READERS' VIEWS 5/3

05 March 2009

Villages will pay a price

RE: New interchange comes under fire - Observer last week. Vehicles to and from Daventry and the Crick industrial area will still have to travel from the junction of the M1/M6 to junction one of the M6 and return to the junction of the M1/M6 to travel to and from the A14.
This involves an additional distance of three and a half miles each way.  When you take into account the major companies on the Crick industrial area, such as DHL, Stobarts, Tesco, Royal Mail National Distribution Centre, W Malcolm and the Railfreight container depot, there must be at least 100 vehicles travelling to an from the A14 each day.
With these vehicles averaging eight to 10mpg this is an additional gallon of fuel per journey, which is obviously an additional cost to the operators and pollution to the atmposhere. The alternative to this is for the vehicles to leave at junction one of the A14 and travel through the villages.
A G Wilson, Daventry

Junction will add to problems

WHILST accepting that the road layout at the Catthorpe Interchange is in need of review the members of Cotesbach Parish Council are seriously concerned that an option has been chosen which will adversely affect the very small village of Cotesbach and the village residents have not been directly consulted.
Without doubt, the original A14 should have been a three-lane motorway from day one. The volume of traffic and the problems associated with the absence of a hard shoulder in times of rescue reinforce this view.
The junction being of restricted access compounds the problem. We are offered a second opportunity - let us not make the same mistake again.
The M1, M6, A14 interchange must provide full accessibility to and from all major roads whilst accepting that there will be no access from local roads. It will surely cost just as much to get it wrong as right!
The preferred option is of great concern to Cotesbach. By restricting traffic leaving and entering the motorway system at junction 19 motorists travelling south on the M1 and wishing to proceed westwards on the M6 will have to leave the M1 at junction 20 and travel along the A426 to junction onr of the M6. Both ends of Cotesbach village join this already busy road.
Andrew Adonis. on behalf of the Government. claims that over 100,000 vehicles use the Catthorpe Interchange every day and even if a small proportion of these divert past our village it will have a serious effect on our quality of life. A fully comprehensive motorway interchange would alleviate such a problem.
We are already in discussion with the police and Highways Agency about speeding traffic on the A426 and with the county council regarding the litter left by improperly sealed lorries carrying waste to the landfill site in Shawell but little notice is taken of our concerns.
Cotesbach is a small village of around 170 residents. We are tired of being bullied by large agencies. We will certainly be pressing for an independent Public Inquiry.
Aubrey Adcock, Chairman, Cotesbach Parish Council

Crossing is a gerat idea

THE new pedestrian crossing placed outside the Benn Hall is in my opinion forward planning at it's best.
Mr Warburton's letter in last week's Observer is just the kind of response one would expect from anyone who quite frankly has no idea what is going on around him.
Firstly, Mr Warburton is quite right when he states that Corporation Street is perpetually at a standstill, but what he fails to notice is that the new crossing does nothing to increase the problem.
The crossing does, however, help pedestrians cross the road at regular intervals, safely, instead of having to run the gauntlet of ignorant drivers who stop for nothing or nobody or who are too busy talking on mobile phones whilst driving to notice people waiting patiently to cross the road.
Secondly (this is where the forward planning comes in), incase you hadn't noticed Mr Warburton, Rugby is in the process of having a new relief road built. The purpose of this relief road is to take the majority of the traffic out of Rugby town centre.
Less cars on Corporation Street means more space, more space means that the afore mentioned ignorant drivers will increase their speed and make the chances of pedestrians crossing the road in one piece even more impossible.
Up to the mark steps the borough council and instead of waiting for someone to get injured they cleverly pre-empt the danger and hey presto put the crossing in. Good hey? Now all we need to do is educate the pedestrians to use it
Dean Marsden, Dale Street, Rugby
 

Parents must also clear up after their children

THIS is written after reading Mrs Ruddock’s somewhat sarcastic complaint about Rugby council’s decision to continue to allow owners to let their dogs off the lead in public open spaces.
There are some points I agree with i.e. that it is not pleasant or right that a child (or anyone) should be frightened by a dog and I believe the all dog owners should train their dogs not to approach people whilst off their leads or put them on a lead whilst children/people are around.
I also believe that dog owners should be trained to always pick up their dog’s mess and dispose of it in the bins provided. Being a well-behaved dog owner myself, I am often appalled at the mess I have to pass whilst walking my dog. However, can I just point out that it's not only some dog owners who are in the wrong and cause upset and annoyance to others.
I live on a main road just outside town and am sick and tired of picking up litter which is left in my garden and on the pavements in the neighbourhood, by passing school children. Don’t parents bother to bring their children up to put litter in their pockets or a bin any more?
It's lovely to see the GEC field enjoying use by youngsters playing football on Sundays, but not so lovely to see a large collection of plastic water bottles just left in a various piles on the field the next day!
As there are bins all around this area, it is completely inexcusable to leave the field like this. Oh, and when the summer arrives without fail there will be a horrid pile of cans, bottles and litter just left within a few feet of the rubbish bin every day. It's not just in the streets and parks, it's everywhere. Please train your children NOT to drop litter. 
Name and address supplied

