I think they’re a deliberate scheme in York, a cunning plan by successive councils to emulate the Lake District…our very own inland lakes, smaller and less pretty than the Lakes.
If it works for Cumbria, why not York? There’s potential here for another tourist attraction – York’s Puddle District. It could be another string to our bow in the ongoing quest for World Heritage Site recognition.
Which place in the UK could stake a claim to be the ‘Pothole Capital of Great Britain’? It could be York, thereby providing another reason for visiting. We must be streets ahead of most towns and cities in the pothole stakes. Open-top bus tours giving a bird’s eye view might prove popular.
Derek Reed, Middlethorpe Drive, York
Fix the leaky tap
You wake up to flooding in your home. Do you worry only about dealing with the mess or focus on the source of the problem and change the leaky tap washer?
People in countries like Afghanistan and Darfur are fleeing persecution, hunger, climate change, and war. No one wakes up thinking I’m bored, I know what, I’ll abandon my home, culture and family and walk to the UK because I love teacakes and the NHS.
Sunak’s government throws hundreds of millions erecting barricades (because after Brexit we no longer have common policies with our continent). Hundreds of millions more go on failing and nasty schemes to evict people to Rwanda.
What’s the alternative? How about spending those millions making lives safer in people’s home countries? For example, the UN Refugee Agency requested £250 million to cope with the refugee crisis in Chad (just half of what Sunak is giving Rwanda to take 200 deportees). In a year, the nations of the world have given Chad just £10 million.
Climate change and war are not going away. Tackling climate change and helping people to thrive in their own countries is not only morally right; it is in our own best interests.
Christian Vassie Blake Court, Wheldrake, York
Election bribes
Offering pensioners a tax cut is all very well but this pensioner would much prefer to see his GP within a week and not wait three, have the numerous potholes on local roads fixed, enjoy a direct bus service to local supermarkets and maybe even see an NHS dentist. Dream on.
Restoring local council and NHS services strikes me as much more important than a tax cut for pensioners. How strange this should be offered just before a General Election. No hint of an election bribe then?
Roger Backhouse, Orchard Road, Upper Poppleton, York
