Letters to the Editor - 30th April 2008

Apr 30 2008 Liverpool Daily Post

Physicians, heal thyselves

SO WEST Wirral Group Practice refused to give up their dream fantasy of a super surgery at The Warrens.

First there was a planning application and it failed for very good reasons. Despite this, they paid for a traffic survey in an attempt to prove The Warrens site isn’t too busy.

Then they paid for a site survey, with the permission of the council, to enable them to design their ideal building and car park layout, despite their earlier planning application failure. That in itself was already beyond belief.

Then they employed planning consultants to create a lavish design. They then submitted another planning application, which was the same as the first and again it failed for the same reasons as before. That last failure, however, was far greater in that far more people were involved and we objected vociferously.

The planning committee voted unanimously against the PCT’s proposals, their supporters were so few it was an embarrassment. What is more, most people present believed that surely the doctors would now give up their ridiculous and unpopular plans. But no, clearly they don’t think that they have wasted enough public money yet, and now they are pursuing a very expensive public inquiry, despite being told that it wasn’t in the public’s interests to do so.

Perhaps if they had to pay for everything out of their salaries, they might never have considered such a crusade in the first place.

These people are making themselves extremely unpopular, and I very much doubt that West Wirral Group Practice can survive for much longer, whatever the result of the public inquiry, and I for one won’t miss them!

DV Hall, Irby

Disorganised Arena

YOUR correspondent, M Swann, suggested in Monday’s paper that those who are complaining about access and car parking for the new arena should use public transport instead.

A fair point, but not everyone can easily do so.

This is the third time I have attended the venue and on the first two occasions I did use public transport. However, this time I had my mother and aunt with me, both of whom are in their nineties. Due to it having taken over half an hour to drive from the dock exit of the tunnel to be level with the entrance to Albert Dock, I had no alternative but to try to get these two elderly ladies out of the car and onto the central reservation of The Strand, then to get one of them into a wheelchair before walking as quickly as we could towards the venue, while my wife continued to queue for the car park.

Fortunately, a resident from one of the riverside apartments had witnessed this bizarre episode and took pity on us, allowing us to take a short cut across the base of the apartments. Fortunately, I was able to get these elderly people into their seats before the lights went down, but it was hardly a good start to what we hoped would be a special night out.

My wife subsequently found stewards who only had the light of personal mobile telephones to light her way, and others who were clearly not familiar with the venue. Yes, the Arena is great and I am proud of all that is happening in my home city, but if we are to continue to attract people here after 2008, a great deal more attention is going to have to be paid to improving the organisation of events.

RO Buckingham, Raby Mere

Flexible caring

A YEAR ago this month, around 2.6m carers in the UK were given the right, under the Work and Families Act 2006, to request flexible working – this is designed to help carers stay in work.

Unfortunately, a year on, many employees in the North West are still unaware of this act. This is a crying shame – carers have a lot to offer in their jobs and they must be supported.

The alternative for them can be as drastic as having to give up their jobs altogether, often leading to poverty and isolation.

The vast majority of carers are of working age, and around 3m carers regularly combine work and care – this means that one in seven people in the workforce is a carer. With the Prime Minister soon to announce a new national strategy for carers in this particular area, it's time employees in the North West questioned whether their employers are doing enough to help them carry out their caring responsibilities, while also holding down paid employment.

Flexible working enables carers to change their working hours and conditions to better fit the realities of caring.

Furthermore, research has shown that those who support carers in their workforce have lower staff turnover, reduced recruitment and retraining costs, improved productivity and reduced absenteeism.

Armed with this knowledge, it’s crucial that any carers reading this highlight the mutual benefits to their employers and gain the support they desperately need and deserve.

I urge all carers to visit www.carersuk.org or call the CarersLine on 0808 808 7777 for more information.

Imelda Redmond,Chief Executive, Carers UK

Servant, not master

YOUR balanced article (LDP, April 28)on the dispute with National Museums Liverpool and Friends of same, highlights what must be a ludicrous situation.

A public-financed body prefers to spend our tax money to support their egotistical view and turns down freely given financial and voluntary help. It defies any sort of common-sense thinking.

This is a reaction from a management with little or no “Mummy knows best attitude”.

The Friends, whose opposition NML finds so irksome, are people who put both their time and money out of real interest and care.

NML bosses should be reminded that they are servants of the public, and that some years ago would be expected to respond to letters with “I remain, sir, your obedient servant”.

Frank Moran, Fulwood Park, Liverpool

Friends no more

RE: THE "spat" between National Museums Liverpool and the Friends (FNML) that they have now cut adrift, I am writing to express my complete support for FNML chairman Andrew Pearce.

My wife and I are long standing members of FNML. The matters at issue are serious, even though you may wish to refer to this as a "spat". Those in charge at National Museums Liverpool (NML) are foolish to dismiss (literally) the views of such a loyal and significant band of supporters in favour of pursuing their own agenda. I suspect the vast majority of FNML will not be inclined to join the new NML friends scheme. We certainly will not. I wonder where NML will get their new supporters from? Those people who actively support, with time and money, museums and art galleries were already members of FNML.

Simon Taylor, Liverpool 8

Museum supporter

RE: THE museums saga. Where we have a Friends organisation assisting the main body, it is frequently found that the tail wags the dog.

From my knowledge of the affairs of the museums, the Friends were the tail and there may be apt definitions of the dog.

Incidentally, the NML trustees, with one notable exception, appear to be a sorority.

Nonetheless, sterling work is done by museums, which I will wholeheartedly support whenever I can.

E Rex Makin, Liverpool

Shut Merseytravel

THE Mersey Tunnels Users Association (MTUA) is right to demand discounted tolls for local residents.

They are also right to demand the tunnels become part of the national road network and control removed from Merseytravel.

Millions could be saved with the scrapping of the Transport Authority, Merseytravel. It seems Merseytravel are desperate to hold onto the Tunnels in order to justify its existence. After all, it freely admits to having no control over local bus services, routes or fare pricing. As for rail services, these are subject to long franchises.

Other Merseytravel operations, such as the concessionary travel scheme, information services, bus stops and bus stations could be run by local councils. In West Lancashire, the concessionary travel scheme is operated by the district council and the other services are operated by the County Council.

Savings made as a result of these changes could then be used to discount the tolls and help the hard-up motorist.

Neil Furey, Skelmersdale

Poor benchmark

ONLY a few weeks since work finished on installing benches along Church Street and Lord Street, and already they look a mess.

Sweet wrappers, crisp packets, paper bags and the likes have been shoved between the wooden slats of the new benches that were installed. Even when the area is being swept, nobody addresses this problem. It is particularly bad at the corner of Lord Street and North John Street. It looks awful and negates the whole purpose of spending so much money in that area.

On another note, why was that particular design chosen if it allows people to leave litter behind them in this way?

Another poor decision by someone in authority, I suppose.

Name and address supplied

Cap immigration

WITH the news that both Knowsley and Liverpool are among the country’s top unemployment black-spots, those who think the 10,000 Eastern Europeans arriving in Merseyside each year for work is good for the region must be mad.

Anyone looking at the figures doesn’t need to be a genius to realise that these migrants are going to cause a huge strain on housing, schools and hospitals and it was only proven a couple of weeks ago that they are not economically viable. Each person is worth 58p a week to the country. Surely it is time to find our own unemployed work, and for the Government to put a cap on new arrivals?

J Southern, Formby