An East Ham resident claims he can’t get his recycling collected

Rubbish that recycling bin collection was missed

David Hampton, Hatherley Gardens, East Ham, writes:

Last Thursday, our recycling bin was overlooked. We went online and reported this, and were given a ‘job number’ and a ‘target date’ of the following Monday (June19). Nothing happened.

Five days after the missed collection, we received an email notifying us that the job has been done. Yet the rubbish bin sits where it has since last Thursday, full to the brim near our garden gate.

Going online to try to re-submit notification of our missed collection, the website informed us that such reports can only be made within three days of the missed collection.

I tried then to submit a complaint, feeling fairly aggrieved at this treatment given that I pay over £1,000 a year for what I thought were supposed to be services provided in exchange. Having described my problem, I clicked ‘Submit’. Three hours later, I was still waiting for the next page to come up. My broadband works fine for every other site.

In short, Newham Council’s recycling waste collection is not efficient, their ‘job number’ system doesn’t work, their system of accountability is not fit for purpose and their website is a shambles.

I’m a Labour voter, nationally. Locally, I’m no longer so sure.

Thanks for your support of Air Ambulance

Jonathan Jenkins, CEO of London’s Air Ambulance, writes:

As I come to the end of my first 60 days as CEO of London’s Air Ambulance, I would like to emphasise the importance of local support to our charity and share some words of thanks with the people of Newham.

It’s a great feeling when you find out a company has donated a large sum of money to the charity, but it is vital to never lose sight of our grass-root supporters. To me, a local cake sale is just as important as a big corporate partnership. This charity was built on community spirit; it’s a service funded by the people of London for the people of London and that’s something I really want to focus on during my time as CEO.

In April, players from the East London Rugby Club who play at your local Memorial Ground in West Ham organised a St George’s Day match to raise funds for our charity. Everyone who took part donated £10 to play and money collected on the day was topped up by £121 from a bake sale by the East London Ladies team, making a grand total of £521. This kind of local support means everything to us.

The money raised by communities goes towards delivering our advanced trauma team by helicopter or rapid response car to critically injured people across the capital and it’s thanks to your help that London’s Air Ambulance was able to treat 74 people in Newham last year. Now we need your help again to raise awareness of our charity status.

Whilst eight out of 10 people have heard of the London’s Air Ambulance service around two-thirds of people in London are not sure or don’t think that London’s Air Ambulance is a charity. This is a massive hurdle to overcome as we try to gain more support. It may be explained by the fact that, on average, people believe 47 per cent of our funding comes from either the NHS, central government or local government. In reality, we receive the majority of our income from public donations. People also believe that we exist to transport people to hospital or from hard to access areas, when in actual fact, we deliver a doctor and paramedic to a patient’s side to deliver treatment only usually found in a hospital emergency department – this includes open chest surgery, anaesthesia, blood transfusions and advanced pain relief.

Over the last few years the charity has focused on acquiring a second helicopter and securing extended daylight flying hours, with these aims achieved we will now focus on the challenge of increasing awareness of our charitable status.

It is the work you do promoting, fundraising or volunteering in your local community that helps spread the message that we rely on public donations. Together, I know we can carry on helping critically injured people in London.

Finally, I would like to say a huge thank you for everything you have already done for London’s Air Ambulance. It is down to you that we have treated more than 36,000 patients in our 28 years of service and your continued support will help us save lives long into the future.

Government must go ahead with Brexit

Will Podmore, Clavering Road, Wanstead, writes:

Both the Conservative and the Labour parties were clear in their manifestos that we will leave the European Union and leave the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice, that we will regain control of our borders and will leave the EU’s single market and its customs union.

In the general election we voted 85 per cent to 15pc for parties that accepted our vote to leave the EU and its single market. All the pro-EU parties – the SNP, the LibDems, the Greens - lost votes.

YouGov finds that 70pc of us think that the government should go ahead with Brexit. 44pc actually support it and 26pc don’t personally back it but think the government has a duty to go ahead with it anyway.

Lottery players have helped pets at vet charity

Nicola Martin, PDSA head of pet health and welfare, writes:

On behalf of vet charity, PDSA, I would like to say a huge thank you to all local players of People’s Postcode Lottery.

We have received fantastic funding support from players this year, which has helped us to secure a better future for thousands of pets, as well as providing emergency care and life-saving equipment.

Since January we’ve:

• Carried out over 27,000 emergency operations across our UK Pet Hospitals

• Purchased 10 critical items through a National Emergency Equipment Fund to repair or replace old or failing clinical equipment. This has included X-ray machines, ultrasound machines, microscopes and blood pressure monitors

• Hosted Pet First Aid courses which have equipped hundreds of people with potentially life-saving skills. These have taken place across the UK with many more planned throughout the year

• Promoted PDSA’s online symptom checker which has been utilised over 52,000 times. The free tool has helped owners with queries they have about their pets’ health

Just like people, pets can suddenly fall ill, or sustain an unexpected injury. Whatever the cause, the emergency care we provide is vital. For some pets, immediate assessment and diagnosis can be the difference between life and death. PDSA is home to the UK’s busiest pet A&E service, so this funding helps us provide a vital lifeline for pets in need.

Over £200 million has been raised by players of People’s Postcode Lottery for good causes across Great Britain since the lottery launched – an incredible achievement. On behalf of us here at PDSA and all the pets we treat, well done and thank you.

Lack of toilets on Crossrail trains may cause delays

Richard Enever, address supplied, writes:

Over the past few years, I have been complaining about the lack of campaigning for toilets on Crossrail.

Crossrail says there will be toilets at every station. That may be true, but anyone could get taken short on a train without toilets. The journey to Heathrow from Brentwood will be 1 ¼ hours.

Is a family expected to miss their book-in time at Heathrow because someone in their party is incontinent?