Send your letters to editor of the Reporter, Vanessa Bridge. Email the.reporter@leeds.ac.uk or send by internal post to press office, 12.67 E C Stoner building

PURPLE CAR PARK (From Jean Brownridge, continuing education) If Senate is suggesting a 33% increase in parking charges, is it also suggesting that some of the money raised should be used to bring the purple car park up to a reasonable standard? At the moment people and cars get filthy when it rains, there are puddles all over and you risk damaging your car on the numerous bumps and holes there. It would be nice to have the car park upgraded so people could feel they were getting value for money.
* Reply from estate services. The increased car parking charges are to be pooled to fund a range of improvements over a 10-year programme. These will include re-surfacing and other car park developments. The initial income will be insufficient to fund major improvements to the car parks, but will enable alternative travel-to-work options, included in the University's transport plan.

HAVE YOU NOTICED? (From Tom Tregenza, biology) Many staff must have had a chuckle over the recent outbreak of signs inside lifts around campus that warn occupants not to try and help people who have been trapped in a lift. Better value still, there is a message board on level ten red route carrying a sign that reads:  ‘equal opportunities only’.

DINOSAUR LITERATURE WAS ACKNOWLEDGED (From David Miller, medicine) Judging by his frankly scurrilous comments in Reporter 499, Jonathan Adams could not have read the paper on which our recent article was based. Had he done so, he would have seen that we fully acknowledged the pioneering work of Crews, Ferguson, Bull, Pieau and Wibbels, among many others. Moreover we did not claim to have invented the idea as he appears to suggest. We did, however, cite 95 relatively recent papers bringing together current ideas on the  evolution of genetic sex determination and palaeontological evidence for a form of temperature-based sex determination that may have featured in the demise of long-extinct reptiles. Dr Adams may also be surprised to know that many long hours were spent in the library (both physically and electronically) preparing the groundwork for the paper, while toiling away on our other projects, before a single sentence was typed out. We do not pretend to be either palaeontologists or experts on crocodiles; although we acknowledged the advice of a few of those who are. The paper’s publication in a clinical journal (Fertility and Sterility) was primarily intended to bring these ideas to the attention of medical researchers and clinicians and to add our own voice to this fascinating, but admittedly controversial field, as Dr Adams would have observed had he taken the time to read it. One final thing for Dr Adams’ correction; Sherman Silber is the only clinician among us and while I am sure that he is far too busy helping infertile couples to waste time contemplating his derriere as Dr Adams suggests, neither myself, a reproductive biologist nor Dr Summers, a mathematician, would ever contemplate such behaviour.

BUT WHERE IS YOUR MONKEY WRENCH? (From Maurice King, obstetrics) Professor Simons (Reporter 498) would like to argue from facts. I suggest that the relevant facts are not what the employment opportunities for philosophy graduates were in another country six years ago, but what they are in England now, and for all graduates. Can someone supply these? Until I see them, I will continue to advise student philosophers, that although they might have Wittgenstein’s Tractatus in their minds, they would be wise to have a monkey wrench in their hands – that is if they want to eat – and drink!

BARRIER TO EFFICIENCY? (From Chris Nicholson, estates) The Reporter states that Senate has suggested a 33 percent increase in parking charge per year to cover maintenance. Would it not make more sense to keep the parking fee at the same rate and give the maintenance of traffic barriers back to the estates department? They maintained the barriers for 30 years or more and I believe the costs were not as high as the present contractors. I am sure that, depending on their workload, the estates department could have someone there within an hour to fix a barrier. It can take Photon, who has the contract at the moment, up to three days to replace a barrier arm. We are constantly using outside contractors to do work that our own estates department used to do and getting an inferior service. We seem to pay more to outside bodies to do the job less efficiently than our own staff. Why?
* Reply from Stephen Winter of estate services. Estate Services operates on the basis of a mixed economy using external contractors, consultants and in-house staff. The decision as to whether to use internal staff or external contractors is influenced by a number of factors including the degree of specialisation required, availability of resources, compliance with legislation, value for money and the need for flexibility in terms of the Estates budget to meet fluctuating finances. Both in-house and external contractor’s performance and associated value for money are evaluated by individual managers via the monitoring of Key Performance Indicators. In relation to Mr Nicholson’s specific concern about the maintenance of car park barriers I offer the following information which I hope you will find helpful. The external contractor Photon following a formal tender process were awarded a 3 year contract for the maintenance of CCTV and car parking barriers on the campus. This was on the basis of their specialist knowledge, expertise, innovative approach to upgrading existing systems and their ability to respond and meet the SLA with client departments. Having thoroughly investigated Mr Nicholson’s queries I would like to add further that on reviewing the performance data Photon have achieved between 90-95% performance in relation to “first time” fixes for reactive/breakdown calls associated with barriers and CCTV systems. In addition, they are fully compliant with service requirements as set out in the contract specification.