Here are five letters published in the Echo this week:

Nothing new about paying to pee

LOOKING at it historically “paying to pee” isn’t something that’s new. As a young lad growing up in 1950s East London (Roman Road area) we all had to pay using public toilet cubicles with an old penny pushed into a brass door lock.

Men paid nothing to use their stand up urinals in those days… but happily that inequality to ladies is now old (Victorian values?) history as they say.

A few things in Southend councillor’s statements concern me though, using comparison to “Frinton-on- Sea already charge for their public toilets”.

The majority of residents living there are all wealthy retired citizens, and I say good luck to them….also that “external operators may run Southend toilets”.

All “external” businesses are run to make their own profits. Who will then set the charges for the toilets?

Surely, if Southend council have already built them, then why can’t Southend carry on running them?

Surely it can’t be that hard, while keeping the impending profits for themselves.

WILLY RICHARDS

Benfleet

Memories of a Basildon postman

IT’S 2am and I’m full of the flu, unable to sleep and feeling reflective. Reflective of 34 years as a postman. The heavy old bikes, a health and safety nightmare.

The comradery, the banter, the ill fitting uniform, dog alarms that were useless, torches that lasted a day and bags that consumed water like a drunkard at a wedding. Standing under street lamps to read addresses, scantily clad women answering the door.

The friends we made on deliveries that became our patch. The long conversations about football, politics, religion and the weather. The smiles and good mornings, the sweets and biscuits, cards and tips at Christmas.

Being asked to just keep a lookout while a customer was on holiday, phoning the police while witnessing a break-in thus saving many valuables being nicked. The people we got to know, their stories, their families and their pets. Toby the Labrador rushing out every morning to get the mail and faithfully deliver it to his owners.

The folk we saw become ill and those we lost, the flowers on front lawns and the respects we paid. Watching the sun rise every morning and home by noon. The fact that the office was cleared every single day.

The fact that we were more than just mail deliverers. We were part of the community.

Those days are gone. This isn’t progress it’s regression. It’s sad, it’s tragic, it’s privatisation.

Those days will never come back but I feel privileged to have once been part of them.

To all the colleagues we’ve lost over the years, to all the friends we made inside and outside of the office, they were indeed good times.

PAUL OSBORNE

River View Close, Basildon

A cycle helmet can save your life

FORTY years ago, pestered at home and at work, I reluctantly donned a cycle helmet. 

My son had asked me the question: “How would you feel if we had to care for you as a 
paraplegic?”

Three years ago I ran head first into the back of a lorry, the helmet being almost split into two by the impact on a hard metal edge.

I shudder to think what would have happened, had I not been wearing a cycle helmet.

I thank Messrs. Richardson and Stephenson for raising this topic last week.

Making cycle helmets compulsory would be at huge expense, wake up police time and 
would greatly deter many of us from cycling.

My plea to your cycling readers: if you want to minimise the risk of brain damage, wear a helmet and make yourself be seen – some high viz and lights. 

I cycle on the roads and find nothing but respect from car drivers (thank you!), but we can all make mistakes. Stay safe!

NICK ULLMANN
Railway Approach, Basildon

Dim view on Southend street lights shutdown

THE budget proposal by this Labour-led administration to drastically dim the street lighting in Southend is truly shocking.

We have recently been awarded City Status yet this proposal, if agreed, hardly displays a pride in this achievement. Plunging Southend into near darkness would do nothing to help our night time economy.

Certain Labour councillors recently voiced safety concerns, particularly for women, if the street lighting was turned off.

Strangely though these same councillors appear to be silent on this drastic step proposed by their own side.

One Labour councillor has gone so far as state that this is a victory! Really? I hardly think so.

COUNCILLOR STEVE BUCKLEY

Borman Close, Eastwood

Let your grass grow to help insects

THE proposal by Southend Council’s parks and open spaces team to expand the no-mow rule (Echo, January 6) to encourage pollinators and other insects is much to be applauded.

Anything that can be done in towns and cities to avoid insect deserts is to be welcomed. 87 per cent of all plant species require animal pollination, most of it delivered by insects, whose numbers have been in severe decline over a long period.

There are cautionary tales – in some parts of China, Bengal, and Brazil there are now insect deserts where there are almost no pollinators left, and farmers are having to resort to hand pollinating their crops.

Insects are important for biodiversity as many birds and animals rely on them for food – and wild flowers, as well as crops, rely on them for pollination.

The no-mow, or mow-less, approach, can also be adopted by people in their own gardens.

By mowing the lawn a little less often, flowers such as buttercups, daisies, dandelions, clovers, selfheal, and birds-foot trefoil may well pop up and will draw in a crowd of pollinating insects.

ALAN LAST, Claremont Close, Westcliff