The congestion in Colchester’s North Station area, as highlighted by Anne Turrell in yesterday’s Gazette, has been with us for at least a decade, so why the sudden concern?

To expose this nightmare to the motorist by this official rubs salt into the wound.

The constant congestion affects us all in terms of time, health, and wealth.

Officials are free with their promises but are unable to react. Sadly, nothing changes.

Brian Love Gentian Court, Braiswick, Colchester

  • ‘We need to start fracking in north Essex’

I AM disabled and of limited means.

However, when I was young I was an engineer in gas.

In a nutshell, if only the Government would grant a licence we have the capability to do fracking in Colchester, Braintree and Tendring.

Fracking is a well-proven method of extracting gas from underground.

This would supply more than enough gas to these areas for all of our central heating and hot water requirements, which in turn means we would not longer have to buy any more gas from Russia.

E Huber Cheveling Road, Colchester

  • Another asset set to disappear

It comes as no surprise that by losing its car park to housing development Harwich and Parkeston Football Club is at risk.

It appears this town is slowly having its soul eviscerated.

I am not the only one who wonders where the culture that was uniquely Harwich is going.

Certainly playing for the Shrimpers was once a matter of local pride.

I am sure the next tradition on the list will banning model sailing boats on the boating lake, just in case they offend a truculent sea bird.

It seems to me the only recreational pass time we can enjoy soon will be driving around the county looking for a recycling tip which will be open and willing to take our rubbish.

What is the obsession with building visually uninspiring houses in a town with few jobs, stretched services and fast diminishing sense of community cohesion? So many sports nowadays are hidden behind TV pay walls and many live professional events are out of the financial reach of many.

Thankfully organisations such as the Parkeston Welfare Park, with multiple active football teams, is keeping communities and grassroots football alive. You never know they might actually produce some world class players.

Marcus Needham Garland Road, Parkeston

  • Strong and stable? Tories' policies are nothing but chaotic

I THOUGHT I had said my piece on this election but the U-turn just announced by Theresa May takes the biscuit.

Call me old fashioned, but I expect a certain level of competence from my government in its pursuit of its stated policies.

I could accept the U-turn on the self-employed with regards to National Insurance, though the changes to the taxation system that are going ahead will still hit small businesses.

Additionally, the vague nature of the Tory Manifesto with its 60 uncosted policies would have had the media screaming if these had been in Labour or Liberal Democrats manifestos.

However, the U-turn on the support for care for the elderly in their own home only a few days after publication shows those running the country have no idea of how to run a fair system.

The current system for those in care homes is already chaotic and its extension to a very large number of people for care in their own home would significantly multiply the problems.

The main beneficiaries would be, and may still be, those finance companies and insurance brokers who hoodwinked us over things like PPI as we must “mortgage” our property to pay monthly.

Who is going to meet the fees for these arrangements and will these be part of the cap or whatever limit?

When you link this to the “means testing” of the winter fuel allowance, one must have serious doubts about how this is going to work.

If they proposed to tax the allowance then that would be relatively simple to apply.

However, means testing usually requires the completion of forms and complex rules at the margins.

My daughter’s partner would say: “They don’t know they’re doing.” Strong and Stable government? Sounds much more like Coalition of Chaos to me!

Alan Short Oaks Drive, Colchester

  • Want the Tories out? Vote Lib Dem

If Labour were unable to win in Colchester during the landslide election victories of 1997 and 2001, where they finished third in both as indeed they have done at every General Election over the past 34 years, does anyone seriously believe they can come from 3rd place now to win in 2017?

Don’t forget only two years ago they were some 11,000 votes behind the Conservatives.

The only credible candidate who can beat the Conservatives is Liberal Democrat, Bob Russell.

As a four-time winner in Colchester in the national elections until 2015 and with Labour’s record of consistently coming in third, the sensible choice for those of us who do not want a Conservative MP in Colchester, is clearly and unequivocally, Bob Russell.

Glanville Williams, Van Dyck Road, Colchester

  • Carpetbagger has parachuted in

The Ukip candidate in Clacton has recently insisted in the pages of the Gazette he has not been “parachuted in” by head office over and above the wishes of the local membership who voted for Jeff Bray, a well-respected local councillor.

So if the political term “parachutist” is not appropriate what is? I think probably the term “carpetbagger” could be more apt.

According to Wikipedia, a parachute candidate is a term for an election candidate who does not live in and has little connection to the area he or she is running to represent.

The allegation is thus the candidate is being “parachuted in” for the job by a desperate political party.

The Merriam Webster dictionary describes a “carpetbagger” as an outsider, especially a non resident or new resident, who seeks private gain from an area often by meddling in its business or politics.

Politicaldictionary.com describes “carpetbaggers” as referring to any outsider who moves into an area to seek political power at the expense of the locals.

So whether the Ukip candidate is a parachutist or a carpetbagger makes no difference, he is not an appropriate candidate for Clacton.

I will be voting for a candidate that has some connection with the area.

Richard Everett Harold Way, Frinton