LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

I cannot agree more with your editorial column today regarding the useless new residencia documents. Thank goodness I have a year or so left to run on my own document.

In the last month I have been asked for my residencia for the following
Signing a new work contract
Paying for shopping
Travelling to the Peninsua
Collecting X Rays in the Clinic
I really cannot see the new useless paper covering any of these things can you?
Would it not be possible for the British Embassy to put pressure on for more realistic documents or even a petition to the relevent Spanish authorities.

We need to try to persuade someone that the old system was really the best system or for us working here life is going to become very very difficult
With kind regards

Ruth Crouch

Dear Editor,

The idea of having a voluntary residence permit is fantastic. The useless piece of paper could be put in your passport until needed and then people who actually use a permit could use the proper thing.

J. Foster

Calvia

Dear Sir,

I have read with interest the recent debate on your letters pages regarding the new replacement to the photo residencia card for foreign nationals.
While I sympathise with the majority, if not all, of the arguments put forward ex-pat locals regarding the disadvantage the new certificates place non Spanish residents in, as a resident of both Puerto Pollensa and Surrey the furore this change has caused has made me pause to reflect how lucky we are in the UK to not yet be so reliant on the State for the means of proving who we are whether it be for official purposes or for the benefit of third parties in order to conduct our day to day existence.

While the current debate provides compelling reasons for the restoration of the photo residencia card in Spain, the extent of the dependence on it by those in Spain now deprived of it provides an equally compelling argument why we do not want or need ID cards to be introduced in the UK! Yours faithfully, James Martin

Puerto Pollensa & Surrey