I AM writing in defence of private carers.
My husband was waiting for three months to be discharged from hospital because Kirklees had no vacancies in our area so it was obvious to me that Kirklees was unable to cope with the increasing demand for home care.
He has had private care for five months and we are totally satisfied with the service they provide.
I can only comment on the agency we have – I understand there are quite a few.
Our carers are capable, understanding and patient, considerate, cheerful and friendly and keep within the time rota I am given each week.
Without their care I would not be able to manage.
Joan Sierant
Netherton
Pensions money
ONE has to take issue with Dr Dylan Murphy and his assertions that the remedies for the current financial mess that New Labour left should not apply to his teachers (Mailbag, June 8).
Quite amazingly, he trots out the Human Rights Act.
Like a number of people before him, he bemoans the beefing-up of pension contributions to be made by his members.
Whilst I have nothing against trades unions, people like Dr Murphy conveniently overlook the raiding of pensions in the private sector by that wizard of financial prudence, one Gordon Brown.
Where were the cries of ‘foul’ from Dr Murphy and teachers then? After all, many of those affected were trades union members.
No sir, the swag from private sector pensions was used for the public sector to fritter away on non-jobs, over-management, high salaries, wasteful quangos and the like.
What’s sauce for the goose is also sauce for the gander!
GB
Shepley
Our village greens
AS a retired former town and country planner it surprises me how few villages bother to register their beloved village green under the Commons Act to protect them from being built on.
At Scissett the village green bid at Upper Langley was rejected a decade ago – and now the land has planning permission for housing development.
The pending case of Churchfields at Denby Dale, and the public inquiry due to start on June 29 at Dewsbury Town Hall regarding Chickenley Heath, throw the spotlight on the value of safeguarding village greens.
There are only four registered village greens in the entire Kirklees area, disclosed in a freedom of information inquiry last month.
They are at East Bierley (1972, which predates Kirklees Council, being established in 1974), Shelley (1995), Clayton Fields, Huddersfield (1997) and Laithe Fields, Lockwood (1998).
So no village green has been officially registered in the Kirklees area this millennium!
Kenn Winter, MRTPI
Lindley
High street troubles
THE reason for the decline of shops in Huddersfield and the markets began when on street parking was cut by one third and pedestrian precincts and pay-and-display were introduced.
People who would have just nipped into town for an odd item have trouble parking anywhere near the required shop and then have to find cash for the meter which adds to the time and cost. So it’s quicker more convenient and cheaper to go to a supermarket with free parking and everything to hand.
Roy Bottomley
Crosland Moor
Ambulance call-outs
I WOULD like to reply to the Yorkshire Ambulance Service response regarding keeping ambulances for life threatening emergencies (Examiner, June 4).
It was never my intention to suggest my daughter’s incident last Friday should take priority over a life threatening emergency, but as the ambulance services is well aware, there are several other categories which they work to with serious but not life threatening 20 and 30 minute ambulance responses.
Surely someone in excruciating pain or with cerebral palsy, disability and learning difficulties should be graded into one of these categories and not, as my daughter was, put into the lowest category of a telephone assessment within 60 minutes and no ambulance response.
We are raising awareness as any family could find themselves in the same situation.
Lyn Skelton
Newsome
The meaning of ‘chav’
I DON’T know anyone who uses the word ‘chav’.
According to a new book on the subject, it is a term of abuse used by the wealthy and privileged who openly laugh at the working class and crack jokes such as “where will all the chavs get their Christmas presents now that Woolworths has closed?’’
The author of the book is critical of how working class people have been sidelined from positions of power over the years and how the plight of the poor is not taken seriously.
Comparisons are made about the search for Shannon Matthews and the demonisation of the Dewsbury Moor community in contrast to that of nice, middle-class Madeleine McCann, a point made by several journalists at the time.
In the early stages of the hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper I remember some expressions of concern that the murders were not being taken seriously because the victims were “only prostitutes.’’
For the first time in years I called at the bookies on Saturday to place a bet on the Derby. I had a fiver on Poor Moi.
I don’t know what pleased me more – my horse winning or the disappointment on the faces of the Royal Family as the Queen’s horse finished third. Maybe I’m a chav!
john appleyard
Liversedge
Paid and earned
HOW MANY more times will it be reported that “certain fat cats earn more than the Prime Minster’’?
There’s a big difference between the word ‘earn’ and the word ‘paid’.
People who earn their money work very hard for it as a rule. The vast amounts some people are ‘paid’ these days beggars belief and makes a nonsense of the serious business of getting rid of our so-called national deficit!
Brenda Holroyd
Netherthong
Bring them home
THE Government should not be cutting any benefits received by the brave servicemen and women serving this country in a ridiculous and misguided war (Mailbag, June 8).
But isn’t it an insult to other regiments that the Paras get paid a special bonus for doing what is expected of them while the others, who face the same dangers, do not?
If the government wants to save money they should bring our troops home now!
Tim Radcliffe
Holmfirth
Toddlers’ triumph
ON behalf of the Meningitis Trust I would like to say a very big thank you to everyone who took part in Toddle Waddle in April.
It was our 12th Toddle Waddle and we had thousands of youngsters across the UK waddle to help us continue supporting individuals and their families after meningitis.
Sponsorship from toddlers is still coming in and we hope to raise £270,000 this month. As a charity which receives no Government funding, this will go a long way.
Thank you again to everyone who took part. Now is the time to get practising for next year’s!
For more information on Toddle Waddle please visit www.toddlewaddle.co.uk
Steve Williams
Meningitis Trust
Anger fuelled
ON the BBC Website recently the Institute for Fiscal Studies said the pensioners on Winter Fuel Payments spend most – but not all – of their payments on their heating bills.
What rubbish! I and my partner spend all of ours and more on fuel bills and I think most pensioners do. We have only electricity and I have estimated from the last three years and ongoing I pay or have paid about £30 a month for what is only a one bed flat. And I am on a good internet tariff.
Martin Fletcher
Emley
