Letters to the Editor - 16th June 2008

Jun 16 2008 Liverpool Daily Post

What are we doing wrong?

I WOULD like to raise a point for discussion that will no doubt generate debate. Following a recent weekend away to Devon and Cornwall, I was astonished with the toll charges for crossing the River Tamar.

Having to use the Mersey Tunnels on a regular basis for both business and social events, I am used to having to pay the fees for crossing from one side of the river to other, but the situation in the South West is completely different.

The toll is £1 for cars and free for motorbikes, and is only charged one way, from Cornwall to Devon. This is for both the bridge crossing and the Tamar River Ferry, equating to just 50p each way in tolls for the journey; compare this to the current Tunnel charge of £1.40 each way.

Surely if a tourist-rich area such as Devon and Cornwall can manage their facilities through the revenue of tolls from one way and at such a low level, we have to ask the question: What are we doing wrong on Merseyside?

Note: 1957 Tamar Bridge Act gave powers to the promoting authorities, Cornwall County Council and Plymouth City Council, to finance the design and construction of the crossing, and thereafter to manage the facility through the revenue from tolls.

Mike Davison, Gateacre

Excellent support

I MUST take issue with the comments attributed to Cllr Paul Brant (Daily Post, June 12) “Vital 08 Place relying on volunteers”, when he states that, as a consequence of the 08 Place engaging volunteers to work alongside paid members of staff, "the council looks like it's putting on amateur dramatics performance".

This jaundiced and incorrect opinion of volunteers is not one which The National Trust (and I am sure other organisations who rely upon volunteer support) would condone.

The National Trust Liverpool properties are supported by in excess of 350 volunteers, far in excess of paid staff.

They provide excellence in terms of customer care, reliability and providing a positive and favourable impression of their city.

The many thousands of visitors to Speke Hall routinely comment upon the standards of excellence provided by our army of loyal volunteers.

Cllr Brant would have us believe that volunteers provide a diluted level of service. I cannot comment on the staffing levels at the 08 Place, but take exception to the discourteous reference to the important role that volunteers play in society.

He should be supporting the significance of volunteering and championing the benefits to the individual and organisations who actively engage with this sector of our community.

Simon Osborne, Liverpool Properties Manager, The National Trust

Local culture

I HAVE noticed that many of the Capital of Culture celebrations are taking place in the centre of the city, but I have been disappointed with the lack of events within my local neighbourhood, that is, until now.

My local pub, the Windsor Castle, on Walton Vale, has decided to take matters into their own hands.

They are hosting a mini Summer Pops outside in the parking lot every Sunday afternoon, with a different band every week for 12 weeks, culminating with the Mersey Beatles on August 24 which, coincidentally, falls on my birthday.

It is so refreshing to see this type of event so close to where I live, I just wish more pubs would embrace this idea and celebrate Liverpool winning the Capital of Culture 2008.

Hopefully the Windsor Castle's idea will spread to other areas of Liverpool and the celebrations can be enjoyed citywide.

W Pettrey, Orrell Park

Water great idea

CONGRATULATIONS to the Liverpool Daily Post’s campaign to swap bottled water for tap water.

The other week, I came across a plastic bottle of water from Fiji, selling itself on its purity because it came from a natural paradise, untouched by pollution, far, far away.

Never mind the carbon emissions from flying the water for thousands of miles to our well irrigated shores, and the plastic bottle which would most probably end up littering a roadside or in unsightly landfill.

When you think of people in Africa or India desperate for any panful of muddy water, and the fact we’re lucky enough to have water on tap, it really does seem rather obscene.

I hope restaurants and pubs support this campaign and, when someone asks for water, first offer tap water.

AK, West Derby

Praise good children

TOO often, the young people in our area are let down by a small minority.

As a result, the good kids get labelled alongside the bad kids.

So it is great to see our local schools working with various partners to make a difference, and to highlight the fact that we do have wonderful youngsters here in Croxteth.

Pupils from Croxteth and De la Salle, deep in the heart of football country, have successfully completed the "Get off the Bench" rugby league coaching programme.

It’s great news and a boost for young people and their schools.

As someone who was running sports teams in Croxteth many years ago, I understand the effort that goes into such projects.

My main praise, however, is reserved for the young people themselves. They are showing that there is more to our community than we are given credit for.

Not all the young people in Croxteth are the stereotypes we see in the media. We do have great people doing great things.

When I see the efforts of young people such as this I, like many other local residents, am very proud of our neighbourhood.

Long may such fantastic initiatives continue, and well done all those young people and the government NRF funding that assisted this scheme to happen.

Cllr Rose Bailey, Croxteth councillor

Proper values

I WAS interested to note from Friday’s Daily Post that Coleen McLoughlin’s wedding dress cost £200,000 – some £50,000 more than the cost of an average house in the UK.

Of course, it is nice that she has married her Croxteth sweetheart, Wayne Rooney, who has made several fortunes from playing football.

But it is no nicer than any young man and woman marrying.

The interesting thing to me about this marriage is how it provides us with examples of grossly distorted values.

In a country, which was once the manufacturing centre of the world and now hardly makes anything, we worship money for its own sake.

Long gone is the notion that there should be a link between money and value. What we once called “honest to goodness” work is badly paid, while minor celebrities preen around for fancy sums.

What we really need in this country are good and properly rewarded teachers, doctors, plumbers, engineers, factory workers, train drivers, bus drivers, electricians and so on. We need to restore our values.

Cynthia Black, Great Sutton

‘Great’ example

I PITY the employees saddled with the dope that Alan Sugar foists on them every year with his new TV show, Apprentice.

The ones with anything about them turn him down in the end, or quickly leave to forge an independent career.

I, for one, would resent someone being dumped on me who was employed after being exposed as a liar on his CV – which would put paid to most people’s applications – and being so slapdash he didn’t bother to run a spell check over his letter.

What a sterling example of how to get on for our school and university leavers!

Harry Fletcher, Aintree

Sad irony

AMID all the ballyhoo about the Grand Princess in the Mersey this week, nobody seems to have made the point that she was made in Italy.

Surely there was an irony in her passing the Cammell Laird shipyard in Birkenhead, which still repairs ships, but once made some of the greatest vessels to sail the seas.

Although big, the Grand Princess seemed to be little more than a blown-up ferry. It certainly lacked the grace of the great British-made liners, the Queen Mary, the Queen Elizabeth, the QE2, or even Cammell Laird’s own Windsor Castle and Mauretania.

Richard Stephens, Formby

Civil liberties

DAVID DAVIS should be congratulated for the stand he is taking against this authoritarian government in its determined erosion of our civil liberties (Daily Post, June 13).

What happened in the House of Commons vote on the 42-day Detention Bill was a disgrace, the Bill won by bullying and so- called concessions, for the sake of saving our dithering PM Gordon Brown from further U-turns and defeat.

Since New Labour came to power, in May, 1997, we have become the most spied on country in the western world; councils are now using counter- terrorist laws to spy on ordinary people on many petty issues, and we will soon be forced into carrying ID cards (all for our own good, of course).

How can you trust a government on such an important issue such as holding suspects for 42 days when they reneged on an election promise to hold a referendum on handing further powers away to the EU?

It is time for every politician of conviction and principle who believes in our democracy to make the same stand before it is too late, but I wonder how many of them have the guts to do so? Very few, if any, I suspect.

Philip Griffiths, UK Independence Party