Truly amazing total raised for hospice
IT was a real privilege and honour to be chosen as one of the contestants for the Strictly Christmas 2018 in aid of Zoe’s Place Baby Hospice. I joined 22 novice dancers and over ten weeks we were put through our paces to learn the quick step and the cha-cha-cha. Last Friday and Saturday night, we put on a show to over 600 people where we were able to showcase our new talents. Well over 60 volunteers were involved in putting this together and hours of time in ensuring that this event went smoothly. We started out as a group from various backgrounds who came together with a common goal – to raise funds for Zoë’s Place and learn a new skill. Over the weeks we bonded, friendships were formed and we came together as a team and delivered two fantastic performances. What was truly wonderful about this experience was that no one was in this for themselves; they were in it for the team. The total raised so far for this event stands at £85,000, a truly amazing amount. I want to say a huge thank you to everyone that was involved in this event and to the many individuals and companies who supported this. Finally to everyone that sponsored us and enabled us raise this amount. There is nothing better than seeing people volunteer and give so generously for such a fantastic local charity. Councillor Julia Lepoidevin (Con) Woodlands ward
£10 charge would boost city coffers
IT is nice to see that the council recognise that the Godiva Festival should be contributing something into the council’s coffers, but what an unbelievable way of going about it. Do the people responsible for these decisions ever think of the knock on effects of their ideas?
This year, 2018, the traffic arrangements worked very well with very little disruption to the normal traffic patterns, mind you I am sure that the attendance was lower than usual. What do you think will happen when there is a sensible charge for parking? Every bit of spare ground and verges will be taken by people trying to avoid the charge. There will bound to be queues of traffic wanting to access the park due to the delays caused by the collection of the parking fee. Has nobody thought of these consequences of what at first sight is not a bad idea?
Now the sensible alternative. Charge every one of the multiple thousands of people we are told attend the festival £10 and you will have made a very great contribution to the city’s income and still give the attendees extremely good value for their money. I personally believe the festival is well appreciated by the people attending. Why not exploit this to the benefit of the citizens of Coventry?
Whilst on the same theme, why are we, the council taxpayers, expected to pay for the moving of the Coventry Cross, which is being moved for the benefit of a commercial enterprise? Dave Atkin Styvechale
Mystery of EU and British car industry
THOSE of us who thought the British car industry failed simply because British cars sold in the US, Canada and elsewhere were becoming well-known for lack of reliability were wrong.
Our big mistake was in thinking that, for reasons too numerous to go into here, the cars being exported were just incapable of competing in quality and reliability with models being manufactured elsewhere in the world.
We now have it on good authority (Dec 13) that it’s our EU membership that’s gummed up the works. The writer does not gives any explanation of how the EU managed this neat trick.
Was it by tampering with the goods after they were manufactured? Was it by telling customers that the product was worse than it actually was? How did the EU conspire so successfully without anybody noticing?
Mind you, the writer does not have to give reasons. He knows only too well that at present he can attribute almost every evil that has befallen this country to membership of the EU without having to produce one shred of evidence for his doing so and his assertions will be taken seriously. Nothing betters a good conspiracy theory, does it? Kevin Cryan Radford
Let’s have a fair EU debate please
WHY doesn’t John Reynolds (Dec 13) want to hear the Bank of England’s best predictions for Brexit?
We’ve heard their worst predictions, so in the interest of balance, shouldn’t we hear both sides?
Similarly, although we’ve been repeatedly told the ten-year consequences of leaving the EU, we’ve never been told the ten-year consequences of staying in. Why is that? What are the EU’s plans?
Does Mr Reynolds, or anyone else, have any idea?
If we are to have a second referendum, we need to know – or people voting to stay in would simply be voting for a pig in a poke.
For all Mr Reynolds knows, staying in could turn out to be the worst of the options.
Let’s have a fair debate, not one-sided remainer propaganda. N Blackford Coundon