Your letters on Lidl's Downham Market plans, King's Lynn's Queen Elizabeth Hospital, NW Norfolk MP James Wild and a weight loss success
Here are the letters from the January 24 edition of the Tuesday Lynn News...
People will shop there and not set foot in town centre
The letter from David Fleming supporting the application to build a fourth supermarket on farmland near Downham
requires a robust reply.
Mr Fleming’s letter focuses upon the one supermarket which has officially lodged an objection to the Lidl plans.
He pointedly avoids reference to the large Morrisons and Iceland which are already sited in Downham centre beside the Tesco store.
His letter clearly suggests that without the competition from Lidl the only option in Downham is Tesco... it isn’t!
He claims ‘market forces’ will bring competition and reduce prices and Tesco should stop whingeing.
I’m assuming David also wants the town centre bakers, butchers, pubs, restaurants, hardware stores, department store, florists, newsagents, drug store, coffee shops and all the other ‘independent’ stores to also stop whingeing about the loss of passing trade?
This Lidl proposal merely adds to Downham’s ‘doughnut’ development and while he sees this as a boon for the growing town he must also agree that capturing a significant proportion of potential in-town shoppers on the outskirts will unavoidably and inevitably reduce footfall in town and harm town centre businesses as these Lidl clients will load up with food, meat, bread, flowers and a newspaper and toddle off home without setting foot in town. The centre of every doughnut has nothing in the middle and while he touts the vision of our ‘growing’ market town, his support for this unnecessary and visually mundane edifice being plonked on the A10 roundabout is misguided and will inflict immeasurable and irreversible harm to the living centre of Downham.
Steve Mackinder
Denver
Extra money spent on NHS needs to go in right places
There has been some criticism wrongly directed at the National Health Service at large with a need of proportion applied in deliberations.
I am not a medical practitioner and I won’t profess expertise I do not have, but from my time spent as an inpatient there are peripheral issues which could be improved on from basic evaluation, as extra money spent on the NHS needs to be proportionately channelled. Here are some of my ideas for enhancement of a vital service.
It is wrong to point the finger of judgement at doctors and nurses for the current inertia, being up front and not in control of their destinies.
Its managers who make frontline medical staff do less work in some instances, (ie see fewer patients) based on ideology developed by non-specialists.
Too many clinics have been overlooked in pursuit of delusional administration efficiency, at the expense of patient interest.
Such practices are precursors to crisis management, the nerve centre of the problem in the NHS.
Operations in theatres with rigid time constraints should be allowed to finish late if there is an overrunning of duration.
Cancellations by office managers in these circumstances in accordance with the clock should be stopped in the
interests of health and patient morale, with current failed systems being attributed to bureaucrats, not surgeons.
The tried and trusted systems of diaries should return as computer systems have their shortcomings.
The most disposable posts are in the waste of diversity as the essence is in healing as opposed to PC proselytization. Meaningless scripts can be replaced, humans can’t. We can do without politicians weaponising the NHS for party gain at hustings.
The Queen Elizabeth Hospital which has treated my wife and I well in the past, is making a conscientious and concerted effort to address past problems much to its credit. It would be nice if other Trusts would have a clear run to prioritise without meddling from the ‘men in grey suits’. The campaign for a QEH II must go on.
David Fleming
Downham
Remember, our MP’s fate is in our own hands
Last week’s newspaper highlighted the state of a ‘them’ and ‘us’ situation within the UK. And, just a few weeks into a new year.
With disclosures that MP’s received personal donations and payments worth many thousands of pounds to the ‘lucky few’.
A far cry from the vast majority who are barely managing to get by on the very basics of life, in a cost of living crisis.
Especially those at the very bottom, existing on benefits only.
Let’s be clear, our members of parliament are well rewarded nd they receive a basic salary of £84,000.
Together with additional pension contributions and financial support for the running of MP’s constituency offices.
With regard to the special case of the infamous South West Norfolk MP Liz Truss, whose 44 days in 10 Downing Street, cost the taxpayer a whopping £164,000.
And then there’s Yarmouth’s Brandon Lewis. Yet another MP who has received donations and gifts.
Although, accepting personal donations from the Russian born wife of a former Russian government official, Vladimir Chernukhin, under President Vladimir Putin, has raised certain questions about Mr Lewis’ political judgment.
Indeed, this well documented Russian connection is now seen as even more politically embarrassing to Mr Lewis (and the Conservative Party) due to the ongoing Russian invasion of the Ukraine.
May I point out that politicians of all political parties, must remember (like it or not) they are public servants.
And, what they do, is usually reported in the local press, to shape our opinion when it matters most.
At every general election cycle – when the people’s fate is made known.
It is indisputable that the gap between our government of the day, and the governed (us), seems to increase every week. But our own MP’s fate is also in our own hands.
Therefore we must not forget to use that power wisely when exercising our civic duty.
Not just to benefit ourselves as individuals, but to share our wealth of knowledge with a wider community within our nation’s diverse constituencies.
Jim Mitchell
via email
Matthew did so well to lose all that weight
I just had to write to the Lynn News when I read the article about a former work colleague, Matthew Stannard.
What a lovely surprise it was to even read about this man who had successfully lost weight, but then to realise that it was indeed Matthew who I used to work with many years ago.
I never called him Matt, even though so many did. He was always Matthew to me.
I am so very proud of him for all the hard work he has done to lose the weight, and then succeeding.
Bless him, he had an awful battle with his weight. Some of the most sad times were when other work colleagues would be eating fish and chips with bread rolls, knowing these same colleagues would be having a large family meal at the end of the day.
Poor Matthew would say “do you know how much weight I would put on if I was eating like that every day?” So I do remember just how hard Matthew did try losing weight. So well done Matthew.
I was so very grateful to have worked with Matthew. He was so glad of his support. We were always able to have a good talk together.
So just in case you read this letter, well done Matthew again for hitting your target weight, and may I wish you great success in your slim future as you continue to maintain your very healthy weight.
I am sure your hard work and great success will encourage many other people of all ages, male and female alike.
Frances Payne
via email
