ELittle

Published at 00:00, Friday, 28 December 2007

WITH regards to the proposed amalgamation of Border Television with Tyne Tees and given the fact that most of Cumbria receives so-called “local” television news from across the Pennines from the BBC (more than 80 per cent of news coverage is about the north east), it is high time that Cumbrian viewers of regional television programmes are given a referendum on where it is appropriate for them to receive local news bulletins from.

From 2009 a situation will arise whereby for most of the county, more than 80 per cent of the local news coverage will be from locations about 100 miles away on both the ITV and BBC local news bulletins. Surely that will be utterly unacceptable? Even on Alston Moor (where I live) in the far north east of Cumbria, which actually has more links with the north east, the local news service leaves a lot to be desired because only the rural western part of the north east region (west of a line from Newcastle to Darlington) can be considered local and within an hour’s drive of the area. Most of the north east news concerns Tyneside, Wearside and Teesside (it would seem), locations almost on the east coast and that is not local to any part of Cumbria as far as I am concerned.

The only sensible option really is for Cumbria to be returned to the north west-based remits for local news provision. Naturally that will at first seem a very unpopular move for folk in the north of Cumbria because Manchester, Liverpool and south Lancashire are not local to most of Cumbria either. That said, the population of Lancashire and Cumbria combined with the Isle of Man have a population of 2.5 million and there is every justification for the north of the north west region to be either split or provided with an opt-out so that they could have their own local news programming.

Under the latter option of an opt-out in Granada Television or with a new version of North West Tonight, Cumbria is bound to end up doing rather well with local news coverage of the county being at something like 40 per cent. It is much more than anything Cumbria would get from north east-based local news programmes. The new programme could even be expected to provide overlap into Northumberland and southern Scotland for the benefit of viewers living in the north of Cumbria.

I sincerely hope that Border Television will be retained the way it is and hopefully local government will step in to assist before the inevitable happens. But in the (hopefully) unlikely event Border TV will be amalgamated Cumbrian viewers of local TV need to look at the regional affiliation of the county.

The only non-local news north Cumbrians would receive in a new north west programme would be from the Isle of Man and South Lancashire, which would be less than half the total!

It’s time for a serious public review of regional television in Cumbria, especially as this is an issue of public service locally.

A referendum on where Cumbrians get their local news from is a must. We have been kept in the dark over this important issue for too long.

IAN PENNELL NenthallALSTON

WE ARE constantly being urged to put away our cars and use public transport.

My general experiences of late may make you think twice, however.

Last Thursday my wife and I had reason to travel to Edinburgh and enjoyed a pleasant and punctual journey on a modern three-carriage diesel, which had come from Manchester airport. The pleasantness ended when, there being no platform at Waverley available, we were holed up in a tunnel a quarter of mile short for 10 minutes.

The cocktail of air and diesel fumes being circulated through the carriages left much to be desired.

On Monday, December 14 we were returning to Carlisle from Newcastle by train when I decided to go and spend a penny. Performing this function in the time-honoured male way, I was somewhat surprised when the casing, made of perspex and metal, which protects the florescent light bulb, came crashing down onto the back of my head.

I am pleased to report that neither it, nor indeed I, were badly damaged, beyond my being a little stunned and having a mild headache.

A sympathetic guard filled in the necessary accident report form and assured me it would be sent off.

At the time of writing I am still waiting to hear from the rail company, though the Christmas post will no doubt be delaying matters.

Just for good measure, December 18 saw me waiting some 35 minutes for a number 76 bus, normally a quarter hourly service, to return me from the middle of Carlisle to the Botcherby area where I live.

When the bus did finally appear it swept past those of us who were waiting, making no attempt to stop.

Frozen to the skin and thoroughly fed up I completed my journey by taxi at a cost of £4.70, rejoicing in the fact that I would not have to make the struggle to get out with my Christmas shopping, as the bus negotiated its way over the speed bumps which precede my stop.

These are not the greatest of experiences for OAPs like us.

Long live the motor car!

GWH CHEESMANBroadoaks GrangeCarlisle

READERS, it is with great appreciation that we thank you for the contribution you have made to this year’s Operation Christmas Child.

The project has meant that a record 24,000 gift-filled shoe boxes have gone from Cumbria to children in Romania who are living in unthinkable poverty, often combined with illness or homelessness.

It is hard for us to imagine how simple gifts – a toy car, a tennis ball, a skipping rope, a toothbrush – can bring so much delight to these children.

