New skills needed to restore old buildings
STEVE Robson has struck a chord with his piece on the demolished buildings in Manchester’s Northern Quarter.
However, I do feel that the blame should lie on all of us in construction, and beyond.
We’ve trained an army to build for the future and produce houses and apartments as if we are on a factory floor. It takes a certain type of skill set to lovingly restore an old building (I know, having done this numerous times). And companies like mine that are in the middle ground get squeezed by the government, councils, developers, banks, health and safety officers, and support is shamefully thin.
If you want to support historic buildings support the labourers, carpenters, plumbers, sparkys and all those small traders who can train the next generation. Support the local businesses.
And as for Salboy, they seem to be providing a housing solution that’s much needed in an area that will support the economy.
David Nike
We need to have bikes
WHAT a crazy and selfish world we live in. Phil Meakin writes: “I find it embarrassing that Mobikes find it necessary to pull out due to theft and vandalism... Manchester is fast getting a reputation of petty crime, more needs to be done...”
Then Jennifer Jamieson writes: “I would like to say how happy I am to hear the orange bikes have been removed. They were a pest on the street.” (Viewpoints, September 13)
Maybe they were a pest – if ridden by idiots and drug addicts that is. But, a far bigger pest is surely lawless drivers, and those that park on footpaths forcing people with disability dogs, wheelchairs, mobility scooters and prams into the road, i.e. into the ‘firing-line’ of potentially lethal missiles.
The worst of it is, a significant number of lawless drivers, and pavement-parkers, aren’t idiots and drug addicts. How can idiots/drug addicts buy cars which are less than five years old, and personal registrations on a zero hours contract or pension credits?
How many people MUST cycle to work, to save money to feed their kids? Haven’t we a war, both on our roads and against poverty?
What might Jennifer Jamieson do when it becomes a university town?
Oxford already has 1,300 ‘dockless bikes,’ with Pony Bikes and Mobike, both intending to expand there. And, more people cycle at least three times a week in Cambridge than in any other UK local authority.
Name and address supplied
Give Kirsty more airtime
IT was beyond belief that the BBC derided to replace Kirsty Wark at the Edinburgh Fringe this year with unfunny man Mish Kumar.
Kirsty is the best presenter the BBC have got and has for years been the ‘face’ of the Fringe.
The only way that the BBC can make it up to her is to give her the job as the new Radio Two breakfast presenter when Chris Evans leaves in a few months time.
She would be brilliant on it.
Milly, Denton
Use foreign aid cash here
MY heart goes out to the parents of Kayden Urmston-Bancroft (How a hospital’s neglect contributed to the death of a toddler, M.E.N., September 6). This is unforgivable. This is not the fault of our precious and hard-working doctors and nurses, but the politicians. The giving of £14bn in foreign aid is ridiculous. Nobody can be right all the time, but somebody should start to think about us and not everyone else in the world.
We are a wonderful country with wonderful people, a small island with great pride and tenacity, determination and spirit and generosity who seem to be going down the drain.
G B Norris, Manchester
Not everyone can afford it
‘We want to be accessible to everybody’ said chef Simon Martin in the article about his new Ancoats restaurant, Mana (M.E.N. September 6). At £95 a head - really?
Madeline Glancy, Prestwich