I WRITE with reference to the article by Emma Hobley (August 26), looking back at the history of the Cups Hotel in the High Street.

I knew Colchester High Street so well in the 1940s and 1950s and the Cups was indeed a gem.

I left the Tech School on North Hill and started my first job in 1950 with H E Williams in the High Street.

H E Williams was very special in that it sold and repaired farm tractors and farm machinery in Colchester High Street, with customers all over north Essex and south Suffolk.

Colchester was a great place to live and work in at that time.

Farmers would come into town on market day and the Corn Exchange in the High Street was a centre for trading.

For some it was lunch at the Cups or lunch at Jacklins, next door to Williams.

In the 1960s along came the town planners of Colchester Council.

How they approved the demolition of the Cups and approved replacing it with a block of concrete is unthinkable.

It is written that it was demolished with complete indifference.

It was an act of vandalism by those who had the responsibility to preserve Colchester’s heritage.

The sad thing is that even today we see planning approvals that are slowly spoiling what was a lovely town.

Colchester must take a look at what is happening today and make sure that the town planners are not allowed to continue the degeneration of the town’s character.

JOHN MUNSON Swallow Field, Earls Colne

  • We’ll be forced into private health care

READERS cannot fail to have noticed the media headlines in recent days: ‘NHS cuts planned across England’ and ‘NHS plans closures and radical cuts to combat growing deficit in health budget’ are just two. I have written before about the cost-cutting ‘sustainability and transformation’ plans.

They are likely to lead to the closure of many A&Es, hospital mergers, loss of clinical services, limits on staff recruitment, reductions in face to face consultation and sales of publicly owned land assets.

The health service is struggling to cope with the growing and deliberate black hole in funding and these proposed cuts cannot be blamed on local NHS leaders. The NHS is not collapsing due to weight of demand or too many old people or bad management.

Nor is it collapsing due to overspending. That would be true if Government had matched the NHS budget to actual health care needs but they haven’t.

We are told that a universal health care system is unaffordable and yet we spend 9.1 per cent of our GDP on healthcare compared to 11.5 per cent in France and 11.3 per cent in Germany.

The level of cuts and closures required is such that the NHS will no longer be able to provide a universal service.

In fact, the NHS will no longer offer its key elements, comprehensive, universal and accessible care and private health care will reap the rewards.

PRUE PLUMRIDGE London Road, Maldon

  • Hospital staff gave us wonderful care

WE so often read bad reports about our local hospitals.

However, our family experienced the opposite.

My husband recently spent over two weeks in Peldon Ward, Colchester Hospital.

He had the most wonderful care from all the staff. They looked after him with care and dignity at all times.

His family were also on the receiving end of their kindness and witnessed their humour and patience every day with all the patients in their care. They are even having a sponsored walk in early September to raise money for their ward.

Thank you to you all for your kindness.

LEWELLEN FAMILY

  • PCSOs were paid for by the council

THE report in the Gazette’s sister paper, the Braintree and Witham Times last week talks about plans to try and reintroduce a police presence into Witham town.

I am sure many would welcome this, assuming that Essex Police could find anyone to man an office in the town centre.

However, I was startled by the comment from the spokesperson for the police about the possibility of the Town Council funding a PCSO.

The Town Council used to fund two PCSOs and very popular they were too, but the police unilaterally abolished the positions and without even bothering to let the council know they were doing it.

It is, therefore, rather a cheek for the police to raise the issue again as if they were doing the council a favour.

Hopefully the police and the Town Council can discuss this on a pragmatic basis as it is clear that our town is suffering from a lack of police and we would all like to see this problem remedied promptly.

BARRY FLEET The Avenue, Witham