There’s been a shift of opinion on EU in Wales

NUMBER 10 has issued a statement to the effect that there is no question of a second referendum.

This means that there is to be no opportunity to express the shift in opinion in Wales, reflected in your report on the recent YouGov survey.

Pursuing this line of logic, are we to understand that Number 10 would favour abandoning general elections as an unnecessary opportunity for the electorate to change its mind and resort to a by-election only regime? ie you get the vote if your member resigns, is given the boot or dies.

Our Prime Minister does seem sometimes to react like a strict, Victorian governess, “You’ve made your choice, now take the consequences!”

As Home Secretary, she initiated the Windrush Generation scandal with her “hostile environment”, not to mention her willingness to pay a heavy price for unreliable support from Northern Ireland. Peter Bissmire Caerphilly

Plan a bypass to bypass the bypass

WE wait expectantly for a decision on the M4 Newport bypass. The danger to the environment likely to be caused by the new road is substantial and well argued, it is shameful that the Assembly appears to have forgotten its statutory responsibility to protect the environment.

The economic arguments simply don’t add up either.

Much has been made of the need for inward investment and the vital role of the new road.

This is the failed and discredited economic mantra of the 1960s and reflects the paucity of ideas coming from the Welsh Government. The big, footloose employers of the past simply no longer exist; to suggest that they do is the economics of make believe.

In fairness, with a view to the future and the removal of tolls, investment is indeed taking place – on the eastern side of the Severn bridges. Take a drive along the M49 and observe the amount of new building taking place, especially of distribution depots.

As part of this, a new junction – courtesy of Highways England - is already under construction to allow access.

The new M4 road and toll free bridge means that the whole of south and west Wales is within a one day HGV return journey – so why bother to set up anything in Wales?

There is another, simple issue that the proponents of the new road have ignored. It is a truism that roads simply create traffic, the more roads, the more traffic.

So a final question.

The new road will lead to increasing traffic volumes. The new road bypasses the existing M4.

Shall we start planning the bypass to bypass the bypass? Dr John Ball Penllergaer, Swansea

No solution to nuclear waste

I am grateful that Mark Drakeford appreciates the problems attached to nuclear energy.

It was always the half-life of plutonium-239 that scared me silly. plutonium-239 is created in nuclear reactors, which are needed to produce nuclear energy.

Half-life? Imagine you have 1,000 plutonium-239 isotopes. In 24,100 years which is its half-life, you will be left with 500 plutonium-239 Isotopes. And in 48,200 years you will be left with 250 plutonium-239 isotopes and in 72,300 years you will be left with 125 plutonium-239 isotopes.

You still have not got rid of your plutonium-239 isotope.

When I worked in the nuclear industry, the guidelines were that a pound of plutonium-239 inhaled as plutonium oxide dust could give cancer to two million people.

We have not found any solution for storing these isotopes that we can say with absolute certainty, will contain them safely for hundreds of thousands of years.

Concrete fractures, steel decays, tectonic plates move and mountains crumble.

We mustn’t leave future generations with these deadly problems. Helen Lloyd Jones C.Eng, M.I.Mech.E

Radyr, Cardiff

Are we to understand that Number 10 would favour abandoning general elections? Peter Bissmire Caerphilly

Do you remember Cambrian Dash?

AS the author of The Great Welsh Sprint - The story of the Welsh Powderhall Handicap 1903-1934, I am now researching the history of the Cambrian Dash an 80 yard foot-race held at Taff Vale Park in Pontypridd during or around the same time as the Welsh Powderhall Sprint which was a 110 yards handicap for professional athletes.

I would be pleased to hear from anyone who has any information, press cuttings, programmes, photographs, etc, and I can be contacted by e-mail at brianlee4@virginmedia.com or by telephone 029 2073 6438. Brian Lee

Cardiff

Can you help with my research?

I would appreciate very much if your readers could help me in my research for a presentation on the subject of the Brecon to Newport railway line that I have been asked to give to the Cardiff Transport Preservation Group at their meeting in Penarth in May 2019.

Coming from Cefn Fforest, Blackwood, Gwent, I have been living in Swindon for over 40 years. I did my early “train-spotting” at Pengam (Mon) station as a pre-teenager as well as other stations mainly in south Wales, travelled on the last southbound passenger train from Brecon on Saturday December 29 1962, although some freight traffic continued over some parts of that system.

Indeed I had the privilege of spending a few days in September 1965 with the crew of pannier tank 9675 in the vicinity of Pengam (Mon) station - then closed, of course.

For my presentation, I would very much appreciate any information photos (that readers are willing to scan copies for me or I can do that myself), anecdotes, relevant written material, sketches, lines drawings, maps, historical information etc.

Any reasonable costs I will consider and any of the above used will be acknowledged in (and at) the presentation.

Of course with such research that I am willing to do, I trust that other organisations might be interested in the subject matter.

I am also in the initial stages of researching for a presentation with the title By Super D To Barry Island. This will be about the seaside specials that once went from Brymawr/ Nantybwch to Barry Island via the Sirhowy Valley, Ystrad Mynach, Walnut Tree Viaduct and Wenvoe.

Any similar information etc about these trains will also be appreciated.

I await replies with anticipation, Ken Mumford Swindon ken.mumford@ntlworld.com

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