Advertiser readers’ letters
The following letters have been sent to the Advertiser this week:
Take advantage of house prices and buy now
New data shows that having a mortgage and paying rent cost roughly the same.
Latest figures show that typical mortgage rates over just over 5% for first-time buyers, with a 10% deposit means that the average monthly repayment is cheaper than the average rental.
I know direct comparisons can be invidious but the last time this happened was in the early 1970s.
My conclusion is that property prices are never going to be lower than they are now.
So, if you can afford it, strike while the iron is hot.
For what seems like high prices today, in five years’ time will look quite affordable - and in ten years’ time dirt cheap.
Don’t say I didn’t warn you. — C. HOBBY, Newark.
We must save our green space
I am concerned that the Government’s Infrastructure and Planning Bill is swinging the pendulum too far against the protection of the environment.
The Prime Minister wants to remove all “blockers”, including environmental controls on planning and development.
Our country has suffered from an unsustainable de-gradation of the natural environment.
We do not have enough “reservoirs” of wild areas to allow in constrained en-croachment through further development.
I am therefore supporting the wildlife trusts in lobbying for the government to accept moderate amendments to the Bill. — GREVILLE SEDDON, via email.
Risk to ourselves
Without nature we die. We are part of nature and it is essential to life.
To destroy nature we destroy ourselves.
Both nature and development need to work positively together to provide a life worth living. — HEATHER ROBINSON, Blidworth.
Save the planet
I don’t want to see the planet die nor to see it destroyed by half baked ideas about global warming. — PETER LEWIS, via email
Energy security over Net Zero
April has seen a period when Spain achieved 100% of its energy from solar and wind, only to suffer the biggest power outage in history ten days later.
Readers might not have noticed that The Tony Blair Institute has produced a report called The Climate Paradox, which concludes that the current Net Zero policies are ‘doomed to fail’ and the public have lost faith in climate policies because the promised green jobs and economic growth have failed to materialise.
The report says any strategy based on either phasing out fossil fuels in the short term or limiting consumption is a strategy doomed to fail and the ‘alarmist’ tone of the debate on climate change is ‘riven with irrationality’.
It also argues for a greater focus on climate change mitigation measures such as flood defences and a new international push to persuade China and India to cut emissions.
In the US, President Trump has prioritised the production of fossil fuels to enhance their energy production to Make America Great Again by reducing their energy costs.
Is it not time that the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero takes time to reconsider his concentration on a bind rush towards Net Zero and instead, focus on the ‘Energy Security’ aspect of his government role before any more damage is done to the growth of our economy? — R. SHEPPARD, Beckingham.
Deserved accolade
I was delighted to read about Freddie Vokes (Advertiser, April 24) the Southwell teenager who has been nominated for the National Diversity Awards in the Positive Role Model for Age category.
The hardships Freddie has overcome, and the incredible fundraising for various causes he has undertaken, shows he truly deserves the accolade.
In these worrying times, when diversity, equality and inclusion programmes are being forcibly removed under Donald Trump, it is heartening to know that people like Freddie have the courage to show empathy and kindness.
As the saying goes, ‘we rise by lifting others.’
Well done, Freddie, and good luck. We’re all rooting for you. — HELENA PIELI-CHATY, via email.
Enough talk, it’s time to deliver
Unsurprisingly, Reform UK have taken control of Nottinghashire County Council, now we await what they will do with this new-found power.
Much has been made of the party’s national policies — and the least said about those the better — but what about at local level?
What are their plans for dealing with significant local issues that many people are facing.
I can’t actually remember hearing much from the local election candidates about their local priorities during the campaign and I certainly didn’t receive an election leaflet.
It is all well and good riding the tide of a national wave of animosity to parties at a national level, but now you have a heavy responsibility to deliver to households across Nottinghamshire.
Whether they have the knowledge or willingness to drive the change they say is needed, only time will tell.
What we do know is that interesting times lie ahead. — A. CHAMBERS, via email.
Disgusted by lack of empathy
I was absolutely disgusted at the sheer lack of empathy of some people in Newark following last week’s tragic event in the town centre.
After a man was stabbed to death on Wednesday night, the police closed several roads, rightly so, while the investigation was under way.
The majority of comments on social media were either sympathetic to the man’s family, or concerned over the amount of crime that seems to be happening in Newark at the moment.
But the amount of people moaning online that their commute into work or school was affected that day, or that they couldn’t access shops in the area, because of the roads being closed was shocking.
A man, who from what I understand has a family, was killed, and yet people were complaining that their drive into work was a little slower?
Have a little perspective!
Young children have just lost their father, and many of these comments came on social media so I just hope that those poor mites didn’t read any of those thoughtless comments.
Sadly, we also see this when someone chooses to take their life and people complain that roads are closed because of police investigations.
These heartless keyboard warriors really need to think before they type, and ask themselves how they’d feel if they had lost a loved one in such tragic circumstances and saw that someone had gone on social media and written that the emergency services should “hurry up and open the road”. — E. YATES, via email.
