Overflowing skips are making city look untidy

IF people are fined for dropping litter (and so they should be) why can’t skip firms be fined for leaving overflowing skips for weeks on end?

On Cannon Park estate at this present time, we have three overflowing skips within 50 yards of the road they have been put on.

One has been there for a month and it has also been dropped on a grass verge which, when it is eventually collected, will leave a large patch of dead grass.

Do these skip firms have that many skips that they don’t need to collect the unsightly, overflowing ones? We hear so much about Coventry’s bid to be a city of culture – maybe a city of rubbish would be a better description. Margaret Wall Cannon Park

Struggling to get NHS nursing job

THERE have been plenty of stories over the alleged shortage of nurses in the UK. My brother is a decorated army nurse who has a master’s degree and returned to the UK nearly three years ago. He applied for registration with the UK’s Nursing & Midwifery Council. He was told that if he could get clearance from the last country he worked in as a nurse – New Zealand – he would get his UK registration and PIN. This would allow him to practise throughout the country. He provided the UK Nursing & Midwifery Council with that information. However, over the past three years, the council has demanded more and more information. This even includes police and nursing council clearance from a country that he has never worked in. In some cases he has sent the council three copies! Local MP Jim Cunningham has tried to get the Minister of Health to intervene.

Yet there are nurses who come to the UK for jobs assessing whether disabled people are entitled to keep their benefits. I understand they are told they will get UK registration if they hit their targets. Incidentally, two-thirds of decisions to strip disabled people of benefits are overturned in the courts.

There is no clearer case for the Minister and the Parliamentary Select Committee on Health to intervene, not least to ensure my brother has his UK registration and PIN. Yet all we hear is silence! Chris Youett Earlsdon

Flu jab message is so important

IT IS important that televisions screen commercials for the flu jabs this autumn to protect people.

The take-up last winter for those over 65 was only 70 per cent, which was very poor. Ian Harris Radford

Tackle speeding for fewer accidents

I HAVE noticed an increase in motor accidents, many due to speeding.

The standard of driving has deteriorated in recent years. Speed contributes largely to accidents. Heavier fines or other sanctions should be applied to speeding. NP Kane Walsgrave