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On Friday evening, with two passengers in my car, I was reversing into a tight parking space while an SUV close to me waited till I was done. I was inches from the other cars when a terrifyingly loud noise cut through the car, from both my passengers’ phones and presumably also mine, frightening all of us.

I thought someone on the road was trying to warn me of something immediately dangerous, and looked around desperately trying to see if I’d killed someone. If I’d been in travelling at speed, this could have caused a bad accident. And all to tell us not to buy disposable barbecues? How much of an emergency is that?

Surely a better way can be found for genuine alerts – one that doesn’t put people at risk – and things like telling us of changes in the law can be put across in a gentler way?
Elspeth Christie
Kirkhaugh, Northumberland

• So, the outcome of the belated Cobra meeting in reaction to the extreme heat is a ban on portable barbecues and an emergency alert telling us what we already know. The headline writes itself: “Burnham fiddles while Britain burns”.
Alan Murphy
London

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