I remember when we could leave doors open
IT was very sad to read earlier this year about break-ins destroying lives in Cwmparc and elsewhere, resulting in people living in fear.
It is good advice to always lock your doors even when at home – don’t make it easy for burglars. The police are doing their best but they don’t have the power to stop this evil.
I remember a time when we could leave our doors open all day with no fear or worries. What made the difference? God. People were more godly then. We have turned our backs on God and the days are evil.
Have you noticed how we celebrate halloween in a big way? We have invited the Devil to come into our valleys and he had accepted with his fiends and demons.
Now we don’t have peace or protection in our own homes.
Stop celebrating Halloween, get back to God; life will be better then.
Sylvia White
Tonypandy
Why are parking bays on steep hills?
Would anybody inform me why most blue badge parking bays in Bargoed town are on steep hills?
It’s hard enough for some disabled people to walk on the flat, it is also hazardous for wheelchair users. I hope the council will rectify this problem in the near future.
Graham Davies
Hengoed
These busy trains need four carriages
We now have a new train company running our services in Wales and the Borders and the first day of Transport for Wales/Keolis-Amey was dreadful. On Sunday October 14, the new operator put on a two- carriage very old train to operate the 14.24 from Birmingham New St to Shrewsbury. The train was grossly overcrowded to an extent that would be illegal for live animal transport. Every aisle, every corner and every door area was packed. I had to stand all the way to Wellington in a packed door area (there were eight of us in the door area including two small children that had difficulty in standing as the train accelerated and decelerated). This was an appalling service and there is no excuse for not running four carriages.
So it now looks like that after 15 years of truly dreadful Arriva Trains Wales we are in for truly dreadful Transport for Wales/Keolis-Amey.
Professor John Whitelegg
Shrewsbury
Provide the service people deserve
Like many thousands of other regular rail travellers, I’m not mourning the end of the Arriva Trains Wales contract which has failed to deliver for passengers.
The Valley Lines service I use has simply not been fit for the 21st century with trains that should have been consigned to the scrapheap years ago still being used, overcrowded carriages and an often unreliable service.
While Arriva has done well financially, a lot of the blame for services can be laid at the door of the UK Labour Government which let a very poor contract back in 2003.
The so-called government experts wrongly assumed that passenger numbers would go down – and how wrong they were.
It is only fair to point that if more trains were needed permission had to be sought from government, initially the UK and latterly the Labour Welsh Government.
Control of the new franchise now rests solely with the Labour Welsh Government and they must ensure a quality service is provided after years of a second class service. Transport for Wales has made a lot of promises. It now lies with them to deliver.
Together with many others my own view has always been that the rail network should be renationalised. It seems absolutely crazy that some rail services in the UK are run by nationalised European rail operators.
I wish the new contractor Keolis Amey well and trust they will provide the service that people on the Valleys network and across Wales deserve and demand.
Colin Mann
Leader, Plaid Cymru Group, Caerphilly County Borough Council
Yes to the Romans but no to Brexit
Technically, I thought we joined the EU after being invaded by the Romans. Agricola became governor of all Britain in the year 79AD and is regarded as one of its best leaders.
This is what he did as told to us by the roman scholar Tacitus:
“Agricola suffered no public business to pass through the hands of his slaves. He was not influenced by private favour, but chose the best men likely to prove the most faithful. He knew everything but was content to let some things pass unnoticed. He could pardon small faults and use severity to great ones. Yet he did not always punish offenders,and was frequently satisfied with penitence. By suppressing abuses in his first year as governor he made people realise that under good laws it was better to live at peace with the Romans, rather than to rebel against them.’’
Where did it all go wrong?
By contrast,today we enjoy the most splendid buildings left to us by another invader William the conqueror, includng Windsor Castle, Tower of London.
Brexit, not for me thanks.
Christopher Jarvis
Peeramon,Queensland, Australia
Death penalty for these killings
Re Monday’s issue of the Echo headline “Daughter has no more fight after mum’s killers allowed out of prison”. I think for any killings for no reason there should be a death penalty. Terrorists also should face the death penalty. I am sure many people would vote for the death penalty as long as the crimes are investigated thoroughly with hopefully no mistakes made.
David John
Hirwaun, Aberdare
Money moguls take no notice of us
Think about this. Our world is falling apart. Why? Well just think what is happening all around us that may well be contributing to the strange weather patterns we are experiencing around the world today.
We have millions of tonnes of aircraft fuel emissions causing world wide pollution. We have loads upon loads of cars, vans lorries, trains and boats polluting the air that we breathe. There are coal-fired power stations popping up all over China every other month. Hydraulic fracturing (fracking) occurring all over the world. New age modern incinerators burning toxic waste in close proximity to residential areas, schools and hospitals and such like. Nuclear power stations are being allowed to dump radioactive waste in the seas and oceans around the globe. In our own back yard we have Hinckley Point in the latest dumping of nuclear contaminated mud in the Bristol Channel just off Cardiff. To name but a few. All this is bound to be interfering with the balance of nature but the big money moguls are taking no notice of us mere mortals and or our outrage or valid complaints. Please remember that when the last tree is felled, when the last river and ocean becomes totally contaminated killing off our last supply of fish, only then will these big money moguls learn that they cannot eat money.
Barrie V Evans
Coordinator, Barry First Group
