Overgown verges a complete shambles

WHAT on earth do visitors to this city think when they travel in by road?

The roadsides and verges are a complete shambles everywhere you look with overgrown grass and litter. Apart from this disgrace, the Sowe Valley public footpath is so overgrown it is now only possible to walk single file, you cannot see who is coming, if it’s people with dogs there is no where to move out of the way. Parts of the walk, the path is no more than a donkey track with rose bushes hanging across the paths.

It is practically impossible for anyone with a pushchair and it is a good job most cyclists wear a helmet to save them from head injuries as tree branches are hanging that low. In fact what was once a lovely walk is downright dangerous, with nettles stinging you. I understand there have also been men exposing themselves and schoolchildren use this walk.

May i suggest the council spend more on a decent workforce for this city instead of running round after students, and make the roads a welcoming sight instead of the shambolic mess it all is now. Gill Gates Wyken

Amazing recovery of venus flytrap

IN April 2017 we bought a solitary venus flytrap plant for the TLC bench at a local nursery. It cost a pound. We took it home and planted it on a bed of sphagnum moss. It grew and a few days later sent out some tiny side shoots. These developed into full plants and they continued to grow. This year they have surpassed themselves and have proliferated considerably. The most interesting feature though is the flower spikes they have shot up. There are nine of these, each with a single flower head except for one which has 11 mini-spikes which I think is unusual. M T Hancock Wyken

Online shopping is causing damage

WITH many more household retail names either closing or having to drastically restructure the manner in which they trade, the high streets of our towns and cities will never regain their former popularity.

Most of us are guilty of helping with this decline as we turn to the internet to purchase items that stores either do not have in stock, or in my case when purchasing obscure books, do not even exist on their computer systems.

There is another side effect of these changes in our habits. Air pollution and congestion on our roads is increasing at an alarming rate and this is partly driven by the boom in internet shopping.

Heavy goods vehicles still supply our stores but an increasing number travel around the country suppling distribution centres for online companies. Coventry and Rugby alone are surrounded by hundreds of these centres.

When our orders have been facilitated (that appears to be the new buzz word) they are carried by a vast army of vans to our homes. Some packages are no larger than an envelope. Since retiring I have noticed a continuous parade of vans around our streets. Yesterday a van parked and left his engine running while he sorted through his load. Once he had selected the parcels the driver left the van door open and the engine running while he walked up the road to the delivery addresses. If an item is not required it is even possible to arrange for a courier to pick up unwanted goods to return to the supplier, adding to the congestion and pollution.

Things will never revert to how they were in pre-internet days, but our new way of shopping is having consequences that could never have been foreseen. Bill Sutton Chapelfields

Bank Holiday is a privilege not a right

THE House of Commons passed the Bank Holiday Act in 1871 (May 25).

Shame that this was never a right, but just a privilege for many workers.

Some workers get these extra days off work, any others do not have that option. Fred Foster Radford