YP Letters: Who can stop rot as roads go to pot?

AS a resident of the small village of Gildersome, I am absolutely gobsmacked at the number of times the roads have been dug up. Some have been done twice, in the last few months. The roadworks in our village are worse than the M62.

Now, to top everything off, Branch End is closed to traffic going into Morley or onto Gelderd Road. Surely anybody with half a brain would have installed temporary lights, allowing traffic to flow through?

Now queuing to get out in peak times is ridiculous, using Street Lane and College Road, and with all the school traffic this made my journey into Morley 25 minutes. The people who organise these roadworks do not put any thought into the problems. We all know the work has to be done, but better planning is needed.

From: Dave Croucher, Pinfold Gardens, Doncaster.

EVERYTHING is in such a mess in this country – the Government can’t afford to mend our roads, and there have been so many cuts in the NHS that it is just unable to run the way it did before the Conservatives took over.

Our roads are such a mess that they will cause many accidents and injuries to road users, even though they extort more money from the motorists through road tax, parking fines, speeding fines and any other thing they can think of. Why are the roads left to disintegrate while billions are being wasted on HS2?

Theresa May and Jeremy Hunt must think it is okay to leave people suffering on trolleys in corridors for hours as long as their highly-paid colleagues can save themselves a few minutes a day in order to spend their outrageous annual bonuses.

No reward for loyalty

From: Karl Sheridan, Old Lea, Holme upon Spalding Moor.

IT’S hardly a wonder that BT shares are taking a hammering in value, and its true that BT need to have a major rethink on its future strategy. If they had ignored the mind boggling multi-billion pound expenditure on chasing sport fans and instead offered better service to their customers, they wouldn’t be in the position they are now.

Considering that we, the consumer, are now a captive audience as regards line rental – thank you Mrs Thatcher – it would be nice if BT looked after those who have signed up with its services. However it appears all the bargain offers and juicy inducements are only offered to new customers only and not those loyal ones who support it.

Is it any wonder that we are all defecting to Sky, Talk Talk and Plusnet when the only incentive to stay with BT are frequent and extortionate price rises? It seems to me – just as with the energy providers and indeed insurance companies – that loyalty and service to the customer is a forgotten quality of yesteryear: now all we see is greed, greed and further greed!

Tetley’s in name only

From: John Heasman, Leeds.

I READ with interest your article regarding the re-introduction of the brewing of Tetley beer in Leeds.

The original Tetley beer was brewed in Leeds using soft water from a private bore hole in the Brewery and a very distinctive strain of yeast. Around the end of the 1970s, Yorkshire Water (I recall) decided to charge an exorbitant rate to continue to extract water from the borehole and the brewery had little option but to use tap water.

At around the same time, 
the distinctive strain of yeast became diseased and an alternative was used.

These changes resulted in the Tetley’s beer, renowned throughout Yorkshire for many years, completely changing in character. When production moved to Warrington, Tetley’s beer became unrecognisable from the beer originally produced.

While Leeds Brewery may have obtained the recipes for Tetley beer, perhaps with the exception of the hops, the other original main ingredients (yeast and water) are no longer available.

While I am sure that the beer will be of excellent quality (as are all Leeds Brewery products), it will not be Tetley’s, it will bear no resemblance to Tetley’s, and should not be called Tetley’s.

Mayor correct on housing

From: DS Boyes, Upper Rodley Lane, Leeds.

ISN’T Manchester mayor Andy Burnham exactly right in calling for urgent introduction of proper regulation of housing?

In his area, and elsewhere, most homeless are those evicted by private landlords, even though they might have paid their rent and been model tenants!

The fact is that housing here has become problematic by repeated failures of both Conservative and Labour governments over 40 years.

Margaret Thatcher’s right-to-buy legislation, coupled with a ban on building new stock decimated that. The introduction of shorthold assured tenancies took away what little rights private tenants had and now many endure a nomadic lifestyle at the whim of speculators.

Price not right on railways

From: ME Wright, Harrogate.

ANDREW Vine’s subjection to the money-grubbing subterfuge of rail ticket pricing will strike a chord with thousands (The Yorkshire Post, May 8).

Despite this minefield having been laid in the early years of privatisation, successive governments have failed to act. Your article says ‘Bid to bring rail ticket system into the 21st century’. If only; but when this is littered with “could be”, “suggest ways”, “lead to a report”, perhaps we should not hold our breaths.

Might it be possible for Macavity Grayling to redeem himself a little by giving the Rail Delivery Group six months to deliver?