Our readers from across the county give their weekly take on the biggest issues impacting Kent and beyond.
Some letters refer to past correspondence which can be found by clicking here. Join the debate by emailing [email protected]
Tragic warning of building on flood plains
I believe that the flooding tragedy in Valencia is a cautionary tale for us here in Kent.
One of the circumstances held responsible for the city’s devastation is the amount of building that has taken place on flood plains.
The concreting over of river banks has created impermeable zones that push rainwater towards the river, which then has nowhere to go in case of flood.
We need to avoid making the same mistake.
Flood plains are a vital part of a river’s resilience in cases of severe weather. They may appear to be wasted land but they have evolved to slow the effects of heavy rainfall.
The deluge that fell on Valencia, driven by the increased ability of warm air to hold vapour – itself a result of climate change – is a random event that could happen anywhere, including here.
The flood plains would then be all that stands between us and catastrophe.
Of the Spanish situation, one expert said that the only remedy now will be to move people out of the flood plains and return the land to its natural state.
Let us avoid getting into this mess in the first place: leave our flood plains unbuilt, doing their job of protecting us.
Stephanie Boucher
Our children deserve to have a future
A few weeks ago, my first grandchild was born. A few weeks ago, a group of the world’s most respected climate scientists published a report in the journal BioScience, titled: ‘The 2024 state of climate report: Perilous times on planet earth’.
The report lists that fossil fuel emissions are at an all-time high, the three hottest days ever occurred in July 2024 and with current policies we are on track for approximately 2.7 degrees C warming by 2100.
They list the multiple climate-related disasters which have occurred in the last year including floods, wildfires, hurricanes and a series of heatwaves across Asia which killed more than a thousand people and led to temperatures reaching 50 degrees C in parts of India.
They list 28 ‘climate feedback loops’, many of which amplify greenhouse gas effects, such as thawing permafrost which releases carbon dioxide and methane, in turn increasing temperatures. Some of these feedback loops potentially involve tipping points when a sudden change occurs irreversibly accelerating the process.
One such tipping point is the collapse of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), the Atlantic current bringing warm waters from the south Atlantic to the north, this feeding into the Gulf Stream. One recent study suggested that the AMOC is more likely than not to collapse by 2050.
The result would be catastrophic, dramatically reducing temperatures in northern Europe and creating unprecedented extremes of weather. This threatens agriculture in Northern Europe. A study of the effect in Britain suggested that useable arable land could reduce to only 22% of its present size.
The report calls for various actions, perhaps the most important being the rapid phase-down of fossil fuels. It concludes: ‘Only through decisive action can we safeguard the natural world, avert profound human suffering, and ensure that future generations inherit the livable world they deserve. The future of humanity hangs in the balance’.
They are talking about my grandson. They are talking about all our children and grandchildren. They all deserve to have that future.
Mike Baldwin
Smacking children is cruel and primitive
The government is considering bringing England into line with Scotland and Wales by introducing a law to ban parents from punishing their children by smacking, shaking or slapping them.
The number of countries that have banned such acts of violence now stands at 74 with the recent inclusion of South Korea and Colombia.
When the Conservatives were in power, they rejected the idea of implementing a law to make smacking a child illegal, despite calls from the NSPCC and various children’s charities to effect legislation.
Scottish Greens MSP, John Finnie, who initiated the law to ban physical force to punish a child in Scotland, has said: ‘It teaches children, might is right.’
Of course, those parents or guardians who aren’t prepared to accept any ban on how they punish their offspring will, no doubt, continue with their mode of physical assault behind closed doors.
I am in favour of outlawing smacking, which to me is an unnecessary and primitive form of chastisement that only perpetuates the idea that to physically abuse a child to cause them suffering is acceptable, which it plainly isn’t.
Michael Smith
Crossing is like loosening belt to cure obesity
I cannot think of a budget in modern times (post 1945) that really impinged on most people in any way that could be termed severe. Mostly it is on the margins; positive or negative.
I expected the hospitality industry to complain, because they are businesses that can rise and fall quite quickly and if your business is struggling, anything can affect it adversely. The pub trade has other structural issues that a single budget cannot assist or hinder, such as the change to consuming alcohol at home, via supermarket outlets.
