Letters, Saturday, June 20, 2009
Motor scooters can be dangerous
ON Tuesday, June 9, my grandson went to Sunderland, job-hunting. He was passing Candy Bar when a lady in a motorised scooter came driving by. She was talking on her phone and knocked my grandson flat. He had to have hospital treatment.
I know disabled people have to do their shopping but they shouldn't drive and answer their phones. It should be like motorists and get an instant fine.
Nobody knows what it is like to be knocked or bumped with these buggies. I have been many times through people not watching where they are driving as they are looking in shop windows as they go along. My legs have been left numb with people bumping into them.
Please can I ask again (before someone is seriously hurt) to watch where they are going. I have a buggy myself and wouldn't dream of doing what some people do as they think they own the place
A very concerned grandparent
Given runaround
I SAW the article in the Echo about the slowness of JobCentre Plus to process urgent cases of those seeking Jobseeker's benefit, applicants are being given the bureacratic runaround.
Telephone calls are being ignored and those who are fortunate enough to get a response are told that everything is OK but still they wait for their cases to be processed and payment received.
Many of those applicants have been without money for more than two months and upon trying to contact the service in order to find the reasons for this extraordinary delay, they are being fobbed off with a variety of excuses.
When questioned, those with the responsbility to process claims say that the backlog of claims is huge and that they are inundated with applications.
On the the other hand, spokesmen for the JobCentre Plus strongly deny that there are any delays in processing claims, and yet several people have yet to receive their rightful allowances.
Why is it that these unfortunate people are being made to wait what to them is an eternity for benefits to which they are entitled? Is there no one in the benefit offices who can expedite the process and ensure that those people are paid?
When one hears about the ever-continuing number of MPs who have fiddled their expenses, honest benefit claimants are being denied what, after all by comparison is a paltry amount and their rights.
Councillor GE Howe,
Fulwell Ward
Overhaul expenses
ELECTORS have every right to be angry about MPs' expenses – it is a scandal of the first order.
While an early General Election would be welcome, the system of expenses must first be thoroughly overhauled.
Should MPs be entitled to a second home at taxpayers' expense at all? Would it not be better to fix a maximum payment for overnight hotel accommodation (as in business) or provide good quality hostel-type accommodation?
Employing members of their own family as members of their staff should, to say the least, be discouraged.
Any new system needs to be independently monitored, transparent and with MPs held fully accountable. Expenses should only be reimbursed against receipts and there should be no claims for cleaning and gardening expenses.
MPs guilty of fraud should be subject to the full rigour of the law with robust sanctions. Heads need to roll in the House of Commons fees office.
The Conservative Party has introduced new guidelines for Conservative MPs, which I fully support. These ban "flipping" of first and second homes and the avoidance of capital gains tax. They also say there should be no more claims for furniture, food or luxuries.
MPs are entitled to be paid well for the work they do – but do we really need so many of them?
Peter Wood,
Chairman,
Sunderland Conservatives
Car troubles
I FEEL sorry for Mr Pouton with Nissan Evans Halshaw. I had the same problems with my Nissan Primera two years ago.
I was supposed to get a top engineer on my car but after two years sent it back to finance still unrepaired. Lost over a thousand pounds through it!
They kept messing me around then it was a case of out of warranty, you deal with it. Now after two years Nissan Finance want 103 because they couldn't sell it at auction for what they wanted! Would they give me back what extra they made? Don't think so!
Steven Bellamy,
Thorney Close,
Sunderland
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Friday 10 February 2012
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