THE report headlined “Gulf in city’s rich and poor” (The Press, July 8) makes dismal reading, particularly for the low paid, underpaid and out of work in York.

Much praise should be sent to the advice agencies who have compiled this report, but I must correct them on one particular aspect.

The official statistics may well show that York has an unemployment rate below the national average but the true out of work figure is not as compiled by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) due to the fact that they do not include the hundreds (if not thousands) of people who have had their benefits withdrawn (sanctioned).

Once sanctioned an individual does not appear in unemployment statistics.

I urge both the new York Central MP and York Outer MP to press the DWP for these figures and therefore we can get a true figure of the numbers of unemployed people in York.

It is sad to see that 14,000 York residents are living in poverty and that eight electoral wards in York are in the 20 per cent most deprived wards across the UK.

Is this the type of nation that the new Conservative Government want to be proud of?

Howard Perry, St James Place, Dringhouses, York

 

I WILL say at the outset that I consider the last Labour administration’s policy of blanket 20mph limits to be a waste of over £600,000.

There are some places that undoubtedly need 20mph limits, but in many places they serve no useful purpose but simply extend journey times.

I am delighted that the new council has halted plans to extend the scheme to my home village of Strensall.

However, I would question whether transport cabinet member Ian Gillies would be justified in committing the council to the further spending of considerable sums of cash to remove them.

If it were possible for volunteers to simply take them down, as Mark Warters suggests (Letters, July 9), that would be fine, but he knows that that is absurd.

There would be expensive processes to go through involving consultation, advertising their removal and then physically doing so.

Given that no-one enforces the 20mph limits, is it really a good use of public funds to take them down when there are so many other demands on York’s money?

In my opinion, that would be throwing good money after bad.

Leave them be and waste no more money on them.

Divert any money saved to replacing the many badly designed speed bumps that damage cars and their suspension.

Tony Fisher, West End, Strensall, York

 

THE 20mph zone was put there for a purpose (The Press, July 8).

Reading the majority of replies in The Press (Letters, July 10), some of them just cannot get to grips with this.

The 20mph zone was put there for the madcap drivers who take no notice of the speed signs that appear all over the roads in Yorkshire.

Keeping the 20mph, we now hopefully can get rid of these very high bumps that have appeared around Huntington.

These don’t do your chassis any good at all. These want to be taken up at the first opportunity.

The 20mph does serve a purpose and I am all for it to be kept.

Tom Mitchell, Mendip Close, Huntington, York

 

WITH the ever-increasing numbers of silent approach vehicles on the roads and footpaths – electric cars, electric buses, invalid scooters and the ever-present cyclists, you would have thought that someone would have thought of fixing a lolly-pop stick to the rear spoke to create a clicking noise to worn others of their approach.

It worked as a kid for me.

And another idea is for the mobile phone makers to make a phone with a loud audible voice saying “I am texting” or “I am on the phone, please shut up and get out of my way”.

I feel sure that people will be happy to oblige and get out of their way.

D M Deamer, Penleys Grove Street, Monkgate, York