot believe that this could happen in a civilised democratic society.

Andy Burnham was obviously not aware of the anguish this city had to go through in the 70s, 80s and 90s with a Labour council; and whether they like it or not, Liverpool now is a confident and vibrant city which in time will emulate most other cities in Britain.

The city council has brought back the investment, developers, businesses and life chances.

Yes, there have been some mistakes, but you look at the challenges they have had to deal with; residents and visitors alike cannot help but notice the impact that steady political leadership has had on the confidence, long may it continue.

Mr D T Harris, via email

Hospital care

THE city has great cause to celebrate the advent of a new hospital on the site of the Royal.

While I appreciate the concern shown by the chair of the Patient and Public Involvement Forum (Daily Post 19th March) regarding the reduction of beds, we need to get away from the concept of the number of beds available within a hospital setting. Evidence shows that patients want to be at home if possible and they subsequently thrive in their own home environment.

However, this is dependent on all the partners; the PCT and city council playing their part to enable patients to continue treatment at home.

The closure by the city council of Leighton Dene and Boaler Street Rehabilitation and Respite Units hands out a body blow to this strategy as those two units play a significant part in ensuring that patients who are fit to be discharged from hospital but not yet fit enough to return to their own homes, receive the care they need to help them through this intermediate care process.

While the Liberal Democrat council may make a short-term financial gain in closing the units, there may be a significant future cost, both in terms of finance and care strategy for the people of Liverpool.

Cllr Roz Gladden, Labour Spokesperson for Adult Health and Social Care

Private funding

I WAS very concerned to read in the Daily Post that the plans for a £400m rebuild of the Royal have been approved.

I understand that this will be a private finance initiative (PFI) project even though this method of funding has been widely discredited.

A PFI build is generally much more costly than traditional funding by government grant.

As a result, almost all trusts with large PFI projects like this have to make further cuts in services and staffing even though the new hospitals are already much smaller than those they replace.

Worst of all perhaps, is that even after large PFI payments over 30 years, the hospital and the land will no longer be in public ownership but will still belong to the PFI finance company.

This does not bode well for health care in Liverpool in the future.

(Dr) Andrea Franks, via email

Updated details

AS WE enter spring, which is always a popular time for moving house, TV Licensing would like to remind homemovers in Liverpool to notify us of their change of address so that we can update our database and transfer their existing licence to their new home.

Everyone knows that moving house means a long “to do” list as people order their boxes, book removal vans and cancel the electricity.

But research carried out last year for TV Licensing showed that more than half of people in the area didn’t know that they need to contact TV Licensing in order to move their TV licence.

In fact, your TV licence does not automatically move with you when you move house. It's easy to update your details with TV Licensing.

Simply log on to www.tvlicensing.co.uk or call 0844 800 6722 with your new details and you will then be correctly covered to watch television in your new home.

Charlotte Hancock, TV Licensing

Place in history

I WAS delighted the Daily Post gave such prominent coverage to the Buddy Holly tribute concert at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall to mark the 50th anniversary of his legendary concerts in the city.

In the early publicity, much was made of how this had been the moment when the Liverpool skiffle groups switched to rock and roll to start Merseybeat.

That might be so, but I think people exaggerate the difference between rock and roll and skiffle.

Certainly Lonnie Donegan, always billed as the King of Skiffle, could rock with the best of them. Surely, it is time that his place in the history of British pop music was given wider recognition.

He was the father of that music just as much as Elvis or Buddy.

But it is strange to think of the legacy Buddy left in just 22 years on this Earth.

If people say the classical composer such as Beethoven and Mozart; the big show men, Cole Porter and Irving Berlin; and pop writers such as Dylan and the Beatles, are all geniuses – why not Buddy?

Martin, Bromborough

Pleasureland site

IT IS good to see that progress is going to be made on Southport’s Pleasureland site (Daily Post, March 21).

This is a huge area of land and it would have been very damaging had it been allowed simply to lay derelict for many years.

It is of course a shame that Pleasureland could not carry on as it was as a fairground but times change and I am pleased to learn that the site is not simply to be turned into a home for lots of expensive apartments.

The idea of a winter garden is a promising one, as is the suggestion of an outdoor heated swimming pool, after all it is not so many years ago that Southport had one and it was very popular with visitors.

L Small, Formby

Litter problem

JOHN PARKER is right in what he says about the horrendous litter problem we have in this country being laid bare during the harsh winter months (Letters, March 21).

I am constantly amazed at how much rubbish people will just dump by our roadsides and despite the threat of fines, you still see people just wind down their car windows and fling empty wrappers and packets out as they drive along.

It is shameful and what is worse we don’t seem to bother clearing it up anymore.

I can’t remember the last time I saw a street sweeper.

K Twist, Wavertree

Motorists punished

HAVE motorists not been punished enough by this council that we now have to be fearful of getting a parking ticket via Big Brother?

This idea of CCTV ticketing is abhorrent.

It is just another way that this council sees it can squeeze money out of drivers.

It is not as if Liverpool city centre is exactly overrun with legitimate parking spaces anyway.

H Jones, L3