I’D like to make people aware of the 10th York World Naked Bike Ride which takes place tomorrow, leaving Millennium Bridge at 4.30pm.

This is a protest about the high numbers of cyclists killed on our roads...40 so far this year. It is a protest about the relative lack of cycling infrastructure, and the fact that our mainland European neighbours spend many times per capita what the UK does on providing for the most eco-friendly way of getting around.

It’s a protest about climate change and the part that cars are playing in exacerbating this.

We protest naked to draw attention to these serious issues. And it looks like a carnival – that’s because cycling is fun and healthy.

The ride route is agreed with police, and we welcome any cyclist to join us, whatever they’re wearing.

John Cossham, Hull Road, York

 

YOUR correspondent Eddie Benson is right: the NHS could save millions by switching to tamper-proof seals on medicine bottles or packets which could be returned to pharmacies if unused (Letters, June 16).

I recently caught a cough which rapidly developed into pleurisy. Over the next four hours, two 111 operators, two paramedics, two GPs, an emergency nurse practitioner, an ambulance and an emergency response vehicle were involved in helping me. They were all wonderful. But imagine what that lot cost.

Prior to 2004, we would just have called our local GP practice. A GP would have visited, prescribed painkillers and antibiotics, and spent perhaps 10 minutes with me.

I believe that the purchaser-provider split sounded the death knell for the NHS in terms of sensible central planning and policy. If I were 40 years younger, I would form a Save The NHS party.

Allison Peterson, Barlow Street, York

 

OUR free Christian Aid concert raised £9,000.

Very many thanks to the large audience at the Flanders and Swann concert in St Chad’s Church in York on June 6 in aid of York Christian Aid Group’s Food For Change project in Burkina Faso, West Africa.

£1,400 was collected, some gift aided. This has become £9,000 thanks to a top-up from the European Union.

The project trains and equips vulnerable families to farm more effectively and send their children to school.

Nick Nightingale, Chairman, York Christian Aid Group East Mount Road, York