Your views on muntjacs, new health centre and school performance

Here are the Lynn News letters from Friday, February 7, 2025…Feeding the muntjacs is misplaced kindnessAs I do a weekly butterfly survey in Reffley Wood I am in a position to see first-hand the damage done by muntjaks. The total number of butterflies counted last year is about one fifth of the number half a dozen years ago. This coincides with the great increase in muntjacs in the wood.

There are very few wildflowers left. What was a beautiful stand of bluebells now only grow a few inches tall. Large areas of the wood have no foliage below about two feet above the ground. This means there is little nectar for the butterflies and few food plants for their caterpillars.Feeding the muntjacs is delightful but it is really a mis-placed kindness.Populations will increase up to the limit of their food supply, so the more they are fed the more there will be and the sooner the population crash will come. That is the way of ecosystems. Starvation or disease will eventually take its toll. I am prompted to write this having found a great decrease in the number of birds in my contribution to the Big Garden Birdwatch. This may or may not be due to muntjacs. The lack of insects, and dogs allowed to rampage through the undergrowth could also be factors.Julian Bull South WoottonNew health centre will affect trafficWhile I might be accused of negativity I can’t help feeling those who have given the green light to the new Willows Health care centre in Paradise Road, Downham haven’t considered the traffic implications. It will indeed make a “huge difference” but not in a good way for residents in the area. While boosting the health service offer in the Downham area, it’s pretty obvious to locals that poor parking, cramped access and existing traffic congestion on this tiny narrow road will now also become hugely problematic as more people are coming.Nobody can seriously have looked at this proposal without considering the looming traffic issues which will undoubtedly escalate exponentially as this expansion goes ahead.Steve MackinderDenver Performance was superb from all castI had the pleasure of being invited to the Springwood High School production of Joseph and the Amazing Dreamcoat.What a fantastic two hours of music and theatre entertainment. Credit and thanks must go to Rob Norman and his team for staging a great production.

I cannot begin to imagine the amount of time, work and dedication needed to undertake all the rehearsals for what is after all a difficult production. The required learning for a long score and script is a major challenge.The performance of the entire cast was superb, the voices and diction were excellent. How refreshing to witness the clear enjoyment and enthusiasm of the young cast, the chorus accompaniment, and the dancers. All performers excelled in their various roles and should be thanked and congratulated.I understand there were only two live performances, I would personally like to thank Springwood High and St Martha’s school for this wonderful entertainment and wish them continued success in the future.David GoddardSouth Wootton How will we house all these extra migrantsYour correspondent (Lynn News, January 24) Cllr Tom Ryves suggests that we welcome migrants to Norfolk because we have an aging population.Sadly, the migrants that would be employed by care homes and other such jobs, wrongly, do not require a high level of skills and will therefore be on very low wages.It has been proven that low-skilled migrants will, and do, prove to be an immediate drain on the public purse, costing taxpayers more than £150,000 each by the time they hit state pension age, according to the Government’s tax and spending watchdog. We are currently building houses all over West Norfolk, most are to be sold. I wonder where we are to house all the migrants that the councillor thinks that will benefit us.Richard JC EnglishLynnLabour is making us great again After years of talk and gimmicks from the Conservative Party, how good it is to see yet more evidence of our magnificent home secretary smashing evil smuggling gangs.First, Labour are introducing terror-style powers to arrest and disrupt people smugglers.Second, the new Border Security Command is to be given powers to work together and set a long term vision for working on border security.Third, Labour are expanding serious crime prevention orders to issue travel and social media bans on smugglers. Fourth, there will be new biometric data powers to identify those who pose a threat to the national security of our country.And finally, there will be a new offence for endangering life at sea.Five well thought out proposals that prove that whereas the Conservative Party was and still is all talk, Labour is taking action to make Britain great again and I commend these plans to every reader.Geoffrey Brookingvia emailThis deathly legislation can still be haltedWe live in an age of British politics where much legislation is sneaked in under the radar and this has been so of late, especially where laws that deal with life and death should be subject to the highest level of scrutiny.Not every detail is examined, concerns addressed and every voice heard. Politicians rely on a lot of public disengagement which they thrive on.MPs were promised that the debate on assisted suicide would receive full, fair and open debate when the Bill was voted through at the second reading.Instead we have seen secrecy, bias and manipulation. The committee reviewing the bill locked out the public, journalists and even Parliament’s own record-keepers. Why? It was because those forcing this law through don’t want people to see what’s happening.This is an example of how bad laws are made, not through open and transparent debate, but through procedural trickery with dissent being demonised, and once a law like this is passed it is usually irrevocable, not even stopping with the “terminally ill”. Now some MPs who originally supported the bill are waking up to the deception.Andrew Rosendell, MP believes he was deceived when voting in favour of assisted suicide recently stating: “I believed Kim Leadbeater when she assured us that sunshine would win the day and there was to be full public scrutiny of the bill. I now know that wasn’t true.”We need just 28 MPs to re-evaluate and change the vote. If they do, this dangerous bill will be stopped. Readers can play their part by writing to our MPs James Wild and Terry Jermy to lobby them accordingly. The third reading after the report stage will be in April/May.Do not let apathy and disinterest prevail. The famous philosopher Plato warned against this when he stated: “One of the penalties of refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.”With resolve and conviction, this deathly legislation can still be halted, otherwise many of us face victimhood in later life, and it will be too late when the horse has bolted.David FlemingDownhamPICTURE OF THE WEEK

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