Lynn News letters, August 26: West Winch housing, superb treatment at King's Lynn's Queen Elizabeth Hospital and women's right to choose over abortions

Everyone is getting in a state about expected rises in the cost of electricity and gas.

This utility has been privatised and that is why the industry has to make a profit.

Electricity is not something we can do without if we want to have a cup of tea, keep the milk cool and listen to the radio.

Therefore it should not be privatised. It should be nationalised and run for the benefit of the population.

It should not be so expensive as we produce most of our own electricity and we have more renewable sources than ever before so it should, in fact, be cheaper.

We could, of course, use less of it. We don’t need to have so many electrical devices and we certainly don’t need to drive electric cars. We cannot afford to use the electricity in this way.

We should prioritise the use of electricity for basic needs like cooking and keeping food safe.

We need it for hospitals and schools, not for cars or electrical gadgets that we can do without.

We all need to stop being profligate in our use of resources so that we can allmake use of them for now and in the future.

Penny Snape

Clenchwarton

PLANS

Please, no more housing until bypass built

I attended a presentation of West Winch Growth Area Consultation on August 10 – for anyone interested there is another event on September 5 – 1pm-7.30pm.

I would first like to say I am not against the building of new homes in West Winch because we are in need of new housing in the Lynn area, private and social.

I have, since the meeting, gone online to view documents regarding the Growth Area plans.

In particular I am totally against house building work starting before the West Winch Housing Access Road is built, which will become the newly aligned A10 bypassing the village.

The consultation document says that an element of house building in the growth area is expected to take place during the two to five years prior to the completion of the bypass.

There are proposed early start developments already being considered by West Norfolk Council, from Hopkins Homes and Metacre Ltd of a combined 1,600 homes, which will necessitate undue construction.

New residents’ traffic will impact on an already heavily congested stretch of the A10 through West Winch, causing problems for village residents and all A10 road users.

It is proposed that the 500 Metacre home development will access the A10 from Rectory Lane and the 1,100 Hopkins home development will access the A10 from a new roundabout near the The Winch pub.

To confirm the above, hidden away in another document – the Infrastructure Delivery Plan – confirms up to 1,600 homes will be allowed to be built before the bypass is completed.

At the moment it seems very unlikely that the Government and Norfolk County Council will be in a position to approve funds for the bypass for some time, possibly beyond two to five years or maybe never.

I have sent in my comments to the team handling this consultation with an alternative suggestion for accessing the Growth Area from the A47 until the bypass is built and hope that others including councillors etc will follow with their own comments.

Robert Holden

West Winch

HEALTH

My treatment at the QEH was superb

Recently I fell down the stairs and both dislocated and fractured the bones in my right ankle.

I crawled to my mobile phone and called 999. I was routed via the police to the ambulance service who informed me, somewhat bleakly, that there would be a minimum eight hour wait.

I knew I needed a stretcher and would not have been able to get into any car or taxi to go the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Lynn.

Suddenly, a lady called Tara from Wymondham Police called me to say she was going to do everything possible to get me an ambulance more quickly and, to my amazement, an ambulance with a team of three turned up within about 40 minutes of the accident, led by Alex.

Alex jumped over the garden wall and I had managed to unlock the French windows to let him in.

They looked after me exceptionally well and took me up to the hospital. Alex said there were only six ambulances ahead of us which was well under half the number on Monday and Tuesday – good news. Following X rays, I was given a general anaesthetic and woke up in plaster from foot to knee.

Next morning Mr Gadir, a highly experienced surgeon, came to see me and said they would need to insert a screw, pins and a plate to secure my ankle to my foot.

He explained the operation went very well and assured me there should be no complications.

The second operation took place that afternoon and Mr Gadir subsequently came to see me to say all went well.

I received excellent care throughout my stay but was fully aware of the pressure on staff, particularly the nurses. One of the night nurses told me there were only two of them on duty, covering 33 beds.

The crisis in our NHS is all too real. There are high levels of understaffing across all occupations and increasing demands placed on many exhausted and highly dedicated staff following Covid and a huge backlog of work.

I do hope the Government invests much more in our NHS and authorises a new hospital for Lynn without further delay.

I know that I am one of the lucky ones and thank everybody at the hospital who looked after me so well.

And a special thank you to Tara and the ambulance service for having come to my rescue so quickly. Tara called me just before I left hospital and I was able to thank her personally for what she did to help me.

Tony Kenber

Magdalen

ABORTION

His view is pure misogyny

In response to Sheridan’s Payne’s letter, I would like to add a few points. As a woman I believe it is up to me and only me to decide what happens to my body.

I believe I have the right to choose what happens even if I haven’t been raped or violated in some way.

I believe that a man who knows nothing about me does not have a right to say what happens to my body or that of any other woman.

I do not understand why a man who will never know what it is like to carry a baby to full term nor will he know what it is like to decide to end a pregnancy.

Maybe Sheridan would support mandatory vasectomies for all men who are sexually active as these are reversible and, in the time it takes to carry a baby to full term a man can cause hundreds of pregnancies; hence it would make more sense for this approach.

I am sure Sheridan feels very comfortable in his voting choice. I haven’t seen any letters from him voicing his disgust at the many homeless people dying each year on our streets or the people who die whilst on the NHS waiting lists.

I haven’t seen any letter voicing his disgust at the many disabled, elderly and poor people who will not be able to heat their homes this winter due to the Tory party voting to lift the energy price cap.

No, I see a letter from him about taking control away from women.

Expecting a woman to carry on with an unwanted pregnancy is a physical and psychological assault on her. It is pure misogyny.

What is his stance on babies born into poverty, domestic abuse situations, drugs and alcohol dependant households? Does he help with charity work and activity support these families?

Does he open his doors to the children on the streets or in care currently?

Or does he, like so many men, voice their opinions in something that very often has nothing to do with them.

When outlawed, women still have abortions yet they become unsafe, often putting the woman at risk and in some cases women die.

Is this what Sheridan would prefer to happen?

Verity Connolly

via email