DVLA efficiency
SIR – Unlike Colin Drummond (Letters, January 18), when I renewed my driving licence online a couple of weeks ago, I had an immediate confirmation from the DVLA that my application had been received. A couple of days later another email said my new licence had been despatched, and I received it within a week.
I had a similar experience renewing my passport online in December.
Elaine Smith
Penistone, South Yorkshire
SIR – I can recommend publicly tweeting at the DVLA on an hourly basis. This resulted in a phone call from an efficient employee, and the arrival of my licence 24 hours later.
Ann Hughes-Wilson
Tunbridge Wells, Kent
Change our cricket
SIR – England’s Ashes performance was disappointing (Sport, January 18) but not unexpected. The ECB must look at the structure of our first-class game.
Australia has a very competitive domestic league consisting of five strong state sides. Our 18 county sides necessarily include many journeyman batsmen and bowlers. To strengthen the Test team I suggest dividing the counties into six regional sides. For example, the South West region would comprise Glamorgan, Somerset and Gloucestershire. Each county would contribute three or four players. Only England-qualified players would be eligible and teams would play each other twice throughout the season.
A county championship could run alongside the major competition to provide opportunities for younger players and those from overseas.
Don Blackford
Birmingham
SIR – If only England “batters” could spend as much time at the crease as they do at the bar.
Peter Pearce
Bunbury, Cheshire
Toaster pyrotechnics
SIR – When I was a child we had an identical Morphy Richards toaster to the one in the news (Letters, January 18). It suffered when my four-year-old brother jabbed his knife into it, showering sparks across the kitchen and blowing the mains fuse.
I shall never forget the glee on his face. He still has the knife, complete with molten end.
Tony Parrack
London SW20
Magistrates’ powers
SIR – In your report (January 18) on the increase in powers for the magistracy, you say “leading barristers” have warned that it would result in more people being jailed – an allegation that crops up each time this is discussed.
I am now in my 34th year as a magistrate and can categorically say that I don’t go into court in the morning seeing how many criminals I can imprison. Each case is decided on fairly and within its merits. Each side’s views are noted carefully and, if we find a person guilty, the punishment is also considered fairly.
As Dominic Raab, the Justice Secretary, has stated, magistrates are dedicated and well-trained, and each courtroom is supported by a dedicated, well-trained legal adviser.
Let’s give this time to settle. Let each side work constructively and, after a year or two, see where we are.
Nicholas Allan
Rochester, Kent
SIR – When I practised as an advocate in the criminal courts I found that many of my clients would elect to be tried in the Crown Court, on the basis that the risk of a longer sentence was offset by the greater chance of an acquittal after a trial by jury.
Increasing the sentencing power of magistrates from six to 12 months’ imprisonment for an individual offence will encourage more defendants to elect Crown Court trial – which will increase, not decrease, the backlog of cases. In addition, the Crown Court will acquire an increased backlog of appeals against sentences from magistrates’ courts.
This situation will never change while magistrates’ courts are manned by unqualified lay magistrates.
Tim Leete
Burgess Hill, West Sussex
Sporadic post
SIR – It is disappointing that Royal Mail continues to claim that ‘‘deliveries are operating as normal across most of the country” (report, January 18).
I haven’t seen my area acknowledged as one with problems, yet I have had only two deliveries in the three weeks since Christmas – although, as that seemed to be the pattern for much of last year, perhaps it is now normal.
Rachel Backhouse
Thatcham, Berkshire
Low-bar driving test
SIR – Val Mann’s letter (January 12) about going to the pub after driving lessons reminded me of the test I took on the island of Alderney in 1965.
I bumped into the examiner in a pub and told him I had just failed my test on the mainland. He said he could test me for an Alderney licence the next day.
The island was only about three miles long. I drove to the lighthouse, then back to the bar for brandy and a test pass. In those days a Channel Island licence could be converted to a mainland one. I even got my re-test fee returned.
Feeling a bit of a cheat I did pass my HGV class-one test some years later – in Coventry that time.
Peter Alexander
Fleet, Hampshire
SIR – In the mid-1960s I borrowed my dad’s convertible Triumph Herald (Letters, January 15) for a week’s camping with three friends, “forgetting” to mention that our destination was the Arctic Circle.
Despite suffering a broken half shaft 150 miles north of Oslo, which we repaired ourselves, we were back at work on time, mission accomplished. The 3,000 mile round trip from London, then and now, seems a blur. My father never queried the mileage, but I later confessed.
David Harvey
Bolton, Lancashire
