Welcome to the You & Yours Blog

I followed with interest the item concerning the current petrol price in the UK. The one group of people who really need to use their cars are disabled people with Motability cars. Many of those people with mobility problems have to exist on the not over-generous disability benefit (I belong to that group) and the result is that the exhorbitant petrol costs prohibit disbabled people to use their Motability cars. I can use mine only once a week to do a weekly shop, otherwise I am stuck in my house. The neares bus stop is about 1/2 mile away and I can't walk. Ergo, I am to all intense and purpose housebound.

Motability is a flawed scheme as it offers just one option for independent (sic) personal mobility when there are other ways which can give greater independence and mobility that do not have the sale of a car and a scheme that props up the car industry.

One example immediately comes to mind of a couple where on cannot go far without a wheelchair but they live in a 'miners row' cottage whre there is nowhere to keep a car, and find the ideal solution for the local trips in to town is a Duet cycle-wheelchair tandem. They cost around £2000 at that time but the only deal on offer was a car - so to use that the couple had to rent a garage som distance from their house and any trip to toen involved 4 extended journeys to collect and return the car from its garage - the tandem (the bike bit detaches) would have lived in the house, with the wheechair for moving around in.

The ultimate challenge to this daft failure to recognise cycles as mobility aids has to be the recent story of a Parkinsons Disease sufferer who was literally unable to walk a single step but able to cycle 50 miles without any problems - there are so many like this - and a leading example in a lady who returned her mobility scooter and puts her allowance to running a tricycle - which in turn provides a faster and fitter way to get around, and is light enough to get in to places the scooter would never be able to. She no longer has issues of funding and time restrictions that accompany the use of a taxi or care/dial a ride bus for every local journey

Wake Up DfT and DoH (and for that matter some car-focussed disability groups) - you cannot even offer any indication of how many people are using cycles as mobility aids but in Germany a cyclist riding through a pedestrian precinct was stopped by a Policman - but on spotting the absence of a rather significant part of one limb (to the hip) the cyclist was waved on with the comment Ah RollStuhl (I see - a wheelchair) PS Peter W will probably be one to know how many registered blind folk can actually ride a bike but never get a driving licence, a real gain for those who are partially sighted.

PS Fulbear - The Cycling Project (Warrington) and a number of others offer the opportunity to try out cycles appropriate to your ability - I have over 20 years of encouraging folk to do this and some eye-wetting examples, including the trike built for a boy with no arms - steered by leaning his body and brakes by tipping back his head (gears with the insides of feet and thighs). Take a look at the Inclusive cycling forum website to see some examples of people with missing and malfunctioning body bits who are riding around and indistinguishable from any other cyclists when rolling along.

As an elderly driver, I find modern headlights definitely DO dazzle dangerously, esp. eg when driving up a hill meeting an oncoming vehicle coming over the brow.

ALSO the dazzling array of rear lights decorating today's cars are like Piccadilly Circus!
In the 'good old days' the number & brightness of rear lights was strictly controlled.

John Duffield (in Rugby, Warks)

Has anyone considered the global warming aspect of xenon lights? Is not one of the ideas to make the lights more efficient for less power (less demand on alternator = lower fuel consumption) and if correctly set (and car is loaded in a balanced way) should not dazzle other motorists?

I was interested in the announcement that from February 2011, new cars will have have lights on all the time? What about the global warming aspect of that legislation? Something for YaY to investigate!

I was appalled by how your programme today trivialised the introduction of non native species to the countryside. The comments given by Kerry Thomas of Which Gardening magazine seemed to be wrong and to me deeply irresponsible. The Wildlife and Countryside Act (WCA) 1981 makes it an offence to release into the wild any animal, plant or micro-organisms not ordinarily resident to the UK. The Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology estimates that the introduction of non-native species into the UK ecosystem has over the years cost the economy several billions of pounds. It is imperative you correct the wrong impression given, and give an on air apology.

see here:
https://www.environmentlaw.org.uk/rte.asp?id=214

Bluntly, the public have no right to treat the countryside like a garden and plant whatever they think may look pretty. It can be seriously damaging to the environment. Consider how much time and effort (and money!) has been spent trying to remove invasive ornamental plants like rhododendrons from the countryside. I am AMAZED a consumer programme could seemingly be so irresponsible

Why has the issue of headlights on 4x4's not been investigated - they are simply too high and dazzel us mere mortals in sensible sized vehicles.

I listened with great interest to your piece on LPG. This is our third Christmas with LPG slowly running out.Each year Shell Gas say they can do nothing to help us. It is illegal for us to order from another suppplier yet they cannot tell us when or if we will have gas. We pay £160 a month for one hour of heating in the six months of winter and early spring and yet when we need them to deliver they dont. RAF Benson which is our nearest weather station reported -17 this week. I am cancelling my aged parents visiting this christmas for fear the cold of this property will affect their health. I cannot tell you how frustrated we feel.
Andrew

I would just like to say that I was very disappointed by the views of most people in relation to giving aid to other countries. I feel that until every last homeless person in the UK and every solder has had all of his entitlements, then we should not give a penny. However if that caveat is meet then I would agree to sending money as aid to other countries. It is a pity that I know that at least in my life time that we will never home the homeless and honour our commitments to our serving soldiers now and past.