Take Andre, for instance, a Romanian boy from the city of Cluj.

He was 11 and had no hat. He lives in a one-roomed house with his mother. His dad is dead and there simply was no money for a hat. When he opened his shoe box he shrieked excitedly. A black woolly hat lay on the very top.

Samaritan’s Purse helps to meet the needs of children like Andre throughout the year, but Operation Christmas Child is something special.

A gift-filled shoe box says to a child “somebody, somewhere loves me”.

Please be assured that you are very much part of Operation Christmas Child.

Without people like you it just would not work.

As you enjoy the holidays, think about the needy children who will be made to smile because you cared to help. Thanking you on their behalf.

DAVID AND DOREEN METCALFVoluntary District Co-ordinators

THE council is going to waste hundreds of thousands of pounds of our money on projects that are not needed. With a very fast growing population in Carlisle they should be using this money for things we need.

For example, the Pools were built in the 1970s and they are overcrowded. Lots of the lockers don’t work and changing rooms are freezing. They should have acquired the land at London Road where Cavrays was and built a new pool and sports complex. Also The Sands Centre was not only built in the wrong place but it is too small to attract any major band or comedian or show.

Come on people of Carlisle, let’s stand up and tell these councillors what we want!

IAN GRAHAMLingmoor WayCarlisle

MAY I take this opportunity to send sincere thanks to all of the many volunteers and supporters who have contributed to the work of Chest, Heart & Stroke Scotland over the past year.

Chest, heart and stroke illness can affect anyone.

CHSS, Scotland’s leading medical charity, funds vital medical research and provides services throughout Scotland for people affected by chest, heart and stroke illness.

During 2007 we were able to help more than 10,000 people through our community services, advice and support, and welfare programmes. Volunteers are essential to the success of our work – helping in our Volunteer Stroke Service groups, organising activities in our affiliated chest, heart and stroke clubs, and helping raise much-needed funds through our charity shops and other fundraising activities.

We very much appreciate the commitment, enthusiasm and care they bring to their work, all of it unpaid.

With continuing grateful thanks, and best wishes for 2008.

DAVID H CLARKChief executiveChest, Heart & Stroke ScotlandEdinburgh

EASILY answered is the challenge of M Patrickson to explain the origin of the fresco on St Nicholas Street (Letters, December 21), this being the inn sign for the White Ox.

In his book on Carlisle Breweries and Public Houses, Steven Davidson devotes two pages to the pub giving the history from 1849 to 1916, having been a beer house at first and later obtaining a full licence to sell spirits, until closure under the Central Control Board.

As no photograph has been found of when it was a public house it is uncertain what the original panel showed but it may have had raised letters with the pub name and an advert for the Carlisle Old Brewery as owners.

When Kate Norris painted the mural to brighten up that corner, she was given no brief as to the former use of the building and transformed the white ox into an Ayrshire variety with a pastoral scene.

Normally, when a public house ceases to function as such all traces of its former use are removed. It is a rare survival to find that after almost 100 years of disuse the inn sign is still there.

DENIS PERRIAMCarlisle

IN MARCH this year we launched our 10th anniversary appeal to safeguard the future of our service in rural north and east Cumbria and the city of Carlisle. We did not set ourselves a highly ambitious financial target, but felt that our required fundraising requirement of over £6,000 per week definitely needed to be maintained.

Hospice at Home Carlisle and North Lakeland provides a free at home nursing service to the terminally ill in our area and approximately 80 per cent of our patients have cancer and the other 20 per cent suffer from other life limiting/life threatening diseases.

We receive a part of our funding from the Primary Care Trust, for which we are very grateful but are well aware that we have to find more than two thirds of our costs each year from other sources. This year this equates to £317,000 for the year and our concern has always been to build for the future which is often an unknown.

Little did we know how much the generous people of the area would take our appeal to their hearts and as we approach this stage in our 10th year of service we have been truly amazed by the ingenuity of the fundraising on our behalf. We have received a figure so far of almost £70,000 from local people and businesses and it is through their generosity that our service is able to nurse an average of 300 patients each year and also to provide much needed support to their families and carers.

We would like to extend our grateful thanks to all concerned and to pass on our best wishes for a healthy and prosperous new year.

MICHAEL PEARSONChairmanHospice at Home Carlisle and North Lakeland

Published by http://www.cumberlandnews.co.uk