READERS' VIEWS 26/2

24 June 2009

Penalised prudence is illogical

YOUR story about the Hinckley and Rugby Building Society raised my blood pressure considerably - Observer last week.
I have to ask "What is this collection of incompetents trying to do - bring every successful company in the country to its knees?"
The building society is a success story despite the fact that it is small by some standards, nothing wrong with that, it is just much easier to manage properly. The North Street branch won the society's Best Large Branch award in March 2005, which is the measure of their success and popularity with their customers.
If the other 10 branches are staffed by such pleasant and efficient people the society's future could be assured if it were not threatened by a gang of bandits who have somehow given themselves the right to plunder the profits of any successful company. In this case it seems that they have decided to steal £400,000. Completely unjust, the skills that have kept the society going for very close to 150 years are still evident within the company, these skills could enable them to survive and expand in time, but will this benighted government allow this to happen?
How many more companies were robbed at the same time, it seems to me that there will be another raid on successful companies at the beginning of April when a lot more audited annual returns are published.
And what's it all about building a fund to rescue other companies from collapse? I very much doubt it, it is much more likely to be stolen by the Government when the fund reaches a target figure which only they know.
In any case time will show that using taxpayers' money nad companies profits to prop up the incompetents of the banking world is a dreadful waste of resources and completely unjustified.
Oh yes, and the Government take no notice of 200 pubs per week being forced to close, nearly two million unemployed with no hope of work in a swiftly shrinking market, vendors of new and used cars suffering hugely, supermarket prices rising on an almost weekly basis etc. etc.
What response do we get from the Government about all this? More blather and wasteful spending, they couldn't run a boot sale.
Mike Lineker, Lower Street, Hillmorton

Abattoir will ruin the area

I WAS disgusted to hear that planning permission for a slaughterhouse was being sought from Rugby Borough Council to be built near to Onley Prison along the Daventry Road.
Onley, Dunchurch and surrounding areas including Rugby will obviously be affected by it, whether it be the appalling smell of dead flesh and blood and guts or the thundering heavy, usually smelly lorries carrying live animals in and carcasses out.
There is an Equestrian Centre almost next door to the proposed site for the abattoir and I feel that the smell of death wafting over this would instinctively cause trauma to these horses.
Dunchurch at present is steeped in history with its quaint pretty almshouses and cottages is an idyllic village, but if permission is granted it will become a main thoroughfare for animal-carrying lorries.
The very old buildings here are already threatened by heavy traffic and the building of a slaughterhouse would further add to this, along with added noise and the distressing sight of animals crammed in lorries whose lives are about to end horrifically.
Dunchurch will become a village on the edge of terror for the animals.
Janet Cummings, Tower Road, Rugby

Don't make solutions more of a problem

I AGREE with Paul Maser's e-mail - Observer letters, February 12 - Rugby Council, Warwichshire County Council and Rugby First all seem clueless about what is best for Rugby town centre and are looking for funky solutions to simple problems.
All three pedesrianisation proposals are barkling mad, and will push lots more traffic down roads like Regent Street. They seem to be overlooking the last pedestriansation in town next to John Barford Car Park and the Monastery Rooms. This end of town is heading towards being derelict and an ice rink which the council did not bother to grit in the recent weather.
Occam's Razor states: Simplest solutions are often the best. The problems: ease traffic and improve public transport.
Solution 1 - Turn the area outside John Barford/Monsastery Rooms into a bus station, the derelict Monastery Rooms becomes a bus station/tourist information office. Leave the roads alone, bus traffic remains as is. Removes an eye-sore.
Solution 2 - New bus station on the car park by Netto. It's hardly ever used. ASDA/Swan Centre will draw trade this side of town. Leaves the roads alone and draws bus traffic out of the centre.
Also, exactly when does the waste of money road to nowhere Western Relief Road open? I've looked on Warwickshire Country Concil's website, and although there is a wealth of info and full status updates on stuff (especially causes of delays) this snippet is missing.
Neil Postlethwaite, Via email

Editor's note - The Rugby Western Relief Road is due to open in 2010.

