PUBLIC OPINION

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DERBY CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE
I wrote some time ago about the madcap idea of over 400 bus services per day being condensed into a temporary bus station consisting of the Morledge, Corporation Street and Full Street once the current bus station is closed for work on the Riverlights project. I wrote of the inevitable chaos that would result for bus users and motorists and taxis. I also suggested that the market traders would suffer a loss of business because the public would simply not tolerate the two-to-three years of disruption. With the retail trade already in an apparent mini-slump, we now learn that the bus station is to close in late October, at a time when traders would be looking forward to the Christmas period to help compensate for this, and to cap it all, we also learn that even further disruption is upon us with the news that work is to start in September on part of the inner ring road which Ian Copeland, the council project manager, flippantly describes as "a biggie". It is apparent to me that the city council is determined to create maximum chaos. Mr A G Currie

DERBY TODAY
The streets are filthy and, no matter by which road you enter Derby, there is dereliction. On Uttoxeter Road, there is that eyesore of a building that was once the Trent bus garages. Curzon Street has two boarded-up pubs at its junction with Friar Gate and the Wardwick, and still they want to open more. The shops along that road are an even bigger disgrace. The Wardwick is no better with rubbish strewn all over and drunks in the seating area. Sadler Gate and Iron Gate are just student drinking dens, Victoria Street, although being repaved, leaves a lot to be desired and the stench right through the city is disgusting. In St Peter's Street, the pavements are a disgrace. East Street and Albert Street pavements are a danger to the public. Derby is supposed to be a city, but it has never been a true city. It is a town and, at the moment, not a very good one at that. It is about time that all the political parties and the officers employed by the people of Derby started acting for the good of Derby, and not themselves. Still, Burton is only eight miles down the A38. Paul Pegg

PLANNERS MESS UP, YET AGAIN
Surely the people at the Woodlands Tennis Club who are trying to make this council of ours see sense by having those birch trees removed and replaced (elsewhere) by two maple trees so that the club can improve itself in a big way, should know by now that this is the same body of people that allows beautiful (if not a little rundown) old buildings to be knocked down due to council neglect. It also gives permission for mature, large, healthy broad-leaved trees to be destroyed forever for the accommodation of the motorised vehicle, and generally in the name of progress!

Flora and fauna have been lost forever in the name of progress which our car-loving councillors (who also tell us to go by bus and train) are eagerly happy to pursue! Let the tennis club improve its facilities so that young people of all classes, finances and capabilities can enrol and use the club. At least this Allestree club is trying to stretch its arms out to the community. The planners at Derby City Council should not interfere, they should actively encourage this kind of growth, especially when it involves health and happiness within the community.

This is an opportunity for those pen-pushing clerks to show that they really do care for people who care about sport and welfare in Derby. I am a nature lover myself and I enjoy the beauty that trees of all varieties (hard and soft wood) bring to my world, as well as the practical worth of trees in absorbing man's polluting ways, but in this case there is no alternative but to uproot the silver birches and replant (if possible) in a more convenient spot. After all, if the tennis club had been "sneaky" those trees could have "mysteriously" disappeared. Joe Coleman

NO FAITH IN POLICE
There have been three occasions during the past year when I asked the police for help and was let down on every occasion. The most serious was an assault on my daughter in Surrey. Although reported immediately, it took a week for the police to decide if the Surrey or Sussex force would handle it as she lived in Sussex and the assault happened in Surrey. During this time my daughter was inconsolably distressed and needed help and counselling. Although she contacted the police daily, they only added to the distress. When officers finally visited her they had the audacity to ask why she waited a week to report it! It took six months for them to interview three people, and the main witness, who was also assaulted in his efforts to free my daughter from the clutches of the assaulter, was never interviewed.

Six months later she was asked to drop her complaint due to lack of evidence. Then there was the time I had my purse stolen in central London. I discovered the theft immediately and knew who had taken it and where. I immediately reported it to Scotland Yard. It was obviously an organised gang and it would have taken very little effort to catch the guilty parties. They stole £100 in cash and my credit cards were used within five minutes of being stolen. Had the police acted they could have retrieved my £100 and I would gladly pay this £60 fine and still be £40 in pocket but no, I have heard nothing.

Then, a few months ago, my car was broken into and my mobile phone and other belongings amounting to over £200 were taken. As my policy excess is £250 a crime number is of little use and still, not another word from the police. Unlike the above instances, I obviously will hear from you again if I do not hand over my hard-earned money. I admit I did stray over 30mph but on a wide and straight road it is easily done if your full concentration is not on the speedo, but, of course, you know that and that is why you set your traps where you do. I would not mind paying the fine if all things were equal but, sadly, they are not. Lynne Annable

NO CHANGE FOR DRIVERS
Like many others, I thought a change of power in the Council House would mean a change of policy on most things, including the roads. Then I remembered this country and this city is ruled by civil servants and the judiciary. So the move to force motorists off the roads and on to public transport is a national campaign, backed by Government grants, which cannot be stopped by Joe Public or our councillors. What about the humps on Grampian Way? They've gone, a success, well yes. But just wait till the chicanes and an extra off-set little island are put in. At the pinch-points two Asda lorries will not be able to pass each other. Congestion, here it comes. B. E. Shuff

VOTERS HAVE BEEN MISLED
Is this the shape of things to come? Within four days of making an alliance with the Conservative Party, the Liberal Democrats were reneging on their commitments to the public. First of all we read that the Debry bus station will now be demolished as part of the Riverlights development. This is an issue that the Liberal Democrats vehemently opposed during the Labour administration and were supported by the Conservatives. Secondly, Councillor Lucy Care is quoted as saying that the issues of speed humps, Five Lamps and Connecting Derby, will take longer to resolve than had been hoped, if they are resolved at all. It seems that it is easy to criticise when in opposition but not so easy to deliver when in control. Those people who voted for the Liberal Democrats on the strength of these promises have been misled. I notice however, that Councillor Care is not slow to claim credit for the improvements to the Rowditch junction. This was installed by the Labour Council and funded by a Labour Government. Sam Redfern