Letters: Failing concrete joins the omnishambles awaiting the next government

SIR – Reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) is yet another thumping headache for the next government to deal with. Schools, hospitals etc were built from it in the 1960s onwards by people who knew they would be well out of range when the reckoning came 50 years later.

I have to consider if this useless bunch in power today is wilfully building an omnishambles of monstrous size for the next useless bunch that takes the strings of power.

I’ve been watching The Thick Of It and am now convinced it is a documentary or a prophecy of the future uselessness of governments. What sane person would want the job of PM?

Rod Beardsell
Nantwich, Cheshire

SIR – We heard last week that 120,000 of our citizens had died while on waiting lists for hospital treatment.

It seems we will now increase the length of those waiting lists as hospital utilisation is further restricted because concrete beams in their construction may fracture and cause deaths.

Thus we will be avoiding the possibility of headline-generating deaths of people allowed to use hospitals for the certainty of more, but less dramatic, deaths of people not allowed to use hospitals.

Dr Kevin M O’Sullivan
Plymouth, Devon

SIR – If it is true that the problem with aerated concrete was known about in 2018, what better time was there to rectify the problem than a pandemic when schools were closed?

Mark Davies FRCS
Old Chalford, Oxfordshire

SIR – Why is central government being blamed for the lack of proper maintenance of buildings by local educational authorities, local government run by Labour, Liberal Democrats and Conservatives, and the incompetent NHS? The reality is that it has taken the Conservative Government to close buildings that should have had regular surveys and maintenance to prevent the problem. Blame and hold them to account rather than the Government that has had to act to save lives.

David Brinkman
Poole, Dorset

SIR – The furore about RAAC parallels that surrounding high alumina cement (HAC) concrete, a common structural material from around 1950 to 1970. It too was also prone to sudden failure, as with the collapse of the roof of a swimming pool in 1974.

For a time in the 1970s, the sales of flats became almost impossible until it could be proved that HAC was not used in their construction.

The fact that RAAC is now giving rise to similar worries about building safety suggests that the whole system of the approval of structural materials requires fundamental overhaul. 

David Bray
Godalming, Surrey

A lopsided C of E

SIR – Charles Moore’s article will speak for many Anglicans.

In particular, he refers to the multiplication of bishops, despite calls for episcopal numbers to be reduced. 
Add to this that, under the present leadership, bishops, almost without exception, are being drawn from an Evangelical stable. The great High Church-Catholic Anglican tradition is being marginalised. 

Churches offering free-style, enthusiastic gatherings with little, if any, connection with historic Anglicanism appear to have official favour. Those maintaining a dignified and reverent liturgy with sound doctrinal preaching receive little appreciation or encouragement.

The mind and self-understanding of the Church of England have become woefully unbalanced and impoverished. Yet how can the situation be redeemed by those who know and care little for Anglican tradition and have themselves created the problem?

Rev Barry A Orford
London NW3

Fight the Treasury

SIR – In this highly dangerous world, which Ben Wallace, the previous Defence Secretary, characterised as becoming more insecure and unstable, we must all wish Grant Shapps success as the new Defence Secretary. 

Mr Wallace made clear in his resignation letter “that we must not return to the days where Defence was viewed as a discretionary spend by Government and savings were achieved by hollowing out”.

The PM’s response to Mr Wallace’s resignation letter is not reassuring, talking of expenditure on a “stable footing” and an aspiration rather than commitment for the Defence budget to reach 2.5 per cent of GDP.

While he is briefed in the MoD, Mr Shapps will see the reality of our Defence hollowing out, and I hope he will fight the Treasury to ensure it is rectified, no matter how much this may rock the boat.

Admiral Lord West of Spithead
London SW1

No fear, no favour

SIR – For many years as a magistrate I carried out the attestation of many police officers of the Devon and Cornwall Police Force.

My recollection of the wording of that attestation is “that I will to the best of my ability prevent all offences against people and property, without fear or favour, prejudice or ill will”.

Say no more.

Richard Jacobs
Exton, Devon

Edward VIII’s heir

SIR – William Shawcross (News focus, September 2) is wrong to suggest that, had Edward VIII become King in 1936, there would have been no Queen Elizabeth.

