PUBLIC OPINION

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BAD PLANNING
Regarding the closure of the A6 between Keldholme Lane and The Blue Peter island in Alvaston, it is not just the utter chaos that has been caused but the manner in which we, the tax- paying electors, are treated by the so-called planners. We are constantly being ignored. There was only the minimum statutory notice given in the Evening Telegraph to say the A6 would be closed. Yes, there was a sign at each end of the affected area but who in their right mind would have thought that access would be prohibited?

When I sought clarification from the highways department guess what it quoted! "Health and safety". So what's changed since it last resurfaced the road a few years back? There were no signs into Nunsfield Drive at 7.30am. They didn't arrive until about 9.15am when all the commuters who normally use Nunsfield Drive to get to the A6 found that they had to do a U-turn and find an alternative route - also unsigned and not mentioned in the public notice.

Irate drivers were turning the street into a racetrack, having found their way blocked and lateness for work looming. But it is not just this latest mess that annoys me and I'm sure many others. The banner displayer at Five Lamps should never ever have gone to court! People have a legitimate gripe and no-one listens. Never have there been so many voices against a project like the bus station (I would add that I am not one of them) but nobody listens.

What seems to count in this city is money. If you have enough, the council cannot do enough for you. It has managed to approve the Eagle Centre extension even though it will destroy the northern side of our city and bring traffic chaos to the southern end. It has approved Riverlights even though countless thousands do not want it. Now it wants to destroy the memorial gardens and it won't be too long before it declares St Helen's House unsafe and pulls it down. John Church

WHO PLANNED ALL OF THIS?
I live in Stenson and work in Alvaston and am finding it very difficult to get to work. I have several routes that I can take. My preferred choice is Stenson Road, now closed for three months. Alternatively, I would choose Grampian Way, on to Sinfin Lane. The traffic this morning was backed up to the roundabout where Grampian Way joins Stenson Road. Added to this, there are temporary traffic lights on Wilmore Road, next to the golf course, and Victory Road is also closed. My next choice would be driving through Chellaston. This is notoriously busy and the traffic this morning was queueing back to the petrol station near Swarkestone.

My next choice would be to join the A50 at the "Bonnie Prince" roundabout. Traffic flows freely on to the A6 and, from there, you can either take the bypass or Shardlow Road towards Alvaston. Shardlow Road was busy this morning and will be closed for two weeks. The Alvaston bypass had traffic standing for about a mile last Friday and, I am told, again today. My normal 15-minute journey has been taking 45 minutes. When Shardlow Road closes, it will take longer. Who has planned all of this? Peter Ilott

MONEY WASTED
When is the council going to wake up? We have had a great chance to put Derby on the map years ago. The bus station could have been built on Pride Park, close to the rear of the train station. There could also have been a shopping mall, modern theatre, ice-rink for top shows and park and ride etc.

We have a river and Elvaston Castle to make tourist attractions. Whatever money is spent would be returned threefold. It is time the council took a good look at cities and towns, to see how they have already spent to attract tourists and day trips. Meadowhall, Metro, Merryhill, Dome Doncaster, I could go on. Likewise the river, look at Liverpool, Salford etc.

Other cities and towns have spent millions to attract visitors. Not only that, they have free car parking. Money would be available to repair buildings from the revenue generated from visitors and tourists. We only use land to build pubs, nightclubs, casinos, flats and houses, which attract no-one.

Our roads are a joke, we cannot build for traffic flow. The Government and council talk of pollution and congestion, yet they plan and build the problems. Building massive islands, traffic lights and pedestrian lights everywhere will not solve anything. Still, it's easy to keep on raising taxes and council tax for mistakes and U-turns.

If the Romans were here today we would have had straight roads from Lands End to John O'Groats, likewise with rail tracks. It does not matter how much money the Government and council raise, the money will be wasted. B. Flood

VOTING
Here they are again, the politicians, pleading, imploring and informing we simple people of the mistakes that other political parties have over the years laid our country to waste. Soon they will require the electorate to attend to their duty so our representatives can compound their decades of mismanagement. Dissatisfaction with local government ranges the length and breadth of the country, and any further absorption of Britain by the European Union is becoming increasingly rejected across all divisions in society.

Soon we shall attend the ballot papers under the impression we are doing our duty, and that those whose bums we put on to the chamber seats will also attend to their bounden obligations to us. Alas! We are but sheep in the field awaiting the parliamentary shepherds to drive us hither and thither into the markets of industry and commerce. Our life and existence is butchered. We are cut and shaped by social influences, law, constitution and education.

Our vote is the signature to a contract that any government owes to the electorate. That contract is the manifesto our representatives should be bound to keep. Sadly, such a contract is all too often torn up. Democracy exists only when we apply our mark to the ballot paper, then it and we are forgotten. How often the zealots quote that we have free speech in our democracy. Free speech? Do I need to make reference to how political correctness has stifled that constitutional right?

And does congestion charging infringe our constitutional right of the liberty of movement? How well we need a written document of constitution, where such amendments might be at the will only of the people, because the Law Lords and judges play cat-and-mouse with the laws of England and overturn the constitution at will. That constitution though, should and must be written for and on behalf of the native peoples of this land, and not foisted upon us by foreigners. R. Collinson

MARKET TOWN MENTALITY
So the art centre proposed for Derby is not now going ahead, but is anyone surprised? It may go ahead in a very scaled-down version, but isn't this typical of Derby? Over the past 20 to 30 years, a number of prestige developements have been promised for Derby, but none have actually materialised.

The one to anger me most is the national Ice Statium, which was, we were told, definately to be sited in Derby. A year later it was built in Nottingham. In 2003 my stepdaughter was to be married. When we visited Debenhams to find a dress, we were told we'd have to go to the Nottingham branch.

About a year before, requiring a new telephone, I visited the BT shop in St Peter's Churchyard. A notice in the window told me the Derby shop was now closed and that the nearest branch was Nottingham. It was really good to see Duckworth Square reduced to a pile of rubble, but typically no date is set to redevelop the site.

I understood that this was to be a major project by the city council to take in Green Lane and an enlarged Debenhams. It is now my understanding that the work is to go ahead on a smaller scale by a private developer. It is an area crying out to be upgraded, including a renovated Hippodrome theatre.

In 2003, the statement that Derby was in danger of falling behind cities like Nottingham was attributed to a councillor. If things continue, Derby will fall behind places like Burton. A comment by an employee of the council a few years ago that Derby is a city with a market town mentality still holds true. G Eaglesfield

BIG MISTAKE
Once again, Derby City Council has dropped another clanger over a major new development in our city. Project after project has been held up or stopped because of bad planning, disastrous financial management and political posturing. The same old faces trot out the same excuses but there is no excuse for not being aware of all the facts.

Consider The Roundhouse, Riverlights, police station and magistrates' court sale, Quad and "Connecting Derby". It's a sad and sorry tale, in fact a disgrace, partly funded by our council tax money, money that could and should go into schools, policing and the upkeep of our city. The responsible people on our council committees should be held accountable and if that means resignations, so be it. Mick Shelton