Readers' letters - December 5

Re: Christmas Coca-Cola truck. As a mother to a three-year-old, I am concerned about the future of our environment, including our seas. I don’t want my daughter to grow up in a world where there is, by weight, more plastic in the ocean than fish, as some studies predict there will be by 2050. I have been following the Greenpeace campaign about Coca-Cola bottles and plastic waste and I have also been enjoying Blue Planet II, but have found it very hard to watch the footage of animals suffering and dying due to a build-up of plastics in the ocean.David Attenborough commented on the plastic problem ahead of the release of Blue Planet II: “We could do something about plastic right now… “We’ve seen albatrosses come back with their belly full of food for their young and nothing in it. “The albatross parent has been away for weeks gathering stuff for her young and what comes out? “What does she give her chick? “You think it’s going to be squid, but it is plastic…”Rather than join the queue for a freebie from the Coca-Cola truck, I will be joining Greenpeace in calling for Coca-Cola to clean up their act, and stop destroying our planet with their excessive and unnecessary plastic production. Annie RussellAddress supplied

banksSelfishness in a capitalist worldI went to a local NatWest branch a couple of years ago. While there, at the counter, I was told that, next time, I could use Internet banking. I thought, I could, but if all your customers decided to do that, would you lose your job? An ideal world would have the choice of mobile, Internet and face-to-face banking in branches. Of course, there will be those individuals who say, it’s progress. Times change. But I feel for those who lose their jobs and, for those of us, in particular the elderly, who aren’t able to or don’t have access to the Internet. And if they don’t trust the Internet (haven’t we all heard of hacking scandals?) why shouldn’t they have the choice of going face-to-face? Ah, but we live in a selfish ultra-capitalist society and with our anti-NHS, anti-social housing, anti-poor and anti-environment Government in charge, not giving people consideration is all par for the course.JaneLancashire

banksBanks are vitalThe banks, and other organisations, are continually screaming at us to ‘go online’. When people do that, they then complain that there are insufficient customers using the bank’s branches, so they are being closed. The problem doesn’t just affect the elderly. It must present serious problems for local shopkeepers when it comes to banking their takings.Surely there is a simple solution to this matter. Banking is a vital service for all communities. If the banks want to close down their branch offices, then the ‘Big Five’, or whatever they now are, should be required to maintain a single joint bank in any such location for the benefit of those who cannot go online, or cannot get to the remaining nearest branch miles away from where they live or work. Mile LaceyAddress suppliedcrimeSentence was too lenientAt Action on Elder Abuse, we were appalled to read your story about Maude White, the 91-year-old grandmother who died as a result of neglect and multiple sores (LP November 14).What makes this case even more disturbing is the lenient sentence of just three years handed out to her granddaughter and registered carer, Jacqueline Fairclough, who was found guilty of manslaughter by gross negligence.Her negligence left an older woman to die in “terrible pain”. She also tried to cover her tracks, claiming her grandmother’s sores only appeared on the day of her death, something medical experts say is not possible.If a child had been left to die in such conditions, there would be a national outcry. Instead, because it is an older person who has died, there has been barely a peep from the media and a lenient sentence for the abuser. This isn’t justice.Stephen McCarthyEngland DirectorAction on Elder AbusefundingHelp homeless – build sheltersInstead of putting up buildings and railways that no one wants, contributing taxpayers’ money to institutions like the EU, spending on insane schemes sponsored by the International Aid Programme, authorities both local and national should be spending the money in Britain to address the appalling level of homelessness in our country today. Institutions in this country are crying out for investment while billions of pounds of our money are flittered away abroad every year by blinkered politicians and the presence of food banks in our towns and cities is a consequence of this. Help the homeless by building more shelters.G Kendall ChorleytransportBeeching was a disasterRe: Reversal of Beeching cuts. Beeching was a disaster. How many places have been cut off because of him?Norma Taylorvia email