COUNCIL FIASCOS
We have had all these fiascos recently,
St Helen's House, Riverlights, Five Lamps area,
The Quad monstrosity, Elvaston Castle, where the
"caring" council asked us for our
opinions and then went on to do what it first
decided, or will do as soon as it can.
It reduced a bowling green's six-foot wall, down
to two-foot, thus allowing vandals in to dig it
up or play on it, without discussion with anybody
who belongs to the bowls club.
Before we vote again, let's talk to our
candidates and ask them their opinions on leaving
our once-beautiful city alone and doing their
best to keep what we have left. It looks as
though this domineering attitude is catching on.
Three Valleys Housing Limited is taking a page
from the council's book and doing the big brother
act with Mr Enright, who has been trying to make
his village a bit brighter by spending his own
money and three years of his time doing it with
the permission of Erewash Borough Council. Enough
is enough. G. H. Kirkland |
WHAT
ABOUT THE MAJORITY?
I do not want to live in a
multi-racial society, where I feel an alien in my
own country; in a country where the English way
of life is being eroded; where words and saying
are being removed from our language through fear
of upsetting others.
Nobody bothers about the indigenous population,
those who fought and died to keep these shores
forever England. Instead, we accept these people
who travel across the width of Europe to the easy
touch called Britain. If they're escaping
persecution, why don't they stop at the first
friendly country, as I believe the UN charter
states?
They know that by coming to Britain they will be
provided for, even to the extent of getting a
better medical service than the people who had to
give up their surgery for them. Now we have
councillors who want to give nurseries to asylum
seekers.
I think he will not get elected again. The way
this country is now going, more and more voters
will turn to the far right. The only people to
blame will be the powers that be for not
listening to the electorate. I wonder how long
before we have a BNP councillor striding Derby's
corridors of power? Chris Cartlidge |
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PUBLIC OPINION
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MORE
GREEN FIELDS LOST
We are destined to lose more of our green fields
on the outskirts of Alvaston. I know we need more houses
but with them come cars and once again Shardlow Road is
going to have problems. It has been wonderful that most
lorries take the new bypass but we already have hold-ups
at times and I,000 extra houses, with possibly 2,000
cars, will get us back to square one. Of course, it can
be argued that some will go Chellaston way and some will
use Holbrook Road, past our junior school, bul I can
foresee a nightmare for the area.
Has anyone worked out how far Alvaston has been extended
from the centre of Derby? I sometimes think we, on this
side of Derby, are punished. Our only chance of a lovely
park at Elvaston Castle seems doomed to be lost and this
new, development is within a stone's throw of the park.
There will also be a problem with schools for the senior
children. When I first came to Alvaston there were cows
and fields coming up to our back garden fence and we were
told there would never be any development beyond Linden
Drive, as it was green belt. But we all know that there
are new thousands of houses on that farm land and now
they intend to go even further on the other side of
Shardlow Road.
So much for green belt. I know there is a piece of
brownfield land neat the church at Shardlow which is
unsightly but has never received permission from the
council for development after 50 years of planning
applications being sought. It has never flooded and has
good access. Beryl Stevens
HOUSING
I saw the old Children's Hospital demolished and
replaced with "luxury" town apartments. Down
the road, adult education has vacated St Helen's House,
which now stands empty, the city council washing its
hands of this majestic building. Land next to the local
doctor's surgery is being developed, the recycling
business in Duke Street has been demolished and replaced
with flats. The two-hundred-year-old Victorian school
building, St Mary's, was demolished to be replaced with a
three-storey block of flats and four houses.
Across the road, on the old BMW site, another massive
block of flats is being built and there is local talk of
further residential development at the Bath Street Mills
complex, adjacent to Rivermead House, itself an 11-storey
block of flats. All this activity within a stone's throw
from where I live. Is this what Cityscape Chief Executive
John Cadwallader meant when he said, "There is a
distinct lack of quality housing or City Living in the
city centre. The result of these factors is that the city
has failed to capitalise on key growth clusters and is,
in fact, 'punching below its weight' in its contribution
to the regional economy."
