Lynn News letters, August 23: What has happened to Hunstanton bus service, Gaywood river under threat, and should festivals be banned?

Wow, £400 will be given by the Government in October to help with the energy bills – that’s nowhere near enough for all the needy people in this country.

It would be enough if we were all getting more than £80,000 plus per year like them.

They are all out for themselves. There are only two people that would make a good prime minister and that is Martin Lewis or Piers Morgan.

Mary Urry

Lynn

TRANSPORT

What has happened to our bus service?

I am writing to you in relation to our lost bus times that link Lynn to Hunstanton and vice versa.

Not all have cars to drive in and they rely on the buses.

There is no chance of seeing a show at the Lynn Corn Exchange or the Princess Theatre as most night shows end at around 10pm or after and the last bus from Hunny to Lynn is 9.05pm and from Lynn to Hunny 8.14pm.

Ridiculous Lynx need to re-evaluate times. Covid is over and they need to provide residents at the top end of Hunstanton town a service of one of the four buses an hour, as before, instead of all four buses going to Tesco.

L Royale

Hunstanton

ENVIRONMENT

There is a real threat to river

I am the river guardian for the River Gaywood. There is now a real threat to the river.

Mitten Crabs or possibly Asian Shore Crabs have been found in the river at Derby Fen, Pott Row and also in a fishing pond for the disabled at Lynnsport.

They are an invasive species and can do untold damage to the banks and wildlife, including fish and invertebrates, and vegetation.

The other threat is dredging by the Internal Drainage Board.

At this time of year, they dredge out not only the plants but thousands of fish fry and freshwater shrimps.

The third threat is from

water extraction. The river at Grimston is at least two feet down. The poor water voles are having to dive into their water.

Also, large tree roots are exposed to the air. There is less flow downstream, so a higher risk the reeds will grow right across the river, and oxygen levels are lower.

Nicola Crockford, from the RSPB, has recently dived up the river from Gaywood Stone Bridge to Pott Row and filmed trout swimming underwater. The river is far from dead and lifeless as Extinction Rebellion would have us believe.

Alistair Milner

Lynn

ABORTION

Only women should debate this subject

I accept that Mr Payne is entitled to his opinion, but debates concerning matters of abortion, including those in Parliament, should be restricted to women only.

Men have no knowledge whatsoever of the mental and/or physical stress which a woman experiences at the onset of or during a pregnancy.

It should be left to women only to make any decisions as regards abortion.

Gordon Eagle

Lynn

Offer support and help, not condescension

Like many, I was surprised to see you give letter space to the misinformed ramblings of a well know anti-choice campaigner, who as ever uses highly charged terms to hide what is essentially the argument of a bigot ( I should know, I am also a middle class, middle-aged, white man).

This especially is so where the author was unable to resist personal attacks. I would therefore like to respond.

It seems to me that as a healthy society we do indeed have a respect for life and for most of us this is dominated by our every action.

But we also have to have a respect for the rights of all persons. Occasionally there is conflict, and then we are vulnerable to extreme views.

So rather than rise to the bait, my view is simply this. We each have but one life and to my mind for a woman to be compelled to carry a foetus that she does not want, and then to devote the next 20 years of her life to the upbringing of a child without support is a recipe for insanity.

I’m old fashioned, I believe that children should be planned so that they can have the very best that the parent(s) can offer.

To introduce a compulsion to continue with an unwanted pregnancy is outrageous... it is also a very poor solution.

I am afraid the author is very confused as to what constitutes life. No one wants an abortion, and it is an extraordinarily traumatic event.

But to try to bully a pregnant woman with emotive arguments is a huge and irresponsible disservice.

Better to support the lady in question, and allow her to make her mind up, ideally with an objective discussion of the options.

But to adopt a supercilious holier than thou attitude reliant on images of the holocaust is not a helpful contribution to the debate, but rather tells us of an inflexibility of mind and a lack of concern for the awful dilemma so many people do face. Better to offer support and help, not condescension.

Cllr Tom Ryves

Methwold

FESTIVALS

Grow some backbone and ban these events

Norfolk is becoming Gloucestershire of 30 years ago. Smart rich move in, buy cheap and then set about ‘sweating their assets’ and to hell with the local populace.

A 1,000 people open air rock festival in Congham. Why should locals and the wildlife have to put up with this? Brilliant that it was cancelled.

Who allowed this to be booked only a few yards from two villages’ houses – three nights, open air cinema, loud music.

Then we have the mess that is Houghton. What do the Environment Agency think of that with their ‘natural capital’ and looking after the environment. Maybe Defra would like to remove some environmental grants?

Which half wit allowed a 24 hour music licencce? What about the local wildlife, does anybody care?

Perhaps we should pipe the music straight up to Nantwich for four days so Lordy can have an earful as well.

“Set in Lush woodland, utopia electronic retreat.” Warnings that roads may be busy. Knights Hill is nearly stationary regularly now – why should locals have to put up with this!

The previous event postings are full of drug related comments from attendees from this legal rave.

Forget the platitudes about handing over offenders to police. Any deliberate drug takers should be banned from NHS treatment during and after the event.

Remember these idiots will be on our local roads up to, during and after the event. Why should we have to run this risk? How many council noise officials will be attending and measuring noise every 15 minutes for four days?

We of course will hear about the money it brings to the local economy – rubbish. Outside organisers, outside security, apart from buying up every local fridge for sale that they could find. No local gain at all. It’s time magistrates and councils grew some back bone and stopped licensing these events in our county.

Mike Appleyard

Grimston

ENERGY

Are we being stitched up?

Can anyone please explain why the world price of energy has rocketed, what has caused this and why this affects my ‘green’ energy contract, relying upon solar and wind power which surely hasn’t increased in raw material costs over the last millennia?

Does anyone understand or are we just being stitched up by energy companies and oil- and gas-rich countries?

Steve Mackinder

Denver