PUBLIC OPINION

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POTENTIAL TO BENEFIT
There seem to be plenty of organisations needing accommodation, including the infamous Quad, and the alternative technology people who are looking for somewhere in Derby. While driving through Pride Park towards the city centre, I noticed there is not only the Roundhouse but quite a few other derelict railway buildings, looking very sorry for themselves and ruining the facade of splendour we are trying to attach to Pride Park. I know these buildings belong to the railway but, if it has no further use for them, is it beyond our council to acquire them and put them to good use, or can that nowadays only be done by developers, at great profit to themselves?

After all, their position gives them many advantages over city centre locations. They are easier to reach by road and rail and their restoration would not only save the high cost of new buildings but would retain the individual character of old Derby. The other thing was the riverside project that has been muted. This is an idea I fully support. For too long Derby has turned its back on its beautiful river.

I would like to mention that there are people desperately trying to reconnect the Derby canal back to the city. It would be a very positive stance if the city council got right behind this project, financially as well as in spirit. Reopening the canal, even if initially only from one of the two directions, would see many welcome visitors by boat to our fair city, with all the benefits that would bring. John Hudson

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING
Perhaps someone from the Connecting Derby project could explain why the work between the Morledge along to Victoria Street is vital to Derby. At the moment it would seem the apparent gain is about one metre of extra pavement in Albion Street and a huge pile of rubbish in Victoria Street. The pavements in these areas seemed all right before.

It must be work vital to Derby's progress because of the huge amount being spent. But the speed and number of contractors doesn't seem to justify this. We've had a whole week of absolutely no work at all. All this, of course, is to the detriment of the bus timings in the area, because only one bus at a time can be accommodated at the stop, causing some frustration.

Has widening the pavement area in Victoria Street caused the digging and relaying of pipes and electricity etc? If so, why not leave the area alone? We can see no advantage to anyone by gaining about one metre of paving to cause all this disturbance and cost. W.A. Harrison

DEBATE NEEDED
Taking a walk from the young arbour of mountain ash trees on Bass's Rec, through the River Gardens towards Pride Park and the Rams' stadium, one can enjoy the peaceful sights and sounds of the river, as it burbles into the Trent. But try not to look right as your romantic vision will be blighted. There, on your right, are a series of commercial adverts, shops and showrooms for motorcar companies.

And you won't escape from the large Egg adverts on Pride Park, which are three metres high! Do we need more of the same? Or similar development right in the centre of our city? For that is what's on offer with Riverlights, as part of Derby Cityscape. Everything, including the river, will be sacrificed to money worship and the capitalist ideology of "expand, compete, destroy and rebuild", while putting as many people as possible into debt.

We citizens grovel and kiss the toes of these bombastic developers who wish to invade the River Gardens by building a faceless shopping complex (as though the Eagle Centre isn't inhuman enough already) and then put up more leisure, business, housing, refreshment outlets, 16 of which will sell alcohol, as well as a new coach and bus station, right on top of the banks of the River Derwent.

The cliche goes, "Let's meet the men in the driving seat". This is quite ominous to a democratic citizen, who might not want £83m to be spent on our public space, where a beautiful river area will be desecrated by financial barbarians for ever. Alternative ideas include a Hall of Culture with research facilities for students and citizens to contribute inventions or ideas.

Or we could use low technology to enhance the area, preserve and develop wildlife, which would be a careful use of money, and the opposite of the throwaway bonanza culture that a war-torn and terrorist- threatened world cannot afford. Of course, highly paid accountants, dodgy lawyers, smug architects and town planners may not agree. But for our own sakes, not God's, let's have further honest debate about these devastating changes to our city. Geoff Broady

GRIDLOCK
We car and bike users have been pilloried enough. We have a situation, mirrored across the UK, where access is denied to certain roads and even parts of the main highway. We've all stood back and watched the occasional bus and taxi trundle along part of the highway that we, the common road user, cannot.

Additionally we have all contributed over the years towards the upkeep of these roads. Now if I may extend a little logic, doesn't that mean that we are due some back tax for the unusable (to us) portion of road? Since Derby accepted the one-way system I challenge anyone to substantiate any claim that traffic runs more freely along our thoroughfares.

Here's some radical thinking. Bring back two-way traffic by scrapping the one-way lunacy. Open up the bus lanes to two-wheeled traffic, although personally I think we should all be able to use them until a bus comes along, then we could just get out of the way. Get rid of the road planners that dreamt up the Five Lamps fiasco, or any of those round the houses routes that actually contribute to keeping drivers in the city as opposed to allowing us to utilise any number of varying routes.

This is the way to loosen up the gridlock we all experience on a daily basis. Don't get me started on air quality, the buses I regularly see pumping out plumes of diesel fumes can't be a good thing either. The Five Lamps debacle has shown the planners to be dismissive of road-user opinion, perhaps they live elsewhere. R Krawiec

COUNCIL FAILURES
The Magistrates' Court was recently sold for what has to be the market rate of more than £2m, whereas this council thought that it should be given it for only £1m. But then we find out why they couldn't afford more, because they propose to gift the bus station to MetroHolst for a derisory "peppercorn" rent for 150 years.

Then MetroHolst appear to be having trouble getting financial backing for the development and will probably struggle to make it a success as it has only received two thirds of the alcohol licences it applied for, given that the "no smoking" movement is beginning to make such venues less viable than they were in the past.

Now we learn that there is an "unknown" owner of part of the land which is conveniently being called "ransom" land because the Riverlights scheme cannot proceed without it. To call it "ransom" land is to divert attention away from the people who got the council into this mess and whose competence must surely now be called into question. No wonder they insisted the agreement with Metro Hoist should be secret.

Meanwhile, nobody has asked the question as to how the Albert St/Victoria St "improvements" could be designed, work commenced and so far behind schedule before, at the end of this protracted contract, it was found that the St Peter's St bridge was unsafe to the tune of more than £200,000. It seems that everything these council officials do is amateurish and the resultant failures make Derby look extremely foolish. Graham Buckler

EXTRA HOMES FOR REFUGEES
The Government is going to spend many millions on building extra homes as they realise that they have nowhere to put the refugees they are letting into the country. Isn't it a shame that they have only just realised this? How long did it take for them to work it out? They should sit back on their chairs and think about our homeless people and how long some of them have had to wait, and are still waiting. I know some people who have had to wait three to four years for a property.

Why not buy them a caravan so that they can go and find some sort of site? It's a shame that it's always our own who have to suffer and the Government is always there to hold its hands out to others. It's no wonder we feel the way we do about refugees and the help and support they get. We should find some big empty building that's standing there doing nothing, put beds in it for them, feed them and make sure they are warm, but that should be it. And if they are really escaping bad times in their countries, then they should be happy with that. Anita Winfield