Does this mean I live in a key growth cluster and these
appalling changes to my neighbourhood will help
contribute to the regional economy? Where is the balance
this community once enjoyed, cultural, educational and
environmental? What is going on in the planning
committees? The city centre has been overrun with bars
and nightclubs, it would seem we are to be overrun with
blocks of flats.
Return on investment is the name of the game, money
speaks volumes and power lies in the hands of those who
have plenty of it. In Derby's rush to join the bandwagon
of "successful cities" our political guardians
are too busy scoring Brownie points against each other.
The trouble is that career executives and big business
today generate the vision of Derby. Maybe if pedestrian
toll bridges had been suggested the powers that be would
have sat up and listened. Mariano Kaminski
PENSION?
HOW DARE YOU ASK
Will someone please explain to me why our
hypocritical government is so hell-bent on us eating and
drinking properly so that we can live longer? What a joke
it is, considering that our present leaders now want us
to work until our seventies and then drop dead.
Retiring and being paid a pension after contributing
towards the state pension all your working life seems to
be the biggest crime you can commit against Tony and his
cronies. Unless, of course, you happen to be a
politician, then it's OK to live forever on the back of
money contributed by the working class.
Also, let's not forget that, if you are an asylum seeker
and have contributed nothing, obviously your entitlements
are going to be more than any pensioners, who should stop
being so selfish and just die. We must remember that
'oldies' also cost the health service more and, the
longer they live, the more they cost.
Of course, they might have paid into the health service
all their lives, but it is not as if they are
contributing anything now. Asylum seekers even have their
own surgeries provided, free of charge. And retired
politicians are not a drain on the health service - we
pay for them to go private now. David
Murphy
BEHIND
CLOSED DOORS
Decisions are being made behind closed doors
without being openly debated in full council and it looks
like the only way to stop this crazy state of affairs is
for the cabinet to mirror the balance in the council
chamber. The voters of Boulton Ward returned a UK
Independent Party member, as indeed they have
demonstrated their independence in three successive
elections.
Why? Because a decision made in secret to use them as
guinea pigs for a flawed traffic calming scheme was made
in this way. It has highlighted the fact that too many
decisions are being rubber-stamped in this way. You might
ask how this situation came about and I'm told it is a
direct result of the Local Government Act 2000.
A post-paid questionnaire was popped through every letter
box in the city, 97,000 households and 150 businesses
several years ago. Only 1,164 were returned. 570 voted
for the cabinet system, 547 voted against it and 47
expressed no preference. So on the strength of 23 votes
out of 238,000 residents this totally undemocratic
frog-march to a cabinet system proceeded.
So, once again it falls to the people of Boulton Ward,
fresh from their triumph in winning the battle of the
speed humps, to endeavour to restore commonsense to the
way our city is run. Our UK Independent Party member,
Councillor Frank Leeming, is standing firm for a
nine-member cabinet that reflects the balance in the
council chamber, four Labour, four Lib-Dem/ToryAlliance
and one UKIP.
This is the democratic decision of the 51% of the
electorate who bothered to vote. Maybe it is not ideal,
but it is the best chance we have had for a generation to
take this city forward with a local government of
consensus. R. G. Bannister
NATIONAL
NO TAX WEEK
Our money funds 'Defence' which I am sorry but this is
attack, not defence. We are 'served and protected'
apparently, by our Government, as they spend vast sums of
our money on 'Defence' which again, is not defence, it is
attack. I suggest a 'National No Tax Week' with the
attack budget cut to fill the week gap left by the public
not paying tax.
Taxes are always ours, never the Government's, whether
they are waiting to spend it or have already, because of
this, they serve us - THEY STATE THIS THEMSELVES! Our
money is given to them to spend as WE see fit, spent on
our behalf, it is never actually the property of the
Government otherwise this is simply theft.
It would be nice to vote but there is no chance of that,
why not get a petition together? Remember, the missing
weeks tax can easily be replaced by money in the attack
budget. The money in the attack budget is always ours, we
can simply get a petition signed by however many millions
of people would support this "National No Tax
Week".
The majority signed petition can instruct the Government
to use our money in other ways. They are supposed to
serve us, not the other way round. Ric
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