Cyclists need to be safe on the road – for the sake of the taxpayer

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Cyclists need to utilise the cycle paths that have been provided for them (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

I understand the government is looking at having a minimum passing distance for when a vehicle passes a bike. I don't have a problem and would generally agree with it. Care must be taken about large vehicles negotiating around junctions in cities, etc, but I'm sure a good solution can be found in those cases.

However, I do have one great concern. Middle-aged men in lycra (MAMILs) who can't be bothered to use cycle paths, etc.

These have been paid for by taxpayers – motorists pay taxes to use roads, cyclists don't, neither do they need a licence or insurance – for the safety of cyclist. They are a very sensible idea, if only they were used by MAMILs. Ordinary cyclists will use them, but not MAMILs. Cyclists must be required to use these safety facilities when provide, for their own and other's safety.

Duncan Anderson

Immingham

Scotland owes a great deal to the EU

I am intrigued to note that a group comprising a handful of SNP activists has been established to back the Vote Leave campaign. It should be noted that Brexit would have a major impact on Scotland as we pay an 8.4 per cent population share of the UK’s EU membership fee but we get back 17.4 per cent of all EU spending in the UK.

The EU plays a vital role in redistributing the overly concentrated investment and hoarded wealth of London and the south east back to Scotland. Our net fee for EU membership is only £97m per year or, if you like, £18 per person.

Then we need to consider that free trade with the EU is worth £7bn to Scotland’s economy and there is a resultant additional £2.2bn in tax revenue. So for every £1 Scotland gives to the EU we get at least £20 back.

Financially, the EU clearly works in Scotland’s favour. It charges the UK for membership but then gives some of that money back in the form of grants to support Scottish Government spending, such as The European Regional Development Fund and European Social Fund programmes, encouraging investment in smart, sustainable and inclusive growth across Scotland. These funds have £700m allocated for spending over the next six years.

In the event of Brexit, Scotland would be at the whim of Westminster as to how any such funding is allocated. Rest assured, with the current UK Government’s focus on delivery of the Northern Powerhouse and London-centric approach, the level of funding we enjoy north of the border would not continue.

It is strange that this group of individuals would be so eager to put their faith in a Tory Government at Westminster to deliver the same levels of funding we currently enjoy.

Alex Orr

Edinburgh

Social integration has not worked in the UK

Let the facts speak for themselves.

The two main arguments over the EU referendum are immigration and the economy, with numerous claims and predictions viewed by the voters as pure speculation. So look at the facts.

Regardless of how well we are told the country is supposed to be doing, many just don’t see or feel it. The people I see speaking up for the Remain vote are business leaders of multi-national companies and career politicians who are clearly feathering their own nests. They go on about all the job losses we will endure if we leave, yet how many have gone down the swanny already in the steel, retail and banking industries this year alone. Where’s the advantage of the EU here?

The immigration issue is not just about the hundreds of thousands of migrants that are settling in our already over-crowded country every year. The consequences go much further: housing, schools, jobs, NHS, crime. We’ve all seen the impact. Yet I haven’t heard one person from the Leave campaign say that they would stop immigration, only that it needs controlling, something we cannot do while ever we are part of the EU.

Here in Sheffield we have seen racial tensions bubbling in the Page Hall area where different ethnicities have been rammed together with no thought of the repercussions. Many towns and cities throughout the UK now have their own Page Hall. However, certain councils and media try their hardest to suppress this type of bad news in order to portray a harmonious multi-cultural society.

The EU has grown immensely over the years in its membership, its powers and in particular by the ever-increasing number of highly paid bureaucrats in Brussels. And it will continue if we allow it. My view is that it has been an experiment tried and an experiment failed. And I truly believe that most ordinary citizens from Western Europe would love to turn back the clock and revert to living in their independent countries with their old currencies.

The EU referendum is the biggest decision of a generation. Vote Leave on 23 June. Your kids will thank you for it.

Peter Flynn

Sheffield

House price reductions would benefit the young

I am intrigued as to why young people would be against a reduction in house prices. I'm all for a drop, if the value of my house falls so does the one I want to buy, but if I were 30 years old with no property...think about it.

B G Levin

Address supplied

EU migrants are working in the NHS, not sitting in the waiting room

Until I saw the Leave' campaign's latest enlightening broadcast, I didn't realise that the future of our beloved NHS depended on purging our waiting rooms of all those parasitic EU migrants who are clogging up the system and stretching its resources to breaking point.

The funny thing is that whenever I've visited a hospital or GP the vast majority of the EU migrants I encountered were working for the NHS, not being treated by the NHS. But what do I know? Surely Pinocchio Johnson wouldn't lie.

Lee Allane

St Leonards on Sea

Sir Philip Green is not to blame for BHS

I fail to understand the fuss about Philip Green and Dominic Chappell. These people are wealth creators and as such should be celebrated. Just because that wealth may have been accumulated via legal tax avoidance schemes and then spent on vast yachts is surely not cause for complaint: it reflects the dynamism and flexibility of our modern markets and is rewarding these captains of industry for their sense of opportunity.

If the staff at BHS were so good, why aren't they as rich as Sir Philip?

Howard Pilott

Lewes

Will we rebuild Hadrian's Wall after Brexit?

A scenario for comment: UK votes for Brexit. The Scottish Government claim a material change and vote yes in a double referendum to leave the UK but join the EU. How then does the rump of the UK maintain its new land border? Does it rebuild Hadrian’s Wall and potentially Offa’s Dyke if Wales decides to leave the UK?

Paul Grove

Address supplied