Wirral News letters: November 24

Nov 24 2010 by Lorna Hughes, Birkenhead News

Why fix it if not broken?

SO WIRRAL Council is moaning again about having to make drastic cuts to their budget?

Perhaps they should take a look at their own highways/ streetscene department to see where the excessive expenditure is coming from.

I’ve noticed a tendency to replace street lights that aren’t even that old or indeed obsolete: The dock road junction by Duke Street bridge was a recent example, and now Liscard Village is seeing lots of new lighting columns suddenly replacing ones that aren’t even 30 years old.

There are several other locations too. What is the reason for this? Other than simply because they wanted to put up some fancy new lights?

ŠIt’s not as if any of these street lamps NEED replacing because they still work, surely... if it isn’t broke, why fix it?

ŠAnd yet there ARE many older 1950s concrete posts with sodium lamps all over the area’s main roads untouched. Why not a programme to replace theseŠlamps instead?

The criteria governing the replacement of street lighting on the Wirral indeed seems very muddled. Whatever, it's costing money – and it’s money that WBC can ill-afford if recent stories are to be believed.

I’ve already brought up the subject of all those pointless and useless cycle lanes, and the obsession with excessive light signals, railings and other street clutter, but surely, unnecessary street light replacement should also be on the agenda when it comes to making savings. Seems to me that the council doesn’t have any coherent plan to achieve this at all.

Simon Gray

Address supplied

Magnificent job

MANY thanks for printing the story which relates the opposition of the nursing staff to the proposed ward closures. Clatterbridge Hospital has an excellent reputation for its treatment of cancer patients.

It is also one of the few hospitals that test for MRSA and their surgery wards are therefore virtually free of this superbug. Keeping cancer patients in a relatively bug-free environment is vital as treatment with chemotherapy severely compromises the immune system. Any infection, let alone a superbug infection, can be fatal.

I was horrified therefore to read that all breast surgery was to be moved to Arrowe Park Hospital where rates of infection are higher than average and which is one of the worst performing hospital for C difficile. We should keep all related cancer services at Clatterbridge Hospital and make savings by reducing the salary of the administrators who came up with the planned breast surgery transfers and whose only concern appears to be cost cutting at the expense of the patients. Maybe a few redundancies at the top would solve the financial savings problem without any disturbance to the truly magnificent job currently done by the doctors and nurses of Clatterbridge Hospital.

Kathlyn Lewis

Via email

Sexist view?

I WOULD like to respond to Mr Barnett’s letter (Nov 3).

Yes, there are young mums with young children in Birkenhead. I am/was one of them. And a single parent. I have done everything possible to ensure my children have the best start; they are loved, supported, educated, encouraged, and thanks to tremendous support from college I am now studying for a degree.

I have every confidence my children will become doctors or engineers, if that is what makes them happy. I notice Mr Barnett didn’t mention absent fathers, who are largely responsible for the demanding circumstances young mums are often left to cope with. Sexist? Being the brain surgeon he clearly must be, I’m sure Mr Barnett is aware it takes two. Also, if everyone was a doctor or engineer, who would clean our hospitals and drive our buses?

G Astbury

Oxton

Faith restored

MAY I use your page to thank an anonymous person who restored my faith in humankind.

Whilst shopping in Tesco, Heswall, for my infirm mother on Friday November 12, I misplaced my bag. It contained every single card I own, £100-worth of euros, and over £200 in cash, including my mother’s pension. I was halfway back to Thingwall when I realised.

I really did not think I would be seeing it again. but I was so relieved and delighted to find a kind shopper had handed it in, untouched.

Thank-you from the heart.

Anne Parry

Caernarfon