Sickened by parking charges for NHS staff
I WORK in mental health at various hospitals, of which only one is free to park.
It’s been suggested without parking fees the maintenance of the car parks would suffer – seriously?
What maintenance? It has also been suggested that ‘it just a job’ and getting the bus to work wouldn’t be free but, guess what, neither is running a car – and bus users don’t have to pay an additional cost unlike drivers with parking.
As for other areas of the NHS to cover free parking, please, don’t make me laugh. The only cost to the car parking firms is the wages of the ticket officers who, by the way, are probably on more money than me! Dot Platt, via email
No evidence of planning
ANYBODY travelling into Manchester by road from the south or west must be asking themselves what kind of qualifications are needed – ‘a diploma in forward planning’ is not one they need to work in the highways planning department, clearly.
They are creating the road chaos that we, the road users, are having to endure getting into Manchester each day.
What we are having to contend with cannot have been planned, unless somebody in the highways planning department has a warped sense of humour.
How any planner did not see what would happen is beyond comprehension .
The cost to Manchester must be immense – travelling time, lost driving hours, missed appointments, emergency services delayed, public transport delays, lost earnings – the list is endless. FDM, A frustrated business owner
Motorway is not so smart
LAST Tuesday afternoon, I used the smart motorway for the first time coming up the M60 from Ashton and Oldham to join the motorway to go west on Whitefield.
The queue started at the Middleton junction to turn left at the next junction – not so smart.
This had never happened before in the past, we just drove straight onto the smart motorway when it was being worked on and ran along at 50mph. This time when we did eventually get onto the smart motorway there was a 60mph speed limit but we could only do 10mph.
Motorists who go over the speed limit have to pay a fine. So why not pay back motorists who cannot reach the speed limit £1 per mile, per hour – now that would be smart.
The smart people would probably say that this was due to a vehicle breaking down further ahead and causing an accident because there is no hard shoulder.
It was a relief to get off the motorway at Whitefield and drive on normal roads where one could at least drive at 30mph. ‘Smart observer’ Manchester
Great town is a sad show
MILLIONS of pounds on four or five new builds.
The 60’s precinct could have been fabulous, but is now dying a death.
And now the great viaduct is covered in trees and plants and no one seems to care. This is resulting in falling debris, and yet more claims and more excuses for train delays.
This great historical town of Stockport should be a wonder of Greater Manchester, with all its historical attributes. One just wonders who’s running this sad show.
Very disappointed. Chris Entwisle, via email
A charge to clean up act
AS A healthy, middle-aged nonsmoker with a good diet, exercise regime and minimal alcohol intake, breathing in air pollution on my 45 minute cycle to work is the highest environmental risk in my life.
It is fundamentally unjust that I have to subsidise other people’s lifestyle choices through damage to my health. Breathing in is not a lifestyle choice. Dying of the effects of air pollution is not a lifestyle choice, either. Driving a car is a lifestyle choice.
Yes, to protecting disadvantaged people, but the poorest workers do not get to work by car – they walk, cycle or take the bus.
If charging polluting cars will clean up the air we all have to breathe in day in day out and save lives, let’s do it.
We can use the money to clean up our bus fleet and hand out free bus passes to those people who are disadvantaged, as well as low income workers. Gudrun Stummer, Manchester