YEP Letters: November 28

Hospital parking fees should stay

Barbara Woolley, Barkston Ash

SHOULD hospital parking fees be abolished? No they should not – free parking would be abused. Then patients wouldn’t be able to park for appointments.

No one is too poor if they are running a car to pay for parking. And the fees are so small compared with free medical treatment.

My husband and I have had approximately £70-80,000 worth of procedures, including cancer treatment, for which we had a free parking pass. Plus there are ongoing check-ups, scans and medication all for free.

The only thing patients see written in hard cash are car parking fees and if this money goes into hospital coffers all the better for patients – more care.

Leeds ‘let down’ by City of Culture decision

James Bovington, Leeds 18

I believe in being even-handed and thought that some of your readers might be interested in the letter that I am sending to the EU Commission as follows:

‘I write to you as one who has consistently championed UK engagement in the EU and who is absolutely devastated at the dystopian nightmare cultural desert future that my fellow citizens have apparently chosen by embracing the strident lies of those who want to leave the EU.

I am a former Chair of Leeds in Europe and my commitment to Britain not just remaining in Europe but taking a leading role therein is both sincere and long-lasting. Hence I campaigned tirelessly for this country to join the Eurozone and subsequently to remain in the EU. I am not ashamed to say that on the morning of June 24, 2016 I shed tears along with some of my older students who were grief-stricken at that fact that their fellow citizens, including in many cases their grandparents, had robbed them of their European future.

So these are my pro-EU credentials. This week Juncker and his team have dealt pro-Europeans like me a body blow by the unfair high-handed and spiteful manner in which the candidacy of the UK cities for the 2023 capital of culture have been summarily dismissed. The way in which this has been done will only strengthen the case of those who want to cut all ties including the cultural.

I understand the pedantic bureaucratic reasoning behind this decision but it is unfair to punish cities like Leeds, which voted Remain, and which have so much to give in building a pan-European future. I know that the UK has not always been an easy partner but the vast majority of our citizens – over 62 per cent – did not vote for the lies of the leavers and Leeds voted Remain.

Talk about an own goal. The Leave campaign couldn’t have done a better job. I and other remainers who want to see this country change its mind and reverse the monumental error of June 23 will feel really let down by this decision. Perhaps the truth is that the leavers are correct and you just don’t want us after all, in which case the 30 years that I have put into trying to bring young Europeans together really have been a waste of time?’

Focus on needs of city residents

Martin J Phillips, Leeds 16

I think it is fortunate that Leeds has found out early that they would be wasting their time (and taxpayers money) to pursue the City of Culture bid for 2023. Anyone with an iota 
of common sense knew right from the start that Leeds hadn’t got a cat-in-hell’s chance of winning.

The first place visitors would aim for is the tourist information centre to get information about what is on and how to get there.

To get there they would have to walk from the bus or railway station. Then they would have to go (back) to bus station as the tourist information centre does not have any information about public transport.

Once they realise how dreadful public transport is in Leeds, they would be on the next train/bus/plane home! (it took the bus over two hours to get from Leeds to Cookridge on Thursday afternoon).