The harsh fact of capitalism is if your offer is compelling, you will make money. If on the other hand if your business is one of many offering the same terms or products as your competitors, it will struggle to survive.
We have to face facts with motoring and use the car less and other forms of transport more. The return received on vast road-building programmes is at best borderline and almost always pointless.
If the second Thames Crossing is ever built, I guarantee within 10 years that it too will become congested and someone will propose a third crossing. As some have said, it is like curing obesity by letting out your belt.
We all knew the bus fare cap was likely to be raised or even removed, so at least bus users will not be paying as much as they did pre-Covid.
The last government threw money at the bus industry in a panic, often to no avail, at least here in Kent, where the merciless cull of rural and interurban routes continued without ceasing.
For the bus industry, what is needed is a restructuring and a long-term or at least medium-term strategy, to deliver fair fares, reliability, comfort, frequency, and certainty.
Richard Styles
Government is keeping bus fares affordable
I think it is really important that people know that the Conservatives provided no funding for the bus fare cap beyond December 2024.
Hence, I welcome the fact that Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour government has now stepped in to keep fares affordable and at the same time provided over £1 billion to support bus services whilst also ensuring that the £3:00 maximum cap on fares continues until 2026 and that fares below £3 can only rise with inflation.
Geoffrey Brooking
Sad irony of fixing signal fault
It was encouraging to see Eurostar make use of Ashford station recently, albeit just to park one of their trains overnight.
I wonder if this is the first time Eurostar have actually made use of the upgraded signalling facilities at Ashford?
The signalling was upgraded in 2018, at a cost of £10m, from UK public funds.
With great fanfare the first new Siemens e320 Eurostar stopped at Ashford on April 3, with Chris Grayling the then Secretary of State for Transport and the then Ashford MP, Damian Green, on board.
However, sadly, subsequently no other e320s were able to stop at Ashford International due to a “complex technical fault” (KM, December 2019).
As Damian Green MP pointed out in his speech in Parliament on October 23, 2023, it was “a cruel irony” that this was not sorted out till January 2020, just before the Covid pandemic struck in March 2020.
Alex Bienfait
Thousands have given up on Eurostar
Rather than dropping ‘International’ from Ashford International and Ebbsfleet International, let’s get one or both of the stations re-instated as stops for Eurostar trains.
There must be thousands of people and businesses in Kent who have given up on using the train because of the extra time and inconvenience of having to travel to St Pancras to catch a Eurostar train.
In addition, the Eurostar terminal in St Pancras is often overcrowded and unpleasant.
Nicholas Pope
Put more pressure on France over migrants
We continue to hear once again immigrants crossing the Straits of Dover in small inflatables, which has surpassed last year’s total with nine weeks to go.
I understand the need for foreign workers and welcome them to my country provided they come through the proper channels and not the Channel.
The BBC has recently discovered there are secret warehouses in Essen, Germany, which store boats for future crossings. What are law enforcement in Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, France and the UK doing to stop the boats magically arriving 251 miles away in Calais.
UK taxpayers have spent hundreds of millions of pounds fortifying northern France and continue to do so. Is this money well spent, as they still keep coming?
The money could be far better spent on returning them immediately to a safe country, whilst more pressure is put on Macron & Co.
Tony Wright
Kent’s switch from garden to building site
Reading your article on how our countryside is disappearing, I feel that the building of new homes on farmland is pretty disgusting. It is just pandering to profit mongers, ie developers who have shown no thought except on how much profit they can make with no consideration of the impact on the Kent countryside.
I understand that there are many empty homes that housing associations cannot afford to buy and renovate. I believe that the government should facilitate the purchase of these houses to save our precious countryside.
There has recently been a television series called Kent, the Garden of England. The houses that have sprung up in Sholden and Westward Cross, amongst other areas, have not been mentioned and Kent looks as glorious as it has always been.
However, a more truthful programme would have shown these detrimental changes and I would have named this series Kent, the Building Site of England.
Vivien Clifford
