Inflaming feelings

Susan’s tone, language and the few examples she quotes go towards suggesting that the large majority of immigrants are causing untold problems in our city when it is a small minority of them doing so, (in the same way that a minority of British people are also doing.)

This only goes to inflame the feelings of the population in general that we are being swamped by immigrants whereas the truth is that without them many of our industries and services would be in a far worse state than they currently are.

John Scholey

Clifford Road

Give vegan diet a try

November 1 was World Vegan Day, and this year, more people than ever were celebrating.

Interest in vegan living is booming – the number of people embracing a plant-based diet rose by more than 360 per cent between 2006 and 2016 in the UK alone, and more and more vegans are sprouting up every day.

You can spare countless cows, chickens, pigs, sheep, fish, and other animals pain and suffering simply by going vegan, and swapping animal-based foods for plant-based ones isn’t just good for animals – it also benefits the environment and our health.

The land required to feed a meat-eater is approximately five times that needed to feed a vegan.

By turning pastureland back into native habitats and forests, we would likely see the return of bison, wolves, and other animals who were pushed out or killed so that farmers could graze cattle and sheep

And now that high-street eateries such as Pizza Express, Starbucks, and Wagamama offer tasty vegan menu options, eating out is easier than ever.

For animals, the planet, or your health, give vegan eating a try this November.

If you do, I’m willing to bet you’ll wish you’d done it sooner.

Dawn Carr

Director of Vegan Corporate Projects PETA UK

Reinventing the wheel

So South Yorkshire Police are reintroducing Safer Neighbourhood Teams to certain areas of Sheffield in the new year.

I’m sorry but didn’t we have these teams a few years ago before the cost cutting of SYP left the public exposed and under-policed.

I fully support the reintroduction of these teams but we had them anyway a few years ago, so this is just reinventing the wheel.

Let’s hope they are left alone this time and able to do some good in areas that badly need it.

Alan Jarvis

Sheffield

Speed and road safety

Mike Wilson, (Your Say, November 1), raises some issues about 20mph zones that I would like to respond to.

He asks how the 20mph limits are to be enforced.

I would like to ask him how the current 30mph limits are enforced?

The very same measures are available to the police for 20mph and if residents are concerned that motorists are driving too fast they can report them via 101 or the police non-emergency reporting form, https://www.reportingcrime.uk/SYPincidentreport/

The 20mph limits are here to stay and over time people will get used to them and reduce their speeds.

These 20mph zones make minuscule differences to overall journey times ,so in themselves will not lead to fewer car journey into town or elsewhere.

If however, by making the streets safer people find themselves more able to walk, cycle or take public transport into town or around their area, so much the better.

Lastly, 20mph zones aren’t primarily about pollution, they are about road safety.

You are seven to 10 times more likely to survive a collision with a road vehicle at 20mph than you are at 30mph, depending on your age.

Pollution savings, again, are likely to come from people having the confidence to walk, cycle or use public transport and leave their cars at home.

Simon Geller

20s Plenty for Sheffield

Community library

In response to your article “First few chapters weren’t easy for community library”, (The Star, October 28), one of the Stannington Library volunteers is quoted as saying that “the fundraising we do raises about half” the amount needed to run the library.

If this is the case, then why is the library still getting a council grant?

The volunteer library model was proved to not be financially viable when the volunteer libraries failed to become self-funding by 2017 as per the council’s original plan in 2014.

It is also worth noting that the subsidies given to volunteer libraries could have paid to retain one-third of the library assistants made redundant in 2014.

As a final point, I also noted that almost every library volunteer featured in The Star last week appeared near retirement age.

What happens to these libraries if they are unable to attract enough young volunteers to take over once the current batch of volunteers are too old to run them?

Martin Vaughan

Enough is enough

Well it looks like the lunatics have finally taken over the asylum.

Reading in the Star recently that a mock funeral was held in the city by the tree campaigners only made me think how sad these people really are.

If this had happened some years ago then the men in white coats would surely have come to take them away.

Can’t these people understand that the tree programme is going to carry on no matter what, and no amount of protest is going to stop it?

Anybody would think that we are chopping down the Amazon rain forest and not trees that are deemed to be either unsafe or causing a problem to roads and pavements.

If they realised the damage caused underground in the drains and under housing then I think they might think again.

The amount of carbon dioxide that these protesters have exhaled into the atmosphere over the past few months with their condemnation of the programme has probably killed a couple of saplings so why don’t they stop complaining.

Enough is enough.

Sheffield