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Our readers from across the borough give their weekly take on the biggest issues impacting Gedling and beyond.

Join the debate by sending your letter to letters@gedlingeye.co.uk . Please put ‘Letters’ in the subject line. You can also submit a letter by filling in the simple form below, and it may appear online.

Some letters refer to past correspondence which can be found by clicking HERE

Names and addresses will be withheld by request but must be included in the email. We reserve the right to edit letters. Letters published do not reflect the views of Gedling Eye

Give free bus travel to pupils and not pensioners

Sir,

I think we can all agree that gone are the days when children were able to walk around the corner to their school.

Many schools have been closed, families live in sprawling new estates, miles from the nearest school and other children live in remote rural areas.

When they arrive at school, children need to be fresh and alert, not soaked to the skin, frozen to the marrow, buffeted by the gales, suffering from heat exhaustion or simply knackered.

Unless a school is within reasonable distance of a child’s home, that child should be able to access vehicular transport. There is plenty of opportunity for exercise whilst at school or at home.

I benefited from free school transport throughout my time at school.

Children deserve the best we can give them. If the county needs to save money, it should cease the ridiculous practice of giving bus passes to old fogeys who do not need to be gadding about all the time.

It has a duty to invest in young people. The future of the country depends on them.

Ron Lim,
Carlton

Carlton cash should be spent on youngsters

Sir,

The Carlton I live in today compared to the Carlton I moved to from Mapperley as a young teenager almost 40 years ago has changed significantly.  And being a mother to six sons between the ages of 12 to 33 whilst remaining within the local area I feel I should voice my opinion .

It is disappointing to read repeatedly money should be spent towards improving Carlton Hill and Carlton Square to improve our shopping facilities and adding more green space. What about improving the younger generations’ quality of life?  There are far too many locals quick to comment on their wrongdoings and being far to quick to judge their parents but I’m sorry if others don’t agree with me when I say it’s not the parents who are to blame for letting the children down it’s the local authority we should be pointing our finger at for their ignorance to acknowledge the younger generation.

They need public facilities such as youth clubs and hubs that offer a vast variety of opportunities for the 11-17 year old other then football and sport.  They need to be offering taster sessions in construction, painting and decorating, mechanics via local workshops for the 14-plus age group who are not very academic at school and the children that are struggling socially and are more vulnerable to isolation and exploitation by gangs and older people, which sadly is becoming more of a regular occurrence year by year.  

By doing the above and much more funded with the 20 million allocated, we now have the opportunity to turn things around for the better before it’s too late and there is no chance of being able to rectify this.

Tanya Oldham,
via email

UK knife crime out of control

Knife crime is to the UK what mass shootings are to the USA.

Barely a day goes by without news of yet another teenager being stabbed to death or wounded – sadly, all to often by another teenager.

Our lawmakers must stop pussyfooting around the issue and enact draconian legislation to put an end to this senselessness.

Firstly, make the carrying of a bladed weapon punishable with an automatic minimum of six months behind bars – no ‘warnings’ for a first offence, no appeal, no opportunity for early release and no withholding of offenders’ names – however young they may be.

If the knife was used in a crime, the mandatory, automatic minimum sentence would be five years again, with no chance of appeal or early release.

Much has been made of the fact that in the UK we have recently enacted online safety laws, so let’s start enforcing them. Any e-commerce website or social media website that allows bladed weapons, or weapons of any kind, to be offered for sale – or even featured – must be hit with, in the first instance a minimum fine of £5 million.

We like to think of ourselves as a civilised country. Sadly that is not the case anymore.

G Thomas,
Arnold

More prefabs could help solve our housing crisis

Sir,

I understand the public concern over housing directly, as my son has two adult children still living at home and he and my daughter-in-law will soon be retiring themselves.

The costs of purchasing a home are prohibitive, to say the least.

But is it right to allow private companies to make huge profits leasing thousands of homes for immigrants?

After the war and because of so many homes being destroyed by bombing, a quick and supposedly ‘short term’ answer was to build prefabricated buildings, which were cheaply made bungalows, with many still living in them 50 years later. This could eliminate a lot of the homelessness in Britain and once more permanent housing has caught up with demand then the land could be cleared and reverted back.

Mobile homes are cheap to build and today are fully insulated with all modern services. No, it’s not a permanent solution but it could certainly get people homed even if it’s only on a temporary basis.

A Hall
Carlton

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