TALK of scrapping the universal free school meal scheme for infants, further cuts to the police force, continuing cuts to cancer drugs, continuing national headlines of the struggle to balance the books in this country.

How an earth do local and national politicians elected to represent the people of York think that their involvement in calls to encourage further economic migration into this country and York in particular is beneficial to this city?

The newly-elected York Central MP talks of “keeping going until we reach saturation point”.

Absolute madness.

Mark Warters, Independent councillor for Osbaldwick and Derwent, City of York Council

 

I WOULD suggest a review of the geese should be undertaken sooner rather than later (The Press, September 18).

Rowntree Park is disgusting. Families with children are being driven out by the mess the geese make.

Sitting having a sandwich by Skeldergate riverside was a nightmare in the summer. Eventually I gave up having been harassed by geese.

Sooner or later there will be a serious case of e-coli or listeria, then action will have to be taken. Why wait?

I am usually an animal lover but the geese are out of control and affecting local people, and it looks dreadful to tourists.

Chris Myles, Malton Road, York

 

JULIAN STURDY is right to support an extension of the three-year Permitted Development Regulation to convert empty offices to residential apartments (The Press, September 19).

This relaxation of planning strangulation has been a huge success.

Empty buildings have been brought into use, economic activity stimulated, jobs created and the housing stock increased.

But it is not the absence of bureaucracy that has achieved this because it is still necessary to make submissions to the council, albeit less onerous than a conventional planning application.

No, what has done the trick is the quashing of all those demands that the local authority can no longer insist on as a condition of planning permission.

It is this which has put the incentive back into development and made projects worthwhile again — just like they used to be before New Labour began the abuse of the planning system to allow ever more financial extractions from the housebuilding industry with, as we have witnessed over the last ten years, catastrophic consequences.

Matthew Laverack, Lord Mayors Walk, York

 

GLANCING up from reading my copy of The Press as I drove through New Earswick the other morning, I noticed the drivers going the other way.

One lady was busy combing her hair, two people on their mobile phones, one drinking out of a mug, one looking down changing the radio station, two eating sandwiches, and a white van man pen in hand writing his life story.

Looking back down to The Press and smiling to myself, I read “the concept of driverless car is alive”. With local drivers putting a minimum input into their motoring the future is nearer than you think.

D M Deamer, Penley’s Grove Street, Monkgate, York

 

RE Susan Roome’s letter (The Press, September 16), “Title is the first step toward equality”, how can Ms make you have more equality than Mrs?

I have been a Mrs for 54 years and have always been equal with my husband.

After being married we both went to work, had a joint bank account, and in all things still are equal. And it did not stop Mrs Thatcher getting to the top of the tree.

If women feel unequal, instead of having Ms, which I must admit annoys me when I get post addressed to Ms Robinson, why not dispense with a title altogether and just keep their birth names, married or not?

Maureen Robinson, Broadway, York

 

REGARDING the carousel moving, Peter Brown states that the Eye of York is in the centre of the city.

Well, if he really thinks that, why does he not keep the carousel where it is and have a couple of new stalls go there.

According to him there are plenty of people round there so they will get plenty of customers.

No, he knows there are nowhere near as many there as Parliament Street.

It is just another example of local people being ignored to make more cash.

The carousel is part of Christmas and we love it.

“Outsiders” overruling locals yet again.

Dave Dunford, Heworth Green, York

 

LOOKING at the additional charge for carrier bags and then looking at the exception criteria, with the changes would it not be easier to make it 5p all round and save all the confusion?

With the exemption criteria (The Press, September 19) will anybody still avoid the charges for 5p a bag? Just buy a trolley with wheels, one that folds up, and you have sorted it, no worries.

All these additional rules about who can have a bag free are beyond me.

Keith Chapman, Custance Walk, York

 

I WAS enjoying what I thought would be a genteel Wednesday afternoon at Beverley races last week when, just after the start of the first race, my ears were pounded by a clamour of screaming primary school kids urging on their chosen horse.

What a brilliant way to teach kids mathematics, working out the odds and the fractions with the added bonus of picking up a monkey for the outlay of a pony.

Can I also suggest to the head teacher that a couple of afternoons in the pub playing darts would be the perfect way to brush up on subtraction skills?

The ethos of the erstwhile headmaster Will Hay lives on in these parts.

Brian McCusker, Hartoft Street, York