The Duke of Windsor died, childless, in 1972 and, with the death of her father in 1952, Elizabeth would have succeeded to the throne.

We would have celebrated her Golden Jubilee last year.

Basil Young
London W4

Best decision ever

SIR – When I returned to teaching, having had two children, my first month’s salary went on a dishwasher, the best decision I ever made.

Jacqueline Davies
Faversham, Kent

Flat kept empty

SIR – I was one of the 90 applicants for a short-term let licence in Edinburgh out of 12,000 current owners (report, September 1). 

Despite going through the extraordinary bureaucracy required, my application was refused. 

The first reason given was that “there would be a materially detrimental effect on the living conditions of nearby residents”. I pointed out that I had not had one complaint in over four years of letting and asked for proof of their assertion. None was offered, merely a restatement of their fixation against letting. The second reason was “a loss of housing” since, under Edinburgh planning policy, a short-term let is deemed to be commercial property not residential. 

I had already informed them that we use this flat, our permanent home in Scotland while my wife and I work abroad, about three or four times a year when visiting family and friends. Our choice is either to let it, as we have done until now, or to leave it empty, which would obviously have a far worse impact in the neighbourhood and local economy. 

I am not surprised that this ill-judged policy will cause a massive shortfall in tourist and business accommodation in Scotland.

Ronnie Bradford
Vienna, Austria

Intrusive clapping

SIR – Maybe I am out of touch with modern custom, but I was appalled by the audience applauding at the end of each movement of the Proms concert on Friday, ending with Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony. 

John Howells
Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex

Up from slavery

SIR – The difficulties of dealing with the aftermath of the historic slave trade are illustrated by my own family tree.
My three-times great-grandmother was released from slavery in Barbados in 1820, when she was three years old. Her mother – my four-times great-grandmother – was released at the same time. Research done by a distant relative of mine suggests that the little girl’s father – my four-times great-grandfather – was probably the slave-owner.

The relevant events occurred at least a century and a half before I was born – but should I be offering apologies and reparations, or demanding them?

Edward Rands
Loughborough, Leicestershire

A great country house transformed by the King

SIR – I was surprised by Eleanor Mills’s article (“Instead of staff, the King could shed a few of his palaces,” Features, August 30).

Far from being a royal indulgence, Dumfries House and its estate, through the King’s personal vision and commitment, has been transformed into a model of social and community regeneration.

Once private and closed to the public, it is now free to all as a progressive centre for heritage-skills training, organic farming, horticulture and sustainable food production and Stem education; it is a health and well-being centre for the local community. 

In addition to saving one of the country’s great houses and the world’s greatest collection of Chippendale furniture, it is the second largest employer in East Ayrshire, creating over 200 jobs in what was one of the most deprived regions of Scotland. It is an exemplar that others should follow.

Philip Davies
Chief Executive, Commonwealth Heritage Forum
London W1

A couple of cats and five dozen apple turnovers

SIR – I have collected shopping lists (Letters, September 1) since the 1970s, picking them up from empty trolleys.
One had “New husband”. Another said: “Please put the pussies outside, via the upstairs window and buy a 6v car battery for the VW.”

Mary Ann Barton
Cowes, Isle of Wight

SIR – Keith Macpherson (Letters, September 3) is lucky his supermarket leaves items at the same location so that his grid-based shopping list allows items to be easily found at future visits. 

My Tesco is forever rearranging things, making weekly shopping trips exceedingly frustrating.

Stephen Gledhill
Chadbury, Worcestershire

SIR – My husband was keen not to be caught out so would bring home all varieties of an item requested. If it was cream he would buy single, double, sour and clotted because he “didn’t want to get the wrong thing”. I soon learnt to specify exactly what I wanted.

Gill McFarlane
Brookland, Kent

SIR – While working in France I was tasked with ordering our bread and pastries at the local boulangerie and collecting it the following morning.

Writing down initially “6 chaussons aux pommes”, the cabin girl then crossed it out and changed it to “4”. The next morning the baker’s wife proudly informed me her husband had awoken especially early to bake the special order of “64 chaussons aux pommes”. That cabin girl, now my wife, still checks my lists.

Will Simmonds
Hook Norton, Oxfordshire

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