Public loos should not be seen as expendable

I WAS bemused by a letter suggesting the public conveniences were 100 years out of date - Observer letters, February 12.
I couldn't quiet follow the logic, unless there was a evolution of the human species that past me by, that that means we no longer have to urinate. Or is it because people now just use doorways these days?
I would have thought that since the demise of telephone kiosks the need would have been greater.
One of the amenities that most shoppers and visitors to a town appreciate are the conveniences, were it not for them many would think twice about visiting a town for shopping - I'm sure the local shopkeepers would not be so happy.
I travel a lot and I can assure you how beneficial the few that are still around are! I for one would like to see the conveniences kept.
Bill Piper, Via email

We should boycott this car maker

WE HAVE one of the richest multinational companies throw its employees out on the streets only one hour before they were to finish work.  In an act that would have been illegal in their native country, BMW told 850 Mini workers, some with three or four years service, that they needn’t come back to work ever again at their world-class manufacturing plant in Oxford.
Because these poor workers are classed as ‘agency’ staff, then BMW are technically allowed to kick people out without much notice.  But they could never do that in Germany without massive payouts to the workers.
Maybe that’s why BMW clobbers British workers rather than German workers?
We could ask why our Government has fawned over companies like this, encouraging them to provide jobs with such appalling contractual conditions. Or we could ask whether BMW is really the quality company that its brand pretends to be.
We might even ask whether we should carry on buying cars from these people, the same people who kicked Rover in the teeth eight years ago and knocked the Midlands economy sideways.
Surely there is more to being a good employer than finding loopholes in the laws of Europe that allow big companies to stamp on little people – people who have been faithful employees for years, and who have families to support.
Tim Holton, Hillfield Road, Rugby

Keep dogs on leads

I READ with relief the proposal for the Dog Control Order by Rugby Council last year but alas it seems that the rights of the animal have yet again superseded the rights of the human.
I would dearly love to be able to take my twin toddlers to the town's parks without fear of dogs chasing them as they run across the grass.
I do not wish to be sniffed at by strangers beloved pooches, the standard "he never bites anyone" does very little to allay my fears as their pet bounds towards me.
Of course, how silly of me to want my children to be able to roam safely, they have little play cages to be safe in, rather like animals methinks while the dogs run around on the grass? Is there anyone else with a brain cell who thinks this is somehow not quite right?
And, just for the record, as it was Rugby Council's decision to suspend the order, it is Rugby Council whom I shall take legal action against if I or my children are bitten. That's after I have demanded the dog be put down of course.
Mrs Ruddock, Via email

Play area proved to be useless

ON Saturday, February 14 my wife and I took our 20-month-old son to Caldecott Park. Our intention was to visit the new play area, as we had been led to believe that there was equipment suitable for all ages.
But when we got there there was no obvious play area for toddlers or very young children. Although my wife allowed my son to toddle on the sand pit area, he was far too nervous of all the older children (mostly 12 to 16-year-olds) running about and abusing the equipment to try it himself.
Eventually I had to take my son away from the area as the older children were far too boisterous and the way they were using the equipment was downright dangerous.
My son was inconsolable as he wanted to play too, but I was afraid he would be badly hurt if we stayed any longer. What should have been a lovely weekend treat became a disaster which spoilt our day.
Whilst I appreciate that the council cannot force appropriate use of play equipment, I would have thought it obvious that combining equipment for older children with that intended for smaller children was unwise.
At the very least, a set of small swings and a couple of spring toys or similar elements, set away from the larger equipment, would provide for my son and his counterparts something catered for in the old play area.
I hope the council takes these comments on board, before a child is hurt. That child will not be my son, as I daren’t take him near the play area again until he is a lot older.
Name and address supplied

Editor's note - There is a section on the borough council's website on the park's restoration which states that there will be a play area specifically for toddlers which will open in time for an official reopening in June.

Why are prices still rising

Has anybody else noticed the regular huge hikes in grocery prices at Sainsbury's store over the last few months.
With inflation around 3.5 per cent and dropping further it is hard to understand how this store can justify their creases of around 30 per cent and 40 per cent on selected different items almost every week.
Also petrol has been going up at the same store at a rate of 1p per litre almost every week since Christmas and now stands at 89p per litre against 84p litre late December. That represents almost 25p per gallon more in less than two months. And yet, the price of oil has been almost unchanged at around 40 dollars. Where is the justification for this and why is the media so quiet about it?
Can't wait for Asda to open its store and bring some competition, as at the moment Tesco control one side of town and Sainsbury's the other, and both are happy to fix prices to suit themselves.
Mr D Nelson, Ratliffe Road, Rugby

Lights make little sense

WHAT shall we do today? I know, look at all that traffic around the Corporation roundabout at a standstill and put a crossing in that will really snarl it up - even though there is one very near.
Why there? The other exits on the roundabout are light free or are the council putting ones there? Might as well seize up Rugby all together.
It's bad enough getting into Rugby as it is so well done the council, I am off to Leamington to shop - it's quicker.
R J Warburton, Wordsworth Road, Rugby

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