Change of name

Virgin was hopeless, along with Stagecoach and by bringing the East Coast Mainline under government control says it all.

In other words, keep standing and paying of course.

EB Warris

Sheffield, S14

Correction

Please accept this correction to my previous letter re Donald Trump.

The information concerning the Iranian bribes story was taken from multiple internet news sources and may be untrue.

On the bright side, it may qualify me for a job with both CNN and the BBC.

P Gray

Sheffield, S5

Keep letters short

I have my copy of the Star delivered and as I’ve been away on holiday for a week I thought I’d catch up with the local news in the six editions I picked up off my doormat.

As I got through the letters pages I saw that Susan Richardson had her twice- weekly half-page blog in again.

She must spend an awful lot of time crossing the Ts and Is in her flat and thinking up how to bore us all yet again.

You must get out more, Susan, and enjoy the beautiful area you are fortunate to live in.

Your letters are so long and boring now I don’t bother to read them any more, so why don’t you keep them short and to the point like the lovely Jayne Grayson and EB Warris.

Surely you must have enough now to paper your bedroom.

Ken Tomlinson

Sheffield, S9

I don’t have much hope

There’s been a Porsche left at Low Edges on a big area of grass and the council have been notified since September/October, 2017 and it’s still not been removed or been driven by its owner. Why?

And the other day the parks department not only had to cut round that car, but others too, it’s wrong.

Why are people being allowed to just park on open grass land?

Surely there’s standards and rules that need to be applied.

It all started when Amey did the roads and paths.

They told people to park anywhere but the road, so they could do the roads, but, some folk think it’s okay all the time.

It’s about time the council got this matter sorted, but I don’t hold out much hope of that happening.

Stephen Rich

Sec Greenhill/Bradway Tara

Children’s mental health

The Government must tackle the ‘burning injustice’ of the deepening crisis facing children’s mental health.

Mental health is one of the major public health challenges of our time. In recent years we’ve seen growing awareness in Westminster and in the media, but now we need urgent action to match the rhetoric.

Research shows that one in 10 children aged between five and 16 has a diagnosable mental health condition, roughly three children in every classroom. Meanwhile, shockingly, three quarters of children with mental health problems cannot access the support they need, with many young people waiting 10 months for the start of treatment.

Clearly we have a major problem, which the Prime Minister rightly described as a ‘burning injustice’ last January. But despite these troubling figures we seem to be sleepwalking our way into an ever deepening crisis. It’s time for society to wake up and work together to ensure the next generation of children has better mental health than their parents.

The Government’s Mental Health Green Paper is a unique opportunity to put this right, but the current proposals lack ambition, the timeframe is too long and the resources too low to achieve the radical step-change we need. In fact, under the current plans, young people in three quarters of England would see no improvement in five years’ time. Two cross-party committees of MPs have warned this could mean hundreds of thousands of young people missing out on the help they need. I hope the Government looks again at the Green Paper and puts in place the resource and the timeframes we need to make a real difference.

Every year, Barnardo’s supports more than 272,000 children, young people, parents and carers across the UK, many of whom are suffering from past trauma and at risk of developing a serious mental health problems that will affect their life chances. These young people need support today – they can’t afford to wait five years.

Javed Khan

Chief executive, Barnardo’s