Your letters on housing, politics and animal cruelty
Here are the Lynn News letters from Friday, August 2, 2024…
We need to be ahead of the game... and start with QEH
The requirement of government to initiate a surge in council housing raises questions for many.
The first is that whilst the private house building sector has failed to build the houses required (and let us not forget that they there are planning permissions unused of around 1.1m households, ie four years’ supply at current lethargic rates of construction), I wonder whether the resources exist to achieve the lofty targets.
The first step will be a huge training programme, which I welcome. This will be good for the CITB at Bircham and indeed for Norfolk.
As the government will be working hard to grant asylum to the uncleared mass of economically inactive migrants, their acceptance and training for this work would be a huge victory for common sense.
Secondly our boroughs need to consider a suitable response to this opportunity.
I have some knowledge of West Norfolk, so it is our situation I now wish to look at.
Firstly, if would be interesting to see if Florence Fields, a 200-plus unit residential development funded by the West Norfolk Council in Lynn, could be repurposed as affordable.
My take on this is that financial engineering apart it will generate a significant deficit, and one has to respect Cllr Stuart Dark, our previous leader, for cutting it back.
The current administration persevered as the perceived cost of cancellation exceeded this likely deficit, vulnerable as this is to likely high inflationary costs of building services. But if repurposed, it should be eligible for government financial support, especially as a project ready to go and a potential flagship. It's not as if Lynn does not need significant affordable housing.
Which brings us back to the question, what sites are possible? And for me, being a well known one trick pony, the answer is blindingly obvious.
I think that the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) rebuild project cannot expect to be supported because of the ineptitude of the applicant, the failure to properly consider other sites, and the failure to achieve value for money as evidenced by the need for a £50,000,000 multi-storey car park. And underlying all this is the failure to consult so contrary to the best principles of project management, the impact on transport in West Norfolk has not been considered, and there has been NO consultation on this with either county or borough.
Our desperation for a new hospital has blinded us to process, and in particular to scrutiny. As chair of the audit committee in West Norfolk I would dearly love to have the QEH project team in front of me.
I believe that the owners of the large Hardwick site have offered to simply exchange sites, taking the site remedial costs in the chin.
This site would be excellent for a significant high quality affordable project, even if blighted by the white elephant car park. But that aside, Norfolk needs to be ahead of the game and have sites ready to bring forward for our brave new world. Let us hope are leaders are on this already.
Cllr Tom Ryves
West Norfolk
Labour may be better but not because of Keir Starmer
I had to smile when I read the letter by Sheridan Payne when he said “this Labour government is now led by the most extreme left wing cabinet in Britain's history and at a time of great international turmoil”.
I wish we did have an extreme left wing government because under Keir Starmer this will not be the case.
Starmer is an establishment and ruling class leader. He is a big supporter of NATO, wants to give more resources and money to Ukraine and as a country we are still selling arms to Israel.
For me, Starmer and Sunak have blood on their hands over the situation in Gaza and not calling for a ceasefire at the end of last year.
Starmer became leader by default, undermined Jeremy Corbyn over Brexit and made anti-semitism the main issue to get rid of him from the party.
Nick Vinehill's letter which was like a review of the country after the general election was spot on.
As for the Conservatives l am nearly 70 and l hope if I live another ten, 20 or 30 years that they are never in power again.
They have done so much damage and only run the country for their own class.
As I have said in the past Thatcher took us back to the 1930s, Cameron and Osborne took us back to Victorian times.
I don’t wish to be personal but at least we have got rid of the aristocratic snob that is Jacob Rees-Mogg... and Liz Truss, well words nearly fail me, where do I start?
Hardly said a word about a new hospital until it was decided by the then-Conservative government that we would get a new hospital in May of last year.
Enough has been said about this woman by other correspondents, I will not bore you with any more.
In brief I will just say that Labour may be a bit better in office but not because of Starmer (look at the way he has acted over the child benefit cap).
Paul Firmage
Downham
Where is the compassion of socialism?
West Norfolk is facing hard times on two fronts, with the uncertainty over the Queen Elizabeth Hospital rebuild, and now the withdrawal of the winter fuel payment, with a common denominator of the vulnerable being affected, given the elderly demographics in the region.
The £22million black hole in the economy is being given a convenient excuse by the chancellor of the exchequer, Rachel Reeves.
In citing "difficult decisions" she fails to draw a distinction between this definition and callous decisions.
A group productive in the past and loyal to the Crown are being sacrificed for those who are unproductive, hating everything British except £20 notes and there will be those who could die this winter, especially with budgetary projections being thwarted.
A paltry £1.5billion is being saved at a cost of casualties in large numbers, a drop in the English Channel compared with the billions being spent on illegal immigration. The asylum seekers will not have to make a choice between 'heat or eat'.
My question to Rachel Reeves is, where is the compassion of Socialism in all of this? Nowhere, with modern Labour being a metropolitan, metro-sexual party! There are Tamla Motown connotations to this financial statement devised at the Treasury by 'Martha Reeves and the Vendettas'.
David Fleming
Downham
Inadequates or heritage warriors?
Who doesn't wonder at the contorted thought processes churning around in the minds of people who enjoy killing animals and wildlife for larks? Who are these people? Sad little inadequates who were bullied at school and now harbour urges to torment animals who can't retaliate or are they 'heritage warriors' preserving our county traditions?
We've seen various unpleasant characters recently featured in the Lynn News after being found guilty of horrendous cruelty towards animals under the auspices of hunting and the descriptions of the carnage and hunt members creeping about hiding bloody fox body parts under their jackets and it makes your skin crawl.
Where's the pleasure in watching your dogs used to tear other terrified creatures to bits? These corrosive and toxic 'heritage' hunting cultures are little more than throwbacks to days when hunting for food was a necessity... now it's a weirdly class-ridden imperative for social climbing moneyed toffs and some of the 'county' set.
If any one of the members of this now heavily-besmirched club cares to write and talk us through the feelings and ethos behind how much fun it is to savour the sensations as you watch animals die, I'd love to hear it. The same goes for anyone who enjoys shooting pheasants. Just a few lines might help us understand your mental attitudes.
Steve Mackinder
Denver