Council must act on its pledges

LAST year Dunchurch Parish Council sought a consultation meeting with Rugby Borough Council and the police regarding aspects of anti-social behaviour.
The request for a meeting was supported by all three of Dunchurch and Knightlow’s borough councillors and by its county councillor. The request in early November 2008 eventually resulted in a meeting being arranged for February 3 this year, almost three months later.
That meeting was postponed on the grounds that not all interested parties could attend - in spite of the meeting having been arranged with ample notice. The rearranged meeting was set for February 17.
This meeting was cancelled, at short notice, without any promise of re-arrangement and with highly suspect reasons given for the cancellation. This arbitrary and capricious behaviour is a direct insult to all of Dunchurch’s representatives who work hard on the community’s behalf.
Rugby Borough Council has produced, throughout its published social policies, many fine words that pledge engagement with the community and listening to the views of its residents and their representatives. However it seems that these promises are no more than illusionary and that entrenchment in “we know best” attitudes is rife.
Perhaps there are senior members of the executive who would care to prove us wrong and console us by fulfilling their worthy ideals forthwith.
Robin Aird, Chairman, Dunchurch Parish Council

Store won't influence the world's economy

MR Nelson is asking why the cost of petrol has not dropped in line with the dollar price of oil - Observer letters last week.
The simple answer is that the value of the pound against the dollar has dropped by 38 per cent over the last year. Last year we could get nearly two dollars for every pound, today we can only get one dollar and 42 cents. As oil is purchased in dollars, although the dollar cost of a barrel of oil has dropped, the cost of those dollars to us has increased.
As a great number of international commodities are purchased in dollars, most imports will cost us more. Even if Asda opens a store in Rugby, it will not cause the value of the pound to increase against international currencies. So all imported food stuffs, clothing, car parts, and gas, for instance, will cost us more.
If we want to reduce our day to day living costs one of the best things we can do is buy UK produced products.  
Lesley George, Montague Road, Rugby

Principal has failed to justify his new college

YOU recently published my letter expressing my amazement that the seemingly adequate Rugby College is to be demolished and re-built on the old GEC site at a minimum cost of £35million.
Reflecting that our nation is now £2trillion in debt I still question the necessity for this prodigal intemperate extravaganza which will presumably be funded by borrowed or printed money.
The reply from the principal emphasised all the well-understood merits of learning and skills, yet failed to explain the defects of the existing college which recently benefited from £150,080 investment in its engineering facility. He certainly failed to substantiate his claim that a college produces a seven-fold return on its investment or whether the new college is, therefore, expected to inject £245million a year into the local economy.
He gave no suggestions as to any new jobs which might be waiting for the newly trained students from the college. Cynics might opine that the underlying motive for this improvident spraying of public cash in an unnecessary venture might be to create lucrative development opportunities for even more houses on the spacious Hillmorton site as well as lavish new construction on the Leicester Road grounds.
Anyone able - or willing - to identify the true national and local interest would have allocated the scarce funding towards retaining indigenous ownership of our huge heavy electrical factories - now being demolished - and invested in the latest state-of-the-art machinery which is now providing the mass employment at the Polish town of Elblas which was once the mainstay of our Rugby.
Kay Pechal, Bell Lane, Monks Kirby

Policy is out of date

I AM writing to protest on behalf of young people.
On two occasions over the last few weeks on the way home from school I have asked my son to purchase some milk from the Co-op in Bilton whilst I waited outside in the car. Both times he had to return to the car empty-handed.
The first time he said they wouldn't let him in the shop because only two teenagers were allowed in at once. I then went into the shop about 30 seconds later, unchallenged. The shop appeared empty apart from a mother and toddler. The next time my son was turned away the doors were unlocked specially to let me in. The shop assistant smiled and greeted me and then locked the doors again.
Two teenage girls had to remain outside. Again the only customers inside appeared to me to be one teenager and his mother. Why does the Co-op feel that it was OK to let me in and not my son or the two equally decent looking girls. I might have been a thief or a troublemaker for all they knew.
My son, like the majority of teenagers, is an honest, respectable, inoffensive young man of nearly 15. What message does this give him about adults, respect or trust? In a little over a year my son will be leaving secondary school and he will be expected to be an 'us' instead of a 'them'. Children and young people learn their values from adults. If the youth population is not shown respect how will they, and indeed why would they, respect others? Respect should be mutual.
Remember also, that these are the people who will one day be keeping our country running, and hopefully be looking after us in our old age.
We have since observed the Co-op on passing and my son has commented: "Look at the second class citizens standing outside while the old men and women are allowed in. It's like apartheid".
I couldn't have put it better and I agree with him entirely. You couldn't say to someone you can't come in because you're old, you're a woman, your skin colour is wrong, you're gay or you're fat. How can people get away with saying you can't come in because you go to secondary school?
I do not now shop at the said store because to go in past the teenagers is embarrassing and uncomfortable and gives them the message that I condone the Co-op's policy. On the contrary, in my opinion it is disgraceful and it should not be allowed in this day and age of so-called equality.
Name and address supplied

Putting up parking will drive people elsewhere

THE council has a duty to spend what is our hard earned money responsibly in this difficult economic time, that includes starting with cut backs in their own house as every person currently has to make.
I see the latest initiative is to put up car parking charges in an attempt to stop people staying too long in certain car parks! What that's about, stopping visitors/shoppers spending time in the town?
On a daily basis I see council employees park their cars in the car park off Newbold Road. The majority of cars have one occupant and all display a permit allowing them to park for free.
Why on earth, when car parking is at a premium, can they not share and why they are allowed free parking in the first place when the best solution would be a discounted parking pass?
You only have to look at the doctors, nurses and NHS staff who work at the hospital and are made to pay for the privilege of parking when doing what is a fantastic job in saving lives.
This is something to think about councillors at your next meeting and as we come to the end of this financial year I wonder how many of them have made cut backs in their allowances from last year.
The council has constantly displayed its inefficiency in representing the views of the local residents and business owners.
Mr V Wilson, Buttermere, Brownsover

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