Not just York that is overgrown - my village is too

I AGREE wholeheartedly with the former councillor and Lord Mayor, Ian Gillies, that the City of York Council have allowed so many green areas to become overgrown and unkempt (The Press, July 26).

My wife and I commented as we passed Station Rise last week what a complete mess the once beautiful flower bed looked when we had civic pride and a real Parks and Gardens department who lifted your spirits.

Mr Gillies mentions that several council officers do not even live in the city. Why? This explains everything. No wonder they don’t care.

My own village looks the same mess with grass and weeds two feet tall and only cut every two months instead of every two weeks. Of course the council has a fashionable excuse these days - ‘wilding’. Another accurate description might be ‘lazy’ and ‘cost-cutting’. Over all the weeks of passing by I have not seen any bees and only one Cabbage White butterfly.

I try and keep my garden presentable but all the weed seeds - courtesy of the council - cause work and havoc when they germinate all over in the wrong place.

Keith Massey,

Bishopthorpe,

York

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Tories should consider a one-way flight to Rwanda

UPON reading Conservative Cllr Chris Stewards comments in The Press Wednesday July 31, bleating about the newly announced cancellation of some of the railways restoration fund, I would make the following points clear:

* It was the Tories who pulled up most of this rural rail infrastructure, courtesy Dr Beeching in the 1960s.

* The new Labour Government have recently discovered a Tory "cover up" of a black hole in public finances of £22 million, and the new Labour Government appreciate that they cannot spend money that they do not have.

* One of the major causes of the shortfall is the abject failure of the Tory promoted vanity rail project HS2 (and many other projects nationwide).

* Billions have been wasted on this worthless project that our so called "experts" have spectacularly failed to deliver, leaving our country very short in the coffers.

The £500 million that is now being cut back by the new Labour Chancellor Ms Reeves is a mere drop in the ocean compared with the massive Tory waste that is there for all to see.

It appears to me that Cllr Steward and all of his Tory cronies, are just bleating "little sheep" who have lost their way, as borne out by the biggest Tory election defeat in history.

Those Tories remaining should consider a one-way flight to Rwanda, as the nation may benefit from that.

Paul Mannering,

Firth Mews,

Millgate,

Selby

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Bollards are no protection

HEAVEN forbid that anything like the dreadful stabbing attack in Stockport should ever occur in York.

But if it does one thing we can be certain of is the very expensive rising bollards which so-called security experts said we must have will be absolutely useless.

As was demonstrated at the Manchester Arena and London Bridge, and now in Stockport, an individual on foot with a backpack bomb or machete can simply walk past any bollard arrangement to carry out their evil intentions.

Matthew Laverack,

Lord Mayors Walk,

York

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