Double standards over preserving woodlands
I WAS very interested to read a letter First Minister and Cardiff
West MS Mark Drakeford wrote to Cardiff planning department objecting to a housing development in Danescourt that would see the loss of important local woodland.
Mr Drakeford pointed to the need to retain as many green spaces as possible in our city. I couldn’t agree more.
Indeed, the two primary grounds of objection, the loss of woodland and the impact on local residents, are among those raised by campaigners in Whitchurch opposing the destruction of our Northern Meadows.
Located on opposite sides of the River Taff, only a few hundred yards separate the two threatened green spaces. Yet while Labour in Cardiff West is fighting to retain an important local amenity, Labour in Cardiff North is ignoring the local community’s efforts to save the Northern Meadows.
For the record, Plaid Cymru has always supported the development of a new world-leading cancer centre but Velindre’s questionable decision in 2015 to abandon their original development plans, which would have been completed by now, and switch location to the Meadows in a land speculation deal, has led to six wasted years and needless friction.
In addition, more than 160 cancer specialists have repeatedly made clear that the proposed centre would not be the world-leading facility South Wales desperately needs and have called for a rethink. If the principle of ‘following the science’ is essential for the pandemic, it’s surely also essential for cancer care. That is why an independent inquiry is needed – an inquiry Labour is refusing to establish. What are they trying to hide?
The people of Whitchurch and the people of Danescourt want the same thing – to preserve their threatened woodlands and green spaces – but the difference between the actions of Mark Drakeford and Julie Morgan is stark. This is shambolic double standards, pure and simple, and the people of Cardiff North are watching.
Ashley Drake,
Plaid Cymru candidate, Cardiff North
Move bus facility for safety’s sake
CURRENTLY, and quite rightly, there is concern for people’s safety, especially at night. With that in mind will consideration be given to moving the National Express facility situated on the murky depths of the approach road in Sophia Gardens? Dark enough by day, but quite frightening at night.
As this situation was caused by Cardiff council’s madness in flattening the Central Square Bus Station (which used to house the National Express facility until it was forced to relocate to Sophia Gardens) the council should feel obliged to offer National Express accommodation at its original location. Mission impossible? Not if some constructive thought is given to the idea.
Result? A facility centrally located, where it should be, and personal safety for everyone in that area.
Should I be holding my breath? Norman Rendle Rhiwbina, Cardiff
Vaccinations show Brexit saved lives
I MUST disagree with Andrew Nutt’s assertion that leaving the European Union was a regrettable choice (“Buyer’s regret sets in over Brexit”, Echo letters, March 19).
Had we still been there, the UK would have been barely able to have given more than the 20 million vaccinations that have been administered. Because we have been allowed to follow the “British” plan rather than that of our European friends, many lives will be saved as a result.
Paul Wilkins
Swansea
An independent inquiry is needed – an inquiry Labour is refusing to establish. What are they trying to hide?
Cummings thinks he has all the answers
Ashley Drake
IT WAS with not a little surprise that I saw on TV Mr Cummings giving his version of events during the pandemic to the science and technology committee.
One of his opinions – most of which I have regarded as extreme in the past – was that he felt that the Department of Health was a “smoking ruin”. Indeed, it may well have been that this department was not fit for purpose in the emergency that hit us, but, to call it a “smoking ruin” seems to be more than an exaggeration.
In life, I have sometimes come across apparently able people who sincerely believe they have all the answers and that the opinions of others count for nothing if they do not correspond with their own.
Mr Cummings, in my opinion, belongs to that category, and it would appear it is only a serious lack of judgment on the part of our PM which afforded him a trusted position in No 10.
GW Hopkins
Merthyr Tydfil
Wales is in need of a cancer strategy
I AM writing to you as the Chair of the Wales Cancer Alliance, a coalition of 20 leading cancer charities, to express our deep concern that Wales could be set to become the only UK nation without a cancer strategy.
This comes at a time when Welsh cancer services are more under pressure than ever before due to the coronavirus pandemic. Covid-19 has led to cancelled or delayed treatments and a growing backlog of people living with undiagnosed cancer.
Despite these challenges, the Welsh Government has replaced its 21-page Cancer Delivery Plan with a short quality statement of around three pages.
While the alliance welcomes the Welsh Government’s NHS Covid recovery plan, this plan covers the immediate recovery from the pandemic and does not have the longterm vision cancer services in Wales needs.
The Wales Cancer Alliance does not believe this is a sufficiently detailed response to the current crisis in cancer care, nor does it point to a sufficiently bold ambition for cancer services in Wales.
The last cancer plan set out an ambition for Wales to have the best cancer outcomes in Europe, which we were already some way off achieving before the pandemic.
Now is not the time to be without a cancer strategy.
The World Health Organisation
says every nation should have one.
We are urging the Welsh Government to reconsider and to commit to creating a detailed strategy which will help our cancer services to recover and give people with cancer in Wales the timely, personalised diagnosis and care they deserve.
Richard Pugh
Chair, Wales Cancer Alliance
Exports to EU will fall
RAY Jones is well wide of the mark when stating that 43% of EU exports come to the UK (Echo letters, March 20).
The figure is in fact 4%. The figure he quotes is actually the percentage of UK exports that went to the EU. This figure will, of course, greatly reduce this year as EU customers will prefer to avoid the paperwork and additional cost of buying from the UK by trading with companies in EU countries.
Sooner or later people like Mr Jones will realise the statements made by Johnson, Farage, Gove and their cohorts are lies. It is a shame that a few more people did not do so before June 2016 and amazing that they are still swallowing the lies. Alan Rumble
Ely, Cardiff
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