Letters round-up: Conservatives know the cost of everything and value of nothing

Cuts

Value of nothing

I was amused to read the headline in The Bucks Herald of December 30: ‘Please help us: County turns to MPs over cuts’.

This was from Martin Tett, the leader of Bucks County Council.

Now isn’t this just typical of the Conservatives and their hypocrisy?

Who is responsible for the massive cuts to public services? The government.

And who is in control of the government? The Conservatives.

And who is responsible for implementing cuts at county level?

The Conservative majority led by Martin Tett.

So please, Mr Tett, instead of wringing your hands in desperation, why not show real leadership and begin to oppose some of the cuts your friends in central government are trying to impose on you?

Oh, but I forgot! Mr Tett, you are a Conservative and we all know that within the very DNA of your party is the desire to cut public services as much as possible.

You have a core belief: ‘Public spending bad. Private spending good’.

Therefore public service cuts must be good!

So once again we see the truth that the Conservatives know the cost of everything and the value of nothing.

Brian Spry

Haven Shaw Close, 
Aylesbury

Hospice

Thanks to donors

On behalf of Florence Nightingale Hospice Charity (FNHC), I would like to thank all our fantastic volunteer gift wrappers, donors, Mix 96 and the cast of Waterside Theatre’s Dick Whittington for their wonderful support of our annual gift wrapping stall in Friars Square, which raised an amazing £2,500 in just six days, thanks to the generosity of shoppers, who brought their gifts to us to be wrapped in time for Christmas.

The money you have helped to raise will make a huge difference to local people who use the specialist palliative care services provided at Florence Nightingale Hospice.

We hope to see everyone next Christmas, when we will do it all again from the December 17.

Happy New Year to you all.

Carole Snell

Fundraising Office, Florence Nightingale Hospice Charity

Potholes

A right holey mess

I was interested to read your appeal on Page 9 of the current issue of the Bucks Herald, on behalf of Bucks County Council Highways Team for local residents to report dangerous potholes to them.

If my experience is typical of their response then I would say to people don’t bother!

On the August 18, 2015 I telephoned them to report what I and my neighbours and other friends considered a dangerous pothole situated in the main Elmhurst Road where we live immediately in front of our house.

I made this call at 10am on that date and was assured my complaint had been recorded and would be promptly investigated and dealt with expeditiously.

I was given a reference number (46002899 ) related to my complaint.

I further emphasised , not just on my own behalf but 
also on behalf of some close neighbours that as well as, in our opinion, the hole being dangerous to vehicles, the heavy traffic passing over it both day and night was rattling our and our neighbours’ china cabinets and windows and rocking the whole house at times.

Needless to say that on numerous occasions this shaking, also disturbed our sleep.

I was told that they were allowed 28 days to respond to this complaint and when I hadn’t had a response, I again phoned them on September 22, 2015 at 2.25pm to find out the situation.

I was told that the hole had been inspected but was deemed by the person who surveyed it, that it wasn’t considered by him as likely to be a danger to traffic and no action would be taken about my complaint.

They did not appear at all interested in the fact that as well as the traffic aspect of the complaint, it was also having a detrimental affect on our houses and sleep interruption.

Obviously with the enormous flow of traffic, much of it very heavy goods vehicles, since the date of my original complaint the size and depth of the hole has got progressively worse.

Elmhurst Road is not some backwater country lane but part of the Ring Road around Aylesbury and should in my view receive proper attention when repairs are urgently needed.

It seems, however, that we must await a dangerous accident either to persons, God forbid, or some road vehicle whose driver will hopefully sue the council for substantial damages, which will no doubt be paid from our rates, before any action is taken to repair this hole.

Name and address supplied

CQC

Lazy journalism

I am concerned that you allow such lazy journalism to colour your article (January 6) on the CQC inspection report of The Orchard Care Home in Stewkley.

There was no conclusion reached by the inspectors that there was an overall lack of kindness shown by staff to residents. In fact, the overwhelming evidence from interviewed residents and relatives was the exact opposite.

The inspectors had witnessed a couple of instances where the limited English of some of the hardworking and otherwise kind Polish staff members had been interpreted in that way. That does not justify your headline which is insulting to the residents, relatives, staff and owner/manager of what is regarded by those who use its services as a friendly and warm residential home.

Whilst accepting that failings were found in some areas of the service provided, perhaps your journalistic talents might be better employed in questioning how a home rated “Good” in May last year, after a similar unannounced inspection, could have possibly become “inadequate” in such a short time?

It might be worth investigating the new criteria now being employed by CQC which appear to apply the more rigid nursing criteria to what is simply a residential care home, or could it be that the source of your article was the single member of the public who raised the complaint which led to the inspection?

Our relative has been a resident at The Orchard for nearly two years and we and she are very happy with a manager and staff who go out of their way to provide a caring and homely environment for those in their final years.

Mel and Nina Austin

Address supplied

Rail

No white elephant

Around half a century ago my friend and I travelled on a section of the East-West 
Railway.

Passing through a remote vastness of unspoiled countryside, after a relatively short distance we arrived at a large railway complex, this being ‘Verney Junction’.

We stared out of the carriage window, and what a beautiful sight awaited us.

Well looked after flower beds, a dovecote, model windmill, small fishpond and a life size heron made of plaster standing by the water’s 
edge.

A breath-taking awareness in the lovely Buckinghamshire landscape and the busy railway junction.

The happening of the line, hopefully in 2019, will allow Aylesbury to escape from the railway backwater that has existed since the closure of the Great Central Line north of the town in the 1960s.

The sceptics of the East-West Railway call this a future ‘white elephant’?

This will not be the case. I know the history, and the present situation of the line is going full circle.

Look at the new state of the art stations, eg. Bicester Town, now named Bicester Village, and Oxford Parkway.

Also the new service to Marylebone, with passenger numbers on the increase.

Verney Junction sadly can no longer display its paraphernalia, but the new service on the ‘Varsity Line’ will still give passengers a vista of enjoyable countryside.

It will also be a cross country service to the north of England via Milton Keynes, the west and also East 
Anglia.

David F Mason

Wendover