YP Letters: Why Yorkshire rivers came back from the dead

DON Wood (The Yorkshire Post, March 30) spouts a load of nonsense when he states that the main reason for cleaner rivers is that the most polluting industries have moved to the EU or China. Can he name even one? I doubt it.

When the Conservative government led by Margaret Thatcher proposed privatisation of the water industry in the late 1980s, it was initially intended that these would regulate themselves, as the public-owned regional water authorities had done previously.

However, the EU informed the British government that this was not acceptable. This led to the creation of the independent National Rivers Authority (later the Environment Agency) which soon showed that it had real teeth, as within months it had successfully prosecuted some of the privatised water companies.

The main polluters of the Rivers Don and Aire were actually sewage works rather than industry, and in order to comply with EU regulations very tight limits were imposed on the discharges from them by the NRA, and subsequently even tighter limits by the Environment Agency, which led to these previously dead rivers becoming thriving fisheries.

From: Michael J Robinson, Berry Brow, Huddersfield.

IN his column on UK fishing (The Yorkshire Post, March 29), Barrie Deas refers to “obscene distortions in quota distribution”, but he makes no mention of the large number of licences which were allocated to UK fishermen who then sold their licences to continental fishermen. They considered it was better for them to take the money and scrap their boats than to continue to go out fishing.

No sympathy for Daesh duo

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

THE bleating by the two Britons captured by the Kurds in Syria regarding the so-called illegal removal of their British citizenship by the Government should be ignored. They are the ones who decided to spurn British values and the country that educated and supported them to go and join Daesh, and they only have themselves to blame for their misguided predicament.

I sincerely hope their citizenship has indeed been rescinded because if they are brought to justice in this country, they’ll no doubt, as a result, be incarcerated in the usual three-meals-a-day and all-needs-catered-for penal system that we operate here.

Hope in store over plastic

From: Hilary Andrews, Nursery Lane, Leeds.

I ALWAYS enjoy Tom Richmond’s insightful column on a Saturday (The Yorkshire Post, March 31), but am particularly impressed with his suggestion that individual firms have their own policy for returning empty plastic containers in return for vouchers to spend in that store.

This can be implemented immediately instead of the offenders having to wait for a long-winded Government consultation and the immense cost of installing the machines we have seen on TV.

Hopefully many supermarkets will take this on board. Any that do will certainly be supported by me.

Ashamed of my dirty town

From: Wendy Hamilton, Doncaster.

RATHER than focusing on transport links, Ros Jones, the Mayor of Doncaster, should look a little closer at domestic policies before she waxes lyrical about the future.

Recently I have become ashamed of being a Doncaster resident because of the disgusting state of the litter and lack of street cleaning.

Any stranger coming off the M18 and heading into town along the A18 must think they have hit a third world war zone so awash are the hedgerows and paths with detritus.

Hero’s statue must be seen

From: Elisabeth Baker, Royal British Legion, Leeds.

THERE is a proposal (The Yorkshire Post, March 30) that the statue of the Leeds Victoria Cross recipient Arthur Aaron be moved from its current location at the bottom of Eastgate, where it is noticed only fleetingly, if at all, to a site in Roundhay, where it again would be seen only briefly by a few.

Flight Sergeant Aaron gave his life so that others could live.

His is a story that the whole country should be proud of and his statue should not be tucked away in either Eastgate or in Roundhay, where only those in the immediate area would be able to see it.

Models should learn to smile

From: Harry Robinson, Cedar Drive, Keyworth, Nottinghamshire.

I CAN assure you that the photographs displaying “latest print styles” (Life & Style, The Yorkshire Post, March 28) will never tempt either of my four daughters or my wife to make a purchase!

May I recommend a little elegance and that your models smile.

Or could it be that they are not enjoying themselves?

Ill-conceived

From: Max Nottingham, St Faith’s Street, Nottingham.

PEOPLE are being told not to go to a doctor with headaches or persistent coughs. Surely both symptoms can be a danger sign?

Corbyn in bin

From: Ruthven Urquhart, High Hunsley, Cottingham.

GREEN bin out – ​this Monday! Blue bin out – ​next Monday! Corbyn out –​ ​ASAP?