Huge problem with bringing back trams

THE idea of re-introducing trams to Coventry (Dec 4) may seem like a good idea but the problem is that trams will need segregated road space which is already at a premium in the city and ignores the fact that our roads are in fact full and have no more traffic capacity.

Unless these trams can have new off-road corridors opened up for them, they will simply add to the already unacceptable congestion on our roads.

Once tram tracks are laid, they are immovable, and other traffic will have to be forced into tighter spaces. We have already seen that many of the bus lanes that were introduced in the early 2000s have been abandoned as they caused unacceptable congestion to other traffic.

Surely greener buses are a better solution? Buses are more flexible and their routes can be changed according to demand. Tram lines are fixed and permanent. We need to think again. Paul Blundell Whitley

Organised chaos of city’s car parks

THE people of Coventry do not need to go a see and a pantomime – they can see one free of charge at Corporation Street and West Orchards car park. On Saturday, December 1, after a long wait, I entered West Orchard car park at 1.30pm and the time I had to wait for a parking space after queuing on the ramp it was 2.20pm. Absolute chaos. Upon leaving the car park at 2.47pm I paid my £2 parking fee and then after 3pm actually left the car park only to find that the exit barrier had been left open – so no one had to pay. This information was not placed on the payment machines in the shopping complex. Generally it was organised chaos and I dread to think what it will be like on a Saturday nearer Christmas.

My suggestion is that the council sort it out or residents of Coventry do their shopping somewhere else. John Hesketh Bedworth

Sad irony in decline of Great British pub

ONE third of the city’s pubs have closed in the last decade (Dec 3) and many more are limping along on a shoe string.

It was not that long ago that the good old British pub was the hub of communities and a crucial part of our history and culture.

Ironically, Coventry will be the City of Culture in 2021 and by then no doubt more pubs will have called last orders.

In the build-up to City of Culture status, the council is frantically going all-out with its carefully stagemanaged charade in a desperate bid to convince all that we are worthy of this accolade. Yet they seem little concerned about the plight of our public houses, true bastions of British culture.

Sadly there are many reasons for the decline in pubs. Beer prices being one of them, the safety of walking to and from the pub after dark being another.

The infiltration of the drug culture and the unsavoury folk that drugs encourage. But then, many years ago, pubs were places where people communicated, debated, shared ideas and values. A place where collective minds forged and motivated a force for cultural change.

Call me a cynic, but I do believe there are some out there who for this very reason are happy to see the end of the Great British pub. Brian Nathan-Partridge Stivichall

Tuk tuk users will need instant access

I HAVE to agree with Councillor Mutton’s disappointment (Dec 4).

Introduce tuk tuks and “make Coventry more tourist friendly”. A good thought for 2021 City of Culture visitors. But pre-book? Where is the visitor friendliness in that?

Instant movement requires instant response. If the general feeling was that pre-booking won’t work, why vote for it?

It’s no good keeping a beady eye on the situation, by the time remedies are agreed, the visitors will have been and gone. Frank Harrison Coundon

Confiscate vehicles of speeding drivers

RECENT reports tell us that a man caught speeding five times in a £93,000 Range Rover now faces eight months in jail (Dec 1).

He was also fined and disqualified for 27 months. Perhaps it is time that the cars of speeding motorists were to be confiscated? Fred Foster Radford