Flood prevention better than cure

IN reference to street cleaning issues and the need for York City Council to make financial cuts in their budgets: Surely the priority for this essential service should be based on health and safety.

However, one should also take into account with the onset of winter trees shed their leaves, not to overlook the selfish attitude displayed by some members of the public who, having purchased food from a takeaway, instead of taking it home throwdisregard it on to the highway and that includes waste from dog litter. This poses a threat, blocking drains.

Having witnessed the damage and misery caused from inadequate drainage in and around York, if this means apart from educating future generations in good housekeeping, so to speak, and employing more staff so be it. The saving in financial terms will prove prevention is better than cure.

Kenneth Bowker, Vesper Walk, Huntington, York

Local incinerator would earn money

I READ Roger Backhouse’s letter on local power (The Press, September 21) with interest.

He is right that they do things differently in Germany. The key is not electricity company rip-offs, however, it is more interesting than that.

Cities in federal countries work with private companies to create and run their own power stations because they can make efficiencies that are meaningless to privatised power stations connected to a national grid.

UK power stations are 20 per cent to 35pc efficient at extracting the energy embodied in the fuel they use to produce power. In Danish or German cities, power stations are up to 90pc efficient. The secret lies in district heating networks. Instead of pouring heat into the air via cooling towers, they use the waste heat to heat homes, and to cut fuel-poverty, waste, and bills. Privatised power companies are simply not in the business of helping their customers to use less of their products.

If the York and North Yorks incinerator were situated in York instead of 30 miles away, in the middle of nowhere, it could be heating 35,000 homes. And in the process the council would also be earning money, as councils do in Germany, Denmark, Austria, and Sweden.

Christian Vassie Blake Court, Wheldrake, York

Let’s hope silent spring was a one-off

RE the letter from T J Ward (Letters, September 15) about the dearth of songbirds this year: I sent a letter (which was published) about this self-same problem back in June.

Another worrying factor too concerns swallows and swifts.

At this time of year we would expect to see rows of swallows on telegraph wires preparing for their long migratory flight to South Africa.

There are no (nor were there) any swallows at all.

During the final days of summer neither has there been the usual screaming swifts as they darted about the sky gathering insects for their young.

A worrying lack of both species.

There do seem to be a lot more cats around these days but they can’t be blamed for the lack of swallows and swifts, as the nests of both species would be inaccessible to cats being, as they tend to be, built high up on buildings.

Apart from the incessant cooing of the ever-growing numbers of pigeons there has been little birdsong (if cooing can be called birdsong) either.

Let’s hope this year has just been a blip for birds and next year they will be back to full strength.

Philip Roe, Roman Avenue South, Stamford Bridge