Here are five letters published in the Echo this week:

'Parking fines drive shoppers away'

TUESDAY’S Echo page 2 and page 13 are directly linked as parking fines are all about making money.

The reference to “no empathy” reminds me of an incident that happened to me in Southend a few years ago.

I used to take a blind friend shopping every Saturday, who had a disabled blue badge. All the disabled bays were full but I noticed a traffic warden.

I asked to be direct to any disabled parking bays and was told that I can park on double yellow lines for three hours and put the start time on the blue badge.

When we returned within the three hours I found I had a parking ticket.

I looked for a parking warden but could only find two police officers, who told me that because there was a small yellow diagonal line on the kerb just up the road, that the blue badge did not allow me to park, therefore received a fine.

So the moral in this scenario is don’t go to Southend, which I now avoid like the plague.

DON WHITE

Castle Point

'High rate of parking tickets overturned'

IF I read the figures correctly, 10.5 per cent of the 59,690 parking tickets issued by Southend Council in 2021 were successfully appealed against and cancelled. An error rate of 10.5 per cent would be unacceptable in the companies I have worked for.

P MIDDLEDITCH

Southend

Furious at BBC Essex cutbacks

I’M absolutely furious, as I’m sure lot’s of other BBC Essex radio listeners must be. BBC head office (bean counters?) want to change/ shorten our Essex County radio broadcasting times.

There’s a saying I firmly believe in…”if it’s not broke, then don’t fix it”.

BBC Essex is such an important part of our everyday day lives, offering a service and lifeline, more ways than some people realise.

Most of its regular listeners are Essex senior citizens. Some are housebound. Many people ring them up, and have live (on-air) phone chats about different things.

Sometimes, they may mention a problem within their lives…I know for sure, BBC Essex phone them back later, advising checking with that person if all is OK. So like I say “leave things alone” please BBC bosses.

WILLY RICHARDS

Benfleet

'Already struggling without refugees' 

YES I accept that the suggested figure of 800 refugees being placed in Southend is at this time only a suggestion, not yet decided upon, but we should be very wary, as the saying goes “no smoke without fire”.

Reading the article in Tuesdays Echo it appears our council will be faced with three alternatives, asked to, expected to or ultimately, ordered to take a ridiculously high number of immigrants irrespective of the problems already facing our city – housing, doctors, hospitals, schools and so it goes on.

This order will be made by a government who have proved themselves unable and clueless to deal with the ever increasing numbers of so called refugees and are desperately looking for a way to deal with them, irrespective of harm caused to local communities.

Before the do-gooders and charities start to shout I accept that there are genuine refugees fleeing from terrible conditions and these we should help.

But what of those that are not genuine? Such as the undisputed large number of young Albanian men who have no reason to leave their own country, looking only upon the UK as a better place to live.

Who will decide how many of these will come to Southend? Fearfully, a government department already in control of an asylum system not fit for a purpose broken and useless.

It really is a frightening situation and not a joke. Where will it end? 800 increased to 1,000?

T BUTLER

Crowborough Road, Southend

Handover unit for ambulances

I was delighted to read that Southend Hospital’s new “ambulance handover unit” has officially opened and firstly wish to thank Anna Firth MP for her help in securing this.

With the facility in place, some ambulances will be able to deliver patients directly to the unit, which will be managed by dedicated clinicians and nurses. Once a hospital bed becomes available the patient will subsequently be moved into the hospital.

This new unit will free up more ambulance crews to attend the emergencies in our area rather than having them wait needlessly before handing over a patient for admission to the hospital.

With a reduction in patient handover delays, more ambulance crews being available, as well as allowing them to finish their shifts on time, these are very positive steps in meeting the anticipated increase in winter demand for our NHS Service.

STEVE BUCKLEY

Conservative councillor