Letter on 'failed' Spalding cycling scheme and criticism for our MP and his party over prescription charges

Firstly, County Highways are saying there are no plans to move the racks and yet a council spokesperson said that the current facility was deemed a temporary solution.

South Holland Coun Gary Taylor feels they should be moved and Coun Harry Drury had raised concerns.

Surely a joint consultation should have taken place and the most suitable location could have been agreed on?

Of course these racks take up a parking space – this was the theme at the heart of the initiative as one car takes up 10 cycle spaces. But to have one situated adjacent to a loading bay is ludicrous.

We must encourage more people to cycle into town and these racks were very expensive but are there as a facility for cyclists to use and encourage people to leave the car at home. A grant of £100,000 from the Department of Transport is a lot of money. What an embarrassment if it was wasted and the facility scrapped.

I understand the racks in Holbeach have been removed so there is no consistency here as I feel the initiative is good but the delivery has failed.

Finally, as cycling and walking has become more popular during the pandemic, there is a requirement for better investment so we can all address traffic congestion, air pollution and climate change.

It’s vital local authorities get this right for the long-term.

Rodney Sadd

Crowland

We should remember at the next election

This Conservative Government are apparently quietly going about a “so called consultation” with various unknown stakeholders as to taking away free prescriptions from “all those” aged between 60 and 66 in an effort to align everything with retirement age?

This move will have a devastating impact on many thousands of older people with low incomes already aged 60-plus who rely on these prescriptions financially.

It will also have the opposite effect of saving any money as people will just turn to the already overstretched NHS to try and maintain their own personal health, or indeed they will have no choice but to go without prescriptions altogether, costing the taxpayer much more in preventative health costs.

John Hayes (MP), a regular contributer to this paper and a member of the “common sense group,” might like to answer my own case, and tell me why I should not continue getting my free prescriptions anymore, and is this consultation really all common sense and fair?

I am 63, and I have been in full time work since the age of 15, and have never drawn any welfare and benefits either.

So far that’s “47 years” of solid work, leading to “50 years” of work providing I maintain some health when I hopefully reach 66, but you never know.

In the mid 1970s I served with the Coldstream Guards during the Northern Ireland civil war and as a result of live firing noise during service I am now partly deaf, and it has also cost me personally £3,000 for hearing aids.

I also had a new knee fitted in 2013 due to past parachute landings altering the way I work after serving my country.

During my mid-50s I received a letter from the Department of Work and Pensions telling me that due to the length of time I had been in work any future continuing working national insurance payments I now make does not go towards my state pension anymore.

If not going towards my state pension anymore, where does all that money I pay go to then Mr Hayes?

Therefore, am I not already paying for my “so called free prescriptions” anyway?

All I cost you now as a low income gardener are acid reflux tablets and a few eye drops, not much to ask for is it, considering my long unbroken working record and military service?

Can Mr Hayes also confirm is it “common sense” that all those living in Scotland and supported by the English taxpayer continue to get every type of support possible to maintain a whole range of free health benefits that have already been withdrawn in England many years ago, including no threat to their free prescriptions either.

Maybe those of us not far off retirement age here in treasure island, and those already retired should all move to Scotland to get fair treatment, a fact we won’t forget at the next General Election either.

Mr G Plews

Bourne