Readers' letters - Wednesday, November 23

I sympathise with Mr N Liversedge in his letter (WEP November 21) calling for drones to be banned, due to the safety of commercial aircraft.

However, realistically the cat is well out of the bag and it is practically impossible to ban them. He makes a comparison with mobile phones and driving and I’d like to add cyclists on pavements.

I’d love to ban them all, however, it is the current feeling with many in our society that many think just because they are able to fly, cycle and phone irresponsibly, they should be allowed to. Like phoning whilst driving and cycling on the pavements, there are laws about how and where you can fly a drone. It is not a lack of regulation issue, it is more one of lack of enforcement. Drone flying regulations (check the CAA web site for full details) state you can never fly within 50m of a person, vehicle or building, you can overfly building that you have permission to do so, but I bet 99 per cent of drone flyers never ask. These regulations would prevent you flying in your own back garden unless it was about 100m square and then you could only go up and down.

I’m sure there are many who always use them legally, so you cannot ban all drones because of the idiots who fly in an anti-social way. What we should do is press those with the authority to enforce the laws that exist, or why have them?

Ivan Kovacks

via email

crime

Attacks are unacceptable

Nobody deserves to be punched, kicked or suffer life-changing injuries when they are at work. But that is what we are seeing on an increasingly regular basis. What is even more alarming is that the majority of these devastating cases are from nurses and teachers – the very people who try to help society.

Recent research we carried out returned shocking results. Over a third of public sector workers surveyed said they had been violently attacked or verbally abused by members of the public. Of those, more than one in ten had been physically assaulted. Many blamed Government cutbacks for the rise in violence.

This growing trend of attacks is simply unacceptable. All employers have a duty of care to look after the health, safety and wellbeing of their staff and their top priority should be providing a safe workplace.

We recently publicised the case of nurse Louise Jago. She was left in chronic pain for the rest of her life and unable to continue the job she loved after she was attacked by a patient. Nobody should have to endure trauma for simply doing their job and more needs to be done to ensure a safer workplace for all.

Tracey Benson

Employer’s Liability specialist lawyer at Slater and Gordon

transport

Give HS2 cash to NHS

Wouldn’t it be nice if it was announced the HS2 plans are being abandoned? As well as all the homes and views that will be damaged by this huge white elephant, just think what the country could do with the £55bn that would be saved.

Everyone knows the NHS is seriously ill and needs an urgent infusion of cash to make it fit for purpose so the money not wasted on the high speed rail link could literally make the difference between life and death. And the figures quoted will inevitably continue to rise.

But did you know it is actually part of an EU project designed to integrate all of the European Union’s transport and communications network and subject to EU directive 96/48? We have asserted ourselves with Brexit and we must now assert ourselves with a resounding “no” to HS2.

Louise Bours

North West UKIP MEP