Thank you for backing during the Festival

✒ TO the racing community: quite simply, thank you! The Festival at Cheltenham was run in support of Wellchild, thanks to a groundbreaking partnership created by The Jockey Club and supported by thousands of people from across the racing community.

Like so many of you, I watched the outstanding Festival coverage on ITV which, through host and Wellchild ambassador Ed Chamberlin, along with fellow ambassadors Oli Bell and Sir AP Mccoy and the whole team, allowed the Wellchild message to reach millions of people around the world.

Ed, the team at The Jockey Club, and others close to Wellchild had told us in the build-up to The Festival just how generous and warm the racing community is, but even that didn’t prepare us for the overwhelming response we have had over the past few days and weeks – an incredible and muchneeded boost at such an important time.

Wellchild is a voluntary-funded charity based in Cheltenham. We work across the UK with some of the country’s most seriously ill children and young people.

Like so many other organisations, the Covid-19 pandemic hit us hard, threatening more than 60 per cent of our regular income and creating unprecedented demand from families caring for children with exceptional health needs.

A remarkable number of people have reached out in the past week, and we are close to £200,000 already raised from The Festival partnership (and counting) – all of which will go towards the support services we have in place for some of the most vulnerable.

From everyone at Wellchild, we can’t thank the racing community enough for coming together to support us in this way and making such an incredible impact for thousands of families. The legacy of this partnership will last for many years to come.

Colin Dyer Chief Executive, Wellchild ✒ OUR Prime Minister has reportedly lauded capitalism and greed as behind the success of the UK vaccine.

Many people acknowledge that Boris Johnson is someone who has difficulty distinguishing between truth and lie, but his latest remarks suggest he has now adopted capitalist ‘principles,’ rather than the unprincipled self-promoting opportunist we’ve seen so far.

However, the idea that capitalism has been useful in relation to Covid-19 is utter nonsense.

Johnson’s capitalism claims are just absurd

For example, Kerala state in south India has a strongly socialist government and has also been suffering from Covid.

It has minimal financial resources, but has used them effectively to test, trace and isolate cases, to monitor closely all those infected so treatment can be provided quickly if conditions worsen, and now that the vaccine is

available, is carrying out the vaccination at minimal cost.

Kerala’s population is just over half the UK’S and to date has had around 4,500 Covid deaths compared to around 125,000 in the UK. If we look at the performance of other strongly capitalist governments like the US and Brazil, and compare to communist Cuba and China, the deaths total around 850,000 to around 5,000 respectively.

The idea that capitalism, or corporate greed, has helped the public in capitalist countries during the Covid pandemic is simply absurd, and is another blatant lie from Boris Johnson. Frank Chacko Cheltenham

Roadside litter is such an eyesore in county

I AM trying to raise awareness of the amount of litter that exists along roadsides in Gloucestershire, especially between Gloucester, Cheltenham, Tewkesbury and Evesham.

This is something that has been increasing significantly over the past three years, to the degree that you feel as though you are driving through a rubbish tip, not very welcoming to the area or the Cotswolds.

I understand there are roadworks being undertaken, but there is no excuse for the widespread amount along these routes. The M5 Tewkesbury turn-off is a particularly bad area that has had no attempts made at cleaning the litter in the past four years. It’s an absolute eyesore for anyone travelling through the area.

Mr C

Why wait until 2023 to bring uni to the city?

BRINGING the University of Gloucestershire into the city centre for the first time will be of huge benefit to footfall and to retailers, as well as to the many fledgling cafes and restaurants which were popping up before the pandemic began.

But could the scheme happen more quickly than 2023, the date announced on March 18?

University funding might also be saved if the basic shell of the Debenhams building and its floors were kept in use, but if customer toilets were updated.

Open floor areas would be partitioned off with soundproof walls for lectures and workspaces.

Lifts would be refurbished with emergency power units to become more fully inclusive for all students and staff, including those with disabilities.

For student security, additional public use might best be limited to the main street frontages.

Why not a scheme, as in Paris, for the city to subsidise a string of small shop start-ups around the outside of the building?

Peter Monk Newnham