Letters, contributions and comments sent in to the Advertiser this week.

Be aware of consultation

Imran Khan, St Agnes Close, Hackney, writes:

It is said that when a government wants to bury news it does it at times of national crisis so it may well be that Transport for London have decided to have a "consultation" on whether or not to close the sections of Grove Road that goes through Victoria Park at the same time as the European elections in the hope that nobody would notice.

It is proposed to close the section to all but buses, taxis and cycles from 7am until 7pm to, supposedly, encourage people to buy bikes and cycle.

While it might do that what is definitely going to do is divert thousands of vehicles that would have passed though the park down Victoria Park Road, Gore Road and the small roads and streets off them with the same happening in Tower Hamlets around Old Ford Road.

This is all, allegedly, to link up existing cycle routes which don't seem to exist while at the same time most cyclists going through the park don't use Grove Road but the park itself which, but TfL haven't noticed, doesn't have any vehicles passing through it at all!

The "consultation" is so low key that most people I have spoken to have never heard of it. A group however have started a campaign and intend to lobby against this.

They can be contacted at theroadlesstravelled@email.com

Be diabetes aware

Roz Rosenblatt, head of London, Diabetes UK, writes:

There are 12.3 million people in the UK at increased risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.

It's a serious condition that can lead to devastating complications. But most of these people don't know they're at risk at all, or what they could be doing to reduce it.

Getting the right advice and support is essential, but you might not know that you can get this advice while you're doing your weekly shop. Our partners at Tesco are currently offering a free diabetes risk assessment service at selected pharmacies.

The expert pharmacy team can help you understand your risk of diabetes and give you advice and support. Once you understand why you're at risk, you can take steps to reduce it.

So if you're worried about your risk of diabetes, why not speak to the Tesco pharmacy team next time you're in store or, alternatively, use Diabetes UK's free online tool at riskscore.diabetes.org.uk