Online blogs on sport, business, law, farming, photography, from the Westmorland Gazette

LETTER OF THE WEEK

One letter per week will be published on the Westmorland Gazette website. To read the rest of the readers' postbag, you'll need to buy the newspaper.

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* By post: Letters & Opinions, The Westmorland Gazette, 1 Wainwright’s Yard, Kendal, LA9 4DP.
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Please keep your letters concise (max 400 words). Include your full address as a sign of good faith. Also include a daytime phone number. The editor reserves the right to amend or shorten letters or to refuse to publish them.

Letter: Design must fit in with surroundings

4:59pm Thursday 16th May 2013

Design must fit in with the surroundings In the ‘Within Living Memory’ (Gazette, December 13), Pat Hovey and Trevor Hughes recall the Kent riverbank north of Stramongate Bridge.

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Letter: Trust medical jobs should be protected

5:14pm Thursday 9th May 2013

As a previously elected Public Governor of the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Trust, it did not come as a surprise to read (Gazette, April 25, ‘230 jobs face axe in health savings’) that the trust may have to cut 230 jobs to reduce the 30 million financial deficit.

Letter: Raise tax on second homes

5:17pm Thursday 2nd May 2013

Thank you for your detailed but deeply depressing articles on the lack of affordable housing in the Lake District and the increasing numbers of second homes and holiday lets (Gazette, April 18, ‘Villages without children’).

Blog: Can you help me here, Colin?

4:42pm Friday 26th April 2013

SO, there’s a rift in the coalition. We’re getting a new carpet when there’s nothing wrong with the old one.

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Letter: More morning trains needed to Oxenholme

4:38pm Friday 26th April 2013

More morning trains needed to Oxenholme I, too, spotted the report on the Virgin Trains’ website about ‘research’ into British Isles knowledge (Gazette, April 11, ‘Educate London on the Lakes call’).

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Letter: Hydro-power has strengths and weaknesses

5:15pm Thursday 18th April 2013

A number of recent letters to the Gazette suggest that water power could be the solution to our energy problems, possibly an efficient alternative to wind farms. However the devil lies in the detail.

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Letter: A new vision to give a boost to Bowness

5:18pm Thursday 11th April 2013

A new vision to give a boost to Bowness Bowness does not have the infrastructure to accomm-odate more visitors and our antiquated drainage system cannot cope with further development.

Letter: Do not ruin this visitor attraction and business area

4:22pm Thursday 28th March 2013

P. Langford wrote an excellent and timely letter about the contentious develop-ment plan proposed by the Lake District National Park Authority for the Glebe at Bowness (Letters, March 14, ‘Do not mess with the Glebe’).

Letter: A 7-point plan to revitalise the K Village

5:27pm Thursday 14th March 2013

K Village developers who demolished the hotch potch of old factory buildings and replaced them with a splendid appearing new structure (at least from the outside), should have taken note of why it was so popular to visitors and thought about copying or improving some or all of its internal features and possibly adding more.

Letter: Zip wire plan rethink urged

4:18pm Thursday 7th March 2013

The recent plan to locate a zip-wire within the confines of the quarry and adjacent crags on Honister Hause was rejected by the Lake District National Park Authority, not on principled grounds (no zip-wires in the Lake District) but on grounds of inappropriate-ness in this location - no zip-wires on Honister Hause.

Letter: We do not want scars on the fells

5:24pm Thursday 28th February 2013

I’m sure readers are aware of the Fix the Fells programme of footpath development in the Lake District. I am very concerned that this team is being allowed to change the nature and even route of many footpaths in the Lake District National Park.

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Letter: It's wet in Kendal two days out of three

5:06pm Thursday 21st February 2013

Penny Benson makes a bold statement and dares to be challenged in her recent letter (Letters, January 31, ‘It does not rain every day in the Lake District’) stating that there were ‘200 fine days’ in Kendal in 2012.

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Letter: Dog lead order not needed in rural areas

5:23pm Thursday 14th February 2013

Regular readers of The Westmorland Gazette may recall the various articles that appeared last year regarding dog fouling and control of dogs, including South Lakeland District Council's proposals to enact certain dog control orders (backed up by a questionn-aire and local 'road show').

Letter: Turn off the street lights

5:22pm Thursday 7th February 2013

From my vantage point high above Kendal it often strikes me what a waste of elect-ricity the street lighting is for most of the night. How many people are around at three in the morning and can such small numbers justify the expense?

Letter: Fresh thinking needed to attract visitors

5:34pm Thursday 31st January 2013

Any Cumbrian with a job which relies to an extent on the tourism trade - and there are thousands of such jobs in the county - will have been dismayed by your recent report on the gloomy outlook for the holiday industry in 2013 (Gazette, January 3, ‘Stormy year for Lake District B&Bs and hotels as rain batters area’).

Letter: Incentives are needed to attract tourists

5:23pm Thursday 17th January 2013

Incentives are needed to attract tourists Indeed the tourist sector has had a quiet season and a slow start to the coming year (Gazette, January 3, ‘Stormy years for B&Bs and hotels’).

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Letter: Tolerance for 'lycra cyclists'

2:15pm Thursday 10th January 2013

It seems the problem of lycra-clad cyclists carving up town traffic is a national phenomenon and the media has recently carried reports of astonishing altercations between cyclists and drivers in the big cities.

Letter: Change the way that you live your life

2:26pm Thursday 3rd January 2013

I live in Ulverston and work in Kendal four days a week and one day in Barrow.

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Letter: Try a simpler approach to parking fees

4:40pm Thursday 27th December 2012

After all the outcry, protests and correspondence about the new parking machines in South Lakeland, there must be a simpler way to ensure that residents, visitors and businesses do not feel that they are being ripped off.

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Letter: Do not tinker with the concept of marriage

4:33pm Thursday 20th December 2012

So the Coalition government is now addressing the crucial issues that face our nation in these difficult times? Sadly not it seems! Instead of trying to resolve the economic difficulties it instead seems determined to press on with plans to ‘redefine’ marriage.

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