FURTHER to the letter from Dr Peter Williams, that you headlined ‘MP should be on feet championing cause’, readers will be pleased to note that earlier this year the government set out a five-year plan to spend £640bn on infrastructure and remains committed to doing so despite the near £400bn of taxpayers’ money that will be needed to cover the Covid crisis.

They will also be pleased that infrastructure projects will include telecommunications, railways, schools, hospitals and roads, including the A64, the dualling of which I have ceaselessly campaigned for and we anticipate will commence as early as 2025.

The above represents an unprecedented infrastructure spend across the UK and will largely be focused on the North, which I am particularly comforted by having campaigned for a Fairer Deal for the North since my election in 2015, including in my roles as chairs of the All-Party Parliamentary Groups for the Northern Powerhouse and Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire, and the fact that the easily available records show that I am one of the most prolific speakers in Parliament, often on the need for investment in the North.

Kevin Hollinrake, MP for Thirsk and Malton

Thanks for help

I WOULD like to thank, anonymously, a small pocket of Malton residents for their outstanding community spirit.

These people know who they are and no mention of names. Two knights/esses who rescued a young lady in distress, with a car problem and spared no effort to get her back on the road, at no small cost to themselves. Very well done.

The rest of this tiny collection are also due a word of congratulation for their unceasing, “pulling together”, without any histrionics. What a wonderful place to live, we are so very lucky in this troubled world.

Anonymous, Malton

Time to act now

IT is unacceptable for the government to sidestep the issue of social care workers pay with the recent announcement of a public sector pay rise that won’t include them.

Care workers are here to care and have been a stalwart of the Covid-19 frontline. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, our professional care home staff have continued to provide care under the most challenging of circumstance.

They - like their amazing colleagues in health - have done this with compassion, providing a lifeline for the most vulnerable across all our communities. This has never been a low-skilled job, and should never again be consigned as a low paid role. We need the government to act now to ensure that each and every care worker is recognised and rewarded for their extraordinary work.

Vic Rayner, executive director, National Care Forum