Readers' letters - June 2

Before Christmas, British Polio Ambassador and Paralympian, Anne Wafula-Strike MBE, was forced to wet herself on a train, with no disabled toilet available.

The Rail Minister, Paul Maynard, pledged that no other disabled rail user would have to endure such a distressing and humiliating experience.

Yet I am appalled to hear that, in the last few days, wheelchair user Christopher Stapleton has indeed had the same experience.

However, Christopher had booked his train ticket six weeks ahead, so the train company were aware they would have a wheelchair user on board.

With the disabled toilet out of order and the aisles in the carriages being too narrow to fit a wheelchair in, Christopher was left with no choice but to wet himself.

How many more people have had similar experiences but are not quite as forthright in speaking out?

With train operating companies achieving eye-watering profits, one can conclude that the ‘disabled market’ is not their target.

However, 72 per cent of the population think more should be done on accessibility.

When ethics, legislation and public opinion are in such harmony, there appears to be no logical reason why this problem is not fixed as a matter of urgency.

Mr Maynard?

Ted Hill MBE

CEO
The British Polio Fellowship

Stop trusting – ask questions

We should look carefully at what is being proposed in the Tory Party Manifesto – all

uncosted.

The “baby boom” generation have worked all of their lives. Over recent years, they have seen their savings dissipated; they are now threatened with the withdrawal of the winter fuel allowance because no one knows, it seems, where the eligibility threshold will fall; there is a stealth/inheritance/death tax to look forward to should they fall seriously ill, either physically or mentally. Again, because this is uncosted, no one has been informed where financial thresholds are. But it does not matter because we do not question. We trust.

Over the past weeks, we have seen cyber attacks on NHS and an act of barbaric terrorism. The Army has been deployed to support the police whose budgets have been savaged since 2010. Such cuts have had a deleterious effect upon community policing which is an essential ingredient given the dangerous times in which we live. It is noticeable, however, that praise is heaped on those who work tirelessly to save lives in times of crisis by the very people who are prepared to act as Madame Guillotine when it suits their ideology.

But we do not question. We trust. Strong and stable?

Time to stop trusting and question.

B Kelly

via email

Car technology is distracting

The report that motorists waste 29 hours every year using sat navs because they send them “the long way or wrong way”, fails to deal with the number of innocent lives that are wasted. A poll revealed that 52 per cent admit they “switch off” and pay little attention to road signs once a sat nav is leading the way.

In 2013, a cyclist suffered fatal injuries when a driver drove straight out into the A629, when his sat nav failed to register a junction.

With so-called progress, a few minutes might be saved, but the time lost to congestion caused by crashes cancels it out. Millions of minutes of innocent lives have been lost, and the bereaved must suffer a lifetime of lose.

If the so-called civilised world is going to unite to make the world a safer place, sat navs should be banned. Research has show ALL in-car technology is distracting.

Allan Ramsay

Radcliffe