SIR – As the recent owner of a puppy, and working unsocial hours, I am finding it more and more frustrating to arrive at the Countryside Centre in working hours and finding the car park is completely full yet the field completely devoid of life. Despite the parking notices, it is blatantly used as an overspill for the adjacent businesses, primarily those within the NHS in looking at the ‘dog tag’ ID badges of those parking and walking away from their vehicles.
It would appear no oversight is being made of such activity, to the detriment of those of us who wish to use the facilities for their true purpose, with the ‘enforcement notices’ worthless; or is a blind eye taken as others use the car park for County Hall use?
Perhaps dog walkers should enforce entry to the barriered car parks on a ‘quid pro quo’ basis, with their teeth, primarily canine, bared in the process.
MAX WHITE
Worcester

Crisis is worth getting worked up about
SIR – Recoiling from the ‘shock’ news about Jeremy Corbyn standing mute during the national anthem, my mind turned to something that ‘really’ matters to humanity and our credentials as a civilised nation. 
The refugee crisis has produced incredible scenes in Europe and nothing but paralysed bewilderment and indecision from the European establishment. Here in the home of so-called caring Conservatism we are to take a relative handful over a five-year period. We should take at least 100,000, not the derisory total of 20,000 announced by the Government. 
It is actually an opportunity to reinvigorate the dwindling qualities of compassion in our culture after the desensitising impact of austerity, welfare cuts and 24/7 news coverage of horrors in the Middle East. 
It isn’t easy given our shortage of housing and the efforts to cut the deficit, but the sacrifices the nation would need to make to be a premier league provider of sanctuary would pale compared to the horrors those tormented and traumatised people have endured. 
There are not only young men and women on the march across our continent but children and many sick and disabled. All are grief-stricken for the loved ones and the nation they leave behind. It’s about survival. There is something deeply unpalatable about how we have open doors to EU citizens yet are so mean-spirited about this emergency. The world is in major trouble and this is an opportunity to do something that would make our country seem truly great once more.
ANDREW BROWN
Worcester

NHS paying the price   of ‘City con tricks’
SIR – I recently read a most interesting but alarming email from NHS Support Foundation about the effects of continuing with the Private Finance Initiative (PFI).
Many NHS Trusts have been saddled with expensive PFI deals whilst private investors are making substantial profits. The report finds that PFI has already contributed to the collapse of some NHS Trusts and is also linked to proposed closures of A&E units across the country.
PFI is costing NHS Trusts £2bn per year but this is not shared evenly. For some NHS Trusts PFI takes up 10-15% of the operating budget but all must cope with PFI payments which rise year on year. 
In 2013 the Government gave seven NHS Trusts access to a £1.5bn bail-out, but very little has been done to reduce the burden of these debts.
The report asks what can be done. Much as one would do with a bad mortgage deal, the report asks for a public task force to explore the options to get better value for money for the public purse. 
There are a number of options but negotiating down the costs and the buying out of expensive deals would already begin to make big savings.
Labour has a duty to resolve the problems of many of the PFI deals. Jeremy Corbyn claims that the NHS is paying the price for “City con tricks” implemented by New Labour and suggests that indebted hospitals should be bailed out. It has been revealed that Sir Richards Branson’s Virgin Care could take over NHS services in Bristol and South Glos. More than 6,200 people have signed a petition against the privatisation of these services, including children’s services.
Cancer drugs also face the axe in NHS cost-cutting. Since 2010-11 the ambulance service has also been finding £75bn a year in efficiency savings. The use of non-NHS ambulance providers has risen substantially; in 2014 private providers accounted for 89%. There are also large disparities in survival rates across the country. There are 13 private providers; Virgin appears to be the most successful, being awarded £1bn worth of NHS contracts.
It is to be hoped that whoever has the capability of looking at this serious public issue will grasp the nettle and remove the sting in the public interest; much as with the sting created by the UK’s membership of the EU as it stands.
Cancer drugs also face the axe in NHS cost-cutting measures
WENDY HANDS
Upton-upon-Severn

Justice? I think not
SIR – Re Milo: a man with a suspended prison sentence kicks and abuses his dog and gets a community order. The judge is not fit for purpose. I thought: “Silly me, if you offended again on a suspended sentence it was enforced”. Still, this is the UK today. Punish the victims, not the offenders.
PAUL CHANDLER
Droitwich

On the right lines
SIR – Re your front page headline — in this country we have railway stations (not train stations).
NEVILL SWANSON
Worcester