Provide more funding for our urban parks
From: Dave Ellis, Magdalen Lane, Hedon.
I agree with The Yorkshire Post’s plea for the Government to give more funding to run our 15 National Parks in Britain.
But I would go further with the Government providing ‘ringfenced’ funding for the development and maintenance of Britain’s urban parks, which are the ‘green lungs’ in our towns and cities.
This could reduce the reliance on the NHS as parks are therapeutic in every sense of the word.
Councils up and down the country ‘undervalue’ the benefits that green parks give to its residents living in walking distance of a park.
Parks are essential for our wellbeing as the wildlife which they attract, from insects, field mice, birds and foxes help us switch off for a short while from the pressures of modern living. The harmony of colours from the flowers, seed heads, foliage and bark helps us to relax.
Green parks, if they are designed with perpetual plantings of trees, shrubs and herbaceous perennials are not expensive to maintain.
Techniques like differential mowing of grass saves costs and adds character to the landscapes with some grasses which are cut short to others left to flower.
Initiatives like Green flag awards, organised by the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) for the best parks in the UK, region by region, which are loved by the communities and are maintained to a high standard by paid staff and increasingly unpaid volunteers, add to the quality of life for those who live near them and, what’s more, the Halifax Bank says that living near a park can increase the value of your home.
As a resident of the East Riding of Yorkshire, I would like to see the Yorkshire Wolds be reclassified from an area of outstanding natural beauty (AONB) to the 16th National Park in Great Britain.
The undulating areas around Thixendale are, in my opinion, as good to visit as those in the Yorkshire Dales or the Peak District in South Yorkshire and Derbyshire.
From: MK O’Sullivan Victoria Street, Allerton Bywater, Castleford.
Letters from Yorkshire Water have gone out to water users advising of price rises, one of many under this Conservative government. Thames Water and its problems have recently been aired so much, including the demand to be allowed to raise customer bills by 40 per cent. How soon will Yorkshire Water follow? Be sure that they will.
Last year, the boss of Yorkshire Water announced that she would not take a bonus, big deal, she clearly thinks we are mugs to be taken in. How about previous large bonuses?
Yorkshire Water has for years paid millions in dividends, money which could have been invested in updating and improving the water supply system. You might ask after so many sewage discharges in rivers and the sea, what have the Conservative government done about this? Nothing.
If Labour win the coming election and Rachel Reeves becomes Chancellor how would she react to demands from Yorkshire Water and the other water companies for any proposed large increases in user bills? I hope that she might have a different view compared to the supine Tories. I wonder how many of them are water company shareholders.