18/10/2007

Local News

Letters from October 18 2007

Take care of the needy before white elephants

EDITOR — Blue badge holders are one of the groups in the community that should be given as much help as possible. Is it their fault that they have a disability?

They are often on a low income and concessions such as free car parking are important to them. The cost of parking in Woking is very high, disabled people need time to get around the town so therefore need to use the car park longer.

Why is Woking council even considering charging this small group of people when it will restrict their independence even further?

If Woking council is so strapped for cash it should look at where it wastes the council tax payers’ money, the millions it spent on the aborted county hall proposal, The Lightbox, a project that caused disruption to business and residents of the borough for months on end, a project that is definitely not for the benefit of the entire community.

Please have some common sense and respect for people in need. Charge the council workers and councillors first, stop spending on non-essentials, start looking after the community whose money it is.
Sue Cooper
Triggs Lane
 Woking

EDITOR — I am not disabled nor do I drive so I think I can write with impartiality regarding Woking council’s proposal to withdraw free blue badge parking facilities from the town’s car parks, and make the borough’s most vulnerable citizens pay for their parking.

Can you imagine the furore that would be caused if these ‘esteemed’ councillors were suddenly to lose their free parking or is it a case of “pull up the ladder Jack?” After all how much more revenue will be earned from these extra parking spaces?

If the council is so impoverished (which I found hard to believe given that Woking charges one of the highest council tax levies in the country), perhaps it should have thought twice before sponsoring Woking Football Club a few years ago and also spending millions on the gratuitous “white elephants” The Lightbox and the canopy outside Woking station.

It would appear that the council is jumping on the nationwide bandwagon of milking the motorist, but I cannot believe they would include the disabled motorists in such a penny-pinching scheme.

I think that the council will find it has bitten off more than it can chew when it starts consultations with the various organisations representing the disabled drivers.

I for one hope the council will be sent away with a flea in its ear for even deigning to consider charging disabled drivers.
Charles S Love,
Chequer Tree Close
Knaphill

EDITOR — The Observer newspaper called the canopy a porte-cochere. I don’t know what that means but I think it should be called The White Elephant. And can we have our missing pillar-box back please? 
Nova Atkinson
Waterperry Lane
Chobham

Hospital team was brilliant

EDITOR — Last week I was admitted to the surgical assessment unit at St Peter’s Hospital, Chertsey, as an emergency victim of an abscess in the breast and I want to thank everyone who looked after me for the wonderful treatment I received.

Reports that the NHS ranks 17th below Latvia in the European healthcare league and the recent superbug scandal in a Kent health trust strike fear in the public and must depress hardworking hospital staff.

But my experience at St Peter’s was a million miles away from this picture of doom and gloom. Our six-bed ward was meticulously cleaned twice a day. Contact areas such as metal bed rails, work surfaces and tops of bedside cabinets were carefully sponged also.

Nothing was too much trouble for the staff. All of them — porters, nurses, junior doctors and the senior consultant — were the epitome of kindness and my condition was under constant 24-hour scrutiny.

Aftercare is excellent too, blood samples are being analysed to assess the optimum medication, should I require it, and further examinations and tests have been arranged at outpatients to monitor my health. I am truly grateful to everyone at St Peter’s for their compassionate professionalism that helped my recovery.
Celia Westen
Ashwood Road
Woking

No reason with rubbish

EDITOR — Please can you add this to your long list of complaints about rubbish collections in Woking.
On finding out that my extremely full bin of recycling hadn’t been collected this Tuesday, I called the council hoping to get a reasonable explanation.

I was told that if it had been contaminated with, say, a plastic bag it will not be collected the next day and will have to wait a further two weeks.  This makes the bin un-emptied for four weeks as an unwritten council penalty.
I asked if this was reasonable considering I have seen two rats within both my front and back gardens within the last two weeks and the lady said yes it was completely reasonable.

I have lived in Third World countries and having seen Third World slums first hand I do not consider this reasonable.
Victoria Spaven
Boundary Road
Woking

Just fly away from here

EDITOR — As A fellow victim of the noise from ‘touch and go circuit’ learner flights from Fairoaks, I was keen to read Mr Newnham’s reply to Mr Squibb’s letter (News and Mail, October 11).

However I was disappointed with the ‘answers’ to the points raised. How does quibbling about an alleged 10% error in Mr Squibb’s estimate of the distance from his house to Fairoaks affect his comments?

And while the purchase of a quieter aircraft is to be welcomed I note Mr Newnham does not state if this will be used for all, some or none of his training flights. Also the other clubs will continue using their Spitfire soundalikes.

Finally the other sources of noise referred to such as lawn mowers etc are hardly relevant as these cannot be located elsewhere unlike these flights, unless there is some reason why they cannot fly over the hundreds of acres of Horsell and Chobham commons rather than over residential areas.
Tony Pusey
Rosehill Avenue
Horsell

Health care without prejudice

EDITOR — It really is time the health professionals stopped imposing their views and applying prejudice to the tax paying people they are employed by (Have Your Say, October 10).

Denying or delaying treatment because they disapprove of a person’s lawful lifestyle is way beyond their remit. Having paid our dues we expect a fair and equal treatment.

You don’t see them announcing they won’t treat rapists, murderers, perverts, paedophiles, terrorists and any other non contributors to a safe and civil society.

Certainly advise us and help those who want to modify their way of life, but stop using the tactics of threat, fear and intimidation.
Name and address supplied

First printed in: Woking News and Mail