|
Letters to
the Editor:- "Marie Curie Cancer Care's Little Feet, Big Feat"
Dear Editor, "We are writing to ask all infant and primary schools in your area to join us and take part in "Little Feet, Big Feat" - a brand new schools initiative to raise funds for Marie Curie Cancer Care.
The charity is looking for 150,000 little pairs of feet to simultaneously step into someone else's shoes' and take part in a 15 minute walk around the playground dressed up as the person they admire the most, a fictitious or real person, their favourite pop star or athlete, or perhaps their favourite kid's TV presenter (hopefully one of us!) Pupils will join together in school playgrounds across the UK at 2.45pm on Friday March 18, 2005. If you think your school is up for the challenge, then please visit www.mariecurie.org.uk/daffodil for more information.
"Little Feet, Big Feat" is part of the Marie Curie Cancer Care Great Daffodil Appeal, supported by Yellow Pages. The Appeal, which runs throughout March, aims to raise funds to provide high quality nursing, totally free, to give terminally ill people the choice of dying at home supported by their families.
We really hope you'll take part." Best wishes, Richard McCourt and Dominic Wood, Dick and Dom in Da Bungalow, BBC1
Letters
to the Editor:- "Volunteer 2005"
Dear Editor, "I would like to thank all the magnificent volunteers whose hard work has helped to kick start the Year of the Volunteer 2005.
January was Health Month and across the country nearly 80 projects and events attracted new volunteers and helped raise the profile of volunteering in the health sector.
Young volunteers bored of watching "Trisha" were urged to get involved in hospital volunteering, GPs were called to make better use of volunteers in their surgeries and a major report called for health managers to recognise that volunteers have "more than good intentions" with unique skills to offer the sector.
It has been amazing to see volunteers take the initiative and organise successful projects in such a short period of time and I hope their good work will continue throughout the Year of the Volunteer and beyond. They are truly a dedicated bunch!"
David Wood, Chief Executive NAHCF, Lead Partner "Health Month" Year of the Volunteer 2005 www.yearofthevolunteer.org
FPB fury at Mersey tunnel toll hike
A LEADING business pressure group is reacting furiously to the announcement that drivers will have to pay an extra 10p every time they use the Mersey tunnels from 3 April 2005.
Forum of Private Business (FPB) National Chairman Len Collinson said small businesses on Merseyside would pay a heavy price for the eight per cent increase, the equivalent of an extra £50 a year for motorists using the tunnels on a daily basis. Light lorries will see their tolls increase by 30p a trip.
Len Collinson said:- "The little good news that van and HGV tolls are to reduce will be of
meager compensation as, for the vast majority of users, the toll is being hiked up. Merseytravel is displaying quite astonishing obduracy with its refusal to consider implementing a peak or off peak system, which is entirely reasonable and necessary. Moreover, it must not be forgotten the Mersey Tunnels Act, which gave Merseytravel the power to increase the toll charges, was rammed through Parliament against massive local opposition. Quite clearly, Merseytravel is treating public opinion with contempt. The truth is that Merseytravel is making enough cash from the tunnel tolls, a reported surplus of £12m based on the present charges, but is using that money to subsidise other failing transport services on Merseyside, which is disgraceful. The FPB restates its demand for Merseytravel to examine practical measures for reducing the tunnel toll pain on business."
Mr Collinson said the Mersey Tunnel tolls are among the most swinging
and rigid in the UK. "The Merseyside economy will suffer as a result of this tax increase. The Mersey Tunnel tolls are tax on jobs, on trade and on any business that relies on cross-river travel. There is no doubt this hike will also harm business investment. For small firms, increasing the toll is dangerous because they cannot absorb the increased operation costs in the way big businesses can. Small businesses are already having to cope with increased national insurance contributions, red tape and business rates. Another hike on the tunnel tolls really is the last thing employers need."
FPB member Grenville Jefferies of HE Rowlands and Co, a haulage firm in Garston, said the tunnel tolls should be reduced or abolished. He said:- "As far as I am aware, the tunnels should have paid for themselves by now. And I think it is appalling that Merseytravel is using tunnel toll cash to fund other transport projects. Something needs to be done to improve road access to Liverpool. At present, with the tunnel tolls and the congestion on the Runcorn-Widnes bridge, there is just obstacle upon obstacle in front of the motorist."
|
Letters to the editor
"Mobile Phone Masts"
DEAR Editor:- "Public Meeting in Formby on 17 Jan 2005 about health effects of Mobile Phone Masts. This Meeting was filmed for
"Tonight with Trevor McDonald" on Mon. Jan. 31 and was arranged by Debi Jones (Con. Parliamentary Candidate), but was intended as a non-party political meeting.
We were concerned to hear from Dr. G. Hyland from the Radiation Research Trust that it is not the heating element that is the problem (which is what the government keeps mentioning- saying there can be no problem with something that gives out the same amount of heat as a 50 watt light
bulb) - it's the frequency which can interfere with electrical systems in the human body.
There is very little research being done on this and what is being done is funded by the phone companies. Then if the results are not in their favour, they're inclined to lean on the researchers to massage the results.
He says it's generally considered that it's only a small percentage of the population that is "electro-sensitive"
but you may not discover whether you are affected or not until it's a bit late. In other words even if you don't notice any effects immediately can you be sure there won't be any long-term effects?
On the afternoon before the meeting, the ITV producer came to our house with a cameraman to take shots of the masts as seen from our back garden and of me talking to Debi Jones and Eileen O'Connor (who is very much involved with anti-mast campaigning and was on Vote for me on TV recently). She had breast cancer a few years ago while living near a mast and claims there were other similar cases near her home around the same time. Eileen O'Connor walked right round our house and garden with her
"accousticon" meter and reckoned we had radiation everywhere even in the front bedroom. The machine certainly made a lot of noise. It would be interesting to know how far that spreads.
The mast closest to us (it towers over our back garden) belongs to Vodaphone. They have told us in writing (before Christmas) that they do intend to "vacate the site" (they told a neighbour on
their phone that they couldn't get it going properly) but then they started a generator up and we assumed they were panicking, having seen so many applications turned down lately, that if they couldn't get this one going properly, they weren't going to be able to swap it to another site in Formby. It's a 3rd generation phone mast, by the way. The generator was switched off last Friday but was that because they found out that ITV were coming to film here on Monday ? We don't know.
But the Vodaphone mast will doubtless be replaced by something similar and there are 3 other masts on the site although two are screened by trees in the summer. We appreciate that masts have to be put somewhere but It is obvious that the presence of these masts will have affected the value of our houses even if they don't affect our health and we feel very much that we have been doubly sacrificed here for the common good."
Margaret and Colin Cooke, Formby
|
