‘Parking pirates’ and scandal of their DVLA deal

YOUR front page on Thursday highlighted the abuses by private parking operators. Your editorial ends: ‘Shouldn’t the government protect drivers from unfair punishment — not reward the egregious cynicism of the parking pirates?’

I have previously raised this question with my MP and was astonished to learn from him that Parliament did a (shoddy, in my view) deal with the private parking industry some years ago to allow them to pay the DVlA for details of vehicle owners as a trade-off for the parking firms to stop using clamps.

The DVlC, as it was then, was originally set up as a government department to keep records of vehicles and drivers. Access to its records was originally allowed only to police and other lawenforcement agencies, e.g. local authorities, but never to private individuals or firms.

Why not now stop that access by private companies to drivers’ records? It would transfer the onus to operators to employ staff, barriers and whatever else it takes to collect money at the time of an alleged parking offence, instead of relying on cameras and the scandalous access to DVlA records to make money.

CHRIS BOND, Poole, Dorset.

Border truth

EDDIE BARNES’S excellent article ( Mail) demonstrates the inconvenient truths that

Nicola Sturgeon chooses to ignore while clamouring for an independent Scotland.

Do a majority of Scots really want a hard border with England, with every car, lorry and train having to be stopped and searched when crossing into England?

Nicola Sturgeon claims the Common Travel Area which operates across the Irish border would be duplicated. her problem is that she also wants to join the EU and embrace free movement of labour. Even a simpleton can foresee that Scotland would become a back door for entry into the remaining

part of the UK in a way that cannot happen in Ireland and that a hard border would be required. This is just one of many reasons Scottish independence will not work. Potential SNP voters be aware! CHRIS KING, Chichester, W. Sussex.

Rampant red tape

REgARDINg Dr Max Pemberton’s article on the NhS and its ‘swollen, sclerotic strata of middlemanagers’, the over-management of the NhS has been going on for decades and was obvious at the time I was employed by them in a clerical role in the late 1980s and 1990s.

The saying ‘too many cooks spoil the broth’ comes to mind.

It must also be extremely frustrating for doctors, nurses and other personnel caught up in having to tick myriad boxes, instead of getting on with the job for which they signed up.

Sadly, most of us are painfully aware it’s not only the NhS but other public services suffering from the stranglehold of red tape.

VAL THOMAS, Eastbourne. FOllOWINg the announcement that NhS nurses had voted to go on strike, Dr Max Pemberton wrote an excellent article on alternative ways to incentivise new recruits to the service, including the cancellation of their student loans, plus a minimum of six years’ service after qualifying.

This, he argued, would resolve the staff shortages that have led to the long hours and stress for which the nurses feel they are underpaid, and to their demand for a pay increase that we cannot afford. his suggestions should be adopted by the government.

J. HALL, St Leonards-on-Sea.

Santé the French way

hOW right Jonathan Miller is when he points out why the French are much better at controlling their use of alcohol, having been taught from childhood the way to do this.

Maybe the most important factor is that, in France, alcohol is drunk always with food. But sadly, here in the UK, people do not learn this lesson. having had a half-French father, we were given alcohol throughout childhood — first wine with water then, as we grew older, without.

By the time I was in my late teens, I was appalled how easily my friends became drunk while I always remained reasonably sober. At college I was invited out on male stag nights as the boys could rely on me to stay sober and get them home safely.

I have had total control of alcohol over 74 years, never drinking without eating or at least consuming a pint of milk before I went out.

LIZ OWEN, Gillingham, Dorset.

Swiss smokescreen

DON’T be fooled by the denials about a Swiss-type arrangement, being sought by the government. This is to gauge public reaction.

hunt and Sunak, have ‘flatlined’ the economy. It won’t be long before we are hearing that the best way to grow the economy is to join the EU free market.

D. J. WHITE, Basingstoke, Hants.