Your letters on road signs, pub dog bans, a huge housing development and solar farms

This week’s Lynn News letters…Has our county council got money that it can waste?Can anyone explain why an alleyway about 40m long and 3m wide, named Paradise Lane, running between Norfolk Street and Old Sunway, is classified as an ‘urban clearway’ and has quite a plethora of signage when vehicles cannot use it?

Or is it the case that Norfolk County Council has money to waste putting up totally silly signs.Gordon EagleGaywood So where’s the list of all the great benefits?While I’ll be the first to admit to an abject lack of focus when it comes to some of the details within my Friday Lynn News I can’t help feeling I didn’t see even a cursory rundown last Friday of all the marvellous new benefits for West Norfolk triggered by the granting of planning permission for the 1,100 houses to be built beside the A10. Frankly, the list may take longer to compile than I imagined but hopefully once we’ve had a chance to delve into the facts and see precisely how we are going to prosper and thrive on the back of this monster housing estate, we can all sit back and relax and await the promised cornucopia of opportunities.Steve MackinderDenver Ban is fine but do allow hair of the dog!Opinion about Steve Mackinder’s objection to dogs in pubs in last week’s Viewpoint will have a mixed response, but for my part I will take sides with him on an emotive issue. Some pet owners are tunnel visioned, rendering them unable to see the rationale in dog-free inns.His illustration of sniffing crisps reminded me of a dog some years ago in a Lynn pub jumping up at my table and snatching a sandwich from my plate while in the process knocking a pint of beer over. The owner laughed and encouraged it to drink the ale from the floor, and had the audacity to get confrontational with the landlord as he told the owner to remove his pet from the premises.He made me feel the invader for getting angry. Forget about banter bouncers and consider canine bouncers. Steve, the problem goes beyond dogs in public houses to irresponsible owners who do not exercise proportionate control, and unpleasant incidents can ensue, such as my experience, leaving landlords to cut losses, replacing my refreshments being an example, hence the banning of dogs.I will conclude this correspondence with one dispensation on this vexed subject. Bar staff should be free to serve the hair of the dog to cure hangovers!David FlemingDownham There were so many questions left unansweredMany thanks for the two articles last week about proposed solar farms in Norfolk.Did anyone else count up the acreage of the seven sites you named?I was shocked to find it came to 17,083 acres; that is a loss of a great deal of land that we will never see used for growing food again. You mention that the Raynham nine acres will have 5,500 panels so 17,083acres will have how many?I can only urge, that if you are against this devastating loss of food producing land, when the plans are submitted, you go on the council’s planning website and make your protest known. Just a thought, is there any connection between the government’s determination to get farmers off the land and the siting of solar panels?Having attended the Brookville site presentation on Tuesday, I was overwhelmed by the sheer ‘PR glossiness’ of the information displayed but, hugely disappointed that they had no definite answers to my questions and were unable or hesitant to tell me:-If the panels will come from China (which has 80% of the world’s global supply); -Will they carry out due diligence to ensure slave labour is not used in the production? (50% of the polysilicon needed is from Xinjiang Province where slave labour is used);-What is the carbon footprint to manufacture, transport and erect said panels in Brookville (no one seemed to know but, the benefits of their use over the next 30 years would more than compensate);-How will grass grow under the panels for sheep to graze, should the farmer choose to do so? (I know that if a large solid anything is put over grass that keeps the sunlight off, not much continues to grow).However, it was going to be of huge advantage to the farmers involved and we, who will benefit from the energy supplied. I was told that so many sites were proposed for Norfolk because it has the highest rate of sunshine in the UK to benefit from (who knew?).When I questioned the value of that statement on overcast days, I was told they would still work.There was no information available as to how much CO2 will be produced by China burning vast amounts of coal to produce these panels and, that they continue to open mines to meet this need.Also, no mention of the ‘kill switch’ that has been discovered in Chinese made panels, so on a bright sunny day, we may find too late, that they can be prevented from working. Still, who needs food when we can sacrifice vast acres so that we can boast of saving the planet by the fallacious idea of net zero.Mrs José O’WareMethwoldPicture of the Week