| Your Letters |
Double rainbow over Temple Island
Sir, — I am an equestrian photographer and managed to get this shot of a double rainbow over Temple Island when I was taking some pictures on the river on Saturday. — Yours faithfully,
Peter Meade
Pete Meade Photography, Maidenhead
Delivery men penalised
Sir, - As some of your readers will know, I had the job of providing lighting and sound for the various mini-productions of the Living Advent Calendar event in Henley in December.
This involved delivering sometimes quite heavy equipment each night to one of 24 venues and taking it away again immediately after the event.
At very few of the venues was there anywhere within practicable distance where I could legally stop to unload and reload and as a result I received two parking penalty notices, which could have been considerably more.
Just after Christmas I had to deliver some equipment to the Kenton Theatre.
There is nowhere in New Street where one can legally stop a commercial vehicle to make such a delivery and again I received a penalty notice.
This was despite the fact that I was little more than five minutes in making the delivery and the police officer issuing the ticket must have seen me taking the item in and waited for me to go before issuing the penalty notice.
I am sure other businesses delivering or collecting goods in Henley must have similar problems.
While there are loading areas in Duke Street and Bell Street, these are only of use for those parts of the town (and then only if you comply with the tight restrictions applicable to those areas and can find a space).
I suspect that the business life of the town only carries on because the police officers and traffic wardens usually on duty take a relaxed attitude to modest infringements of the regulations where there is good reason for them and no danger or obstruction caused to other road users.
But delivery drivers should not have to rely on this or be penalised for carrying on their ordinary business. - Yours faithfully,
Hugh Legh
HDL Audio Visual Services, Hop Gardens, Henley
More parking space needed
Sir, - Councillor Laila Meachin, who chairs Henley Town Council’s traffic advisory committee, wishes to ban heavy goods vehicles travelling through Henley (Standard, January 20).
Henley is at the convergence of several designated A roads, part of the national transport system. These cannot be considered "rat runs", a term reserved for back street short cuts.
The main roads, some of which were "detrunked" (the A4130 was previously the A423), are essential arteries serving the population and commerce of Oxfordshire.
What Cllr Meachin does highlight is the inadequacy of Thames river crossings in the area, especially between the by-pass bridges of Marlow and Wallingford.
On this 34-mile stretch of the river there are only seven bridges of which only the two in Reading could be
considered in any way near suitable for modern traffic requirements.
Until the A329M from the M4 to Reading is extended by bridging the river at Caversham, as originally planned, Henley and other local riverside villages will continue to suffer from increasing volumes of traffic.
The extension of the A329M to Didcot and the A34 has long been opposed by South Oxfordshire District Council and Oxfordshire County Council.
In addition, Henley Town Council should be giving urgent attention to making the town more friendly for its businesses, residents and visitors by increasing the capacity of the town’s short-term car parks.
King’s Road car park is short of spaces on most days but particularly at weekends. Constructing a deck above the ground level parking area, as has been done in many other busy towns, should be urgently considered. - Yours faithfully,
Malcolm Lewis
Pearces Meadow, Nettlebed
HGV ban wouldn’t help
Sir, - Like it or not, we all rely on heavy goods vehicles for most of our daily needs. The idea that Henley should allow HGVs for deliveries only is selfish, unhelpful and unneighbourly.
Are businesses sited some miles either side of Henley considered deliveries? Where would you draw the boundary?
Some would inevitably suffer increases to their costs due to the extra miles added to deliveries and collections.
These miles would in turn be directed through other towns and villages, causing them more than their fair share of HGV traffic.Will they then seek a ban as well?
I’m sure Henley isn’t a town full of "Nimbys" and I’m equally sure this idea won’t get off the ground.
Our many transport issues need a much broader strategy than this. - Yours faithfully,
Philip Day
Bix
Pollution is getting worse
Sir, - We read with great interest Councillor Laila Meachin’s intent to launch a campaign to ban heavy goods vehicles travelling through Henley.
We have lived in Station Road for the past 22 years and in that time have watched, with horror, the increase in traffic, the subsequent rise in pollution levels and the general incompetence of Oxfordshire County Council in alleviating any of these issues.
Indeed, the council made them far worse when it introduced its traffic strategy some six or seven years ago and made everything in the town centre deteriorate even
further.
We wrote to Boris Johnson in 2007 (no reply was received) and also sent letters to the county council complaining about the gridlock and pollution but never received satisfactory responses.
On the matter of air quality and pollution, we were advised to employ a private sector company to determine the air quality in our own home if we were concerned.
We would therefore like to offer our support for Cllr Meachin’s campaign - something really drastic needs to be done about this issue before the whole town is ruined by vehicles that should find another route to their destinations instead of causing gridlock and pollution and damaging this small market town.
I hope she will let us know how we can help her. - Yours faithfully,
Maureen R Dougall
Station Road, Henley
Simple way to stop speeding
Sir, - Having read your report of the meeting of the Henley traffic advisory committee discussing speeding in Marlow Road outside Swiss Farm (Standard, January 20), I would like to add a few comments.
The road is not a "death trap". It needs only two things.
Firstly, safety would be greatly enhanced if all vegetation was cut back to the iron fence. The footpath would then be safer.
We have always been concerned with the safety of both the residents and the tourists who stay with us and a while ago it was my wife, Karin, who requested that the speed restriction sign be moved beyond our entrance.
All ideas of crossings and especially a "refuge island" should be dismissed. These things should surely belong in built-up areas.
Secondly, the most sensible thing would be to have a speed camera by our entrance.
Cameras seem to be very efficient in slowing cars down. The evidence was provided by the decision to switch the cameras in Oxfordshire back on last year after a period of some months of them being inactive.
A camera would, to a certain extent, be self-financing because the revenue would flow from the motorists who insist on breaking the law by speeding. - Yours faithfully,
Stephen Borlase
Owner, Swiss Farm, Henley
Living within your means
Sir, - Having read the report submitted by Phil Collings, clerk to Sonning Common Parish Council, I feel that I should make a few comments.
I did not resign first, the [former] clerk did. I was prepared to carry on and keep the council working as usual and had already advertised for another clerk.
However, I then received emails from two councillors which did not offer any help in getting over the transitional period between clerks, as one would have expected, but were the usual unpleasant, critical ones which I was accustomed to receiving.
It was then that I decided that I had had enough. I had been determined not to give into the bullying but my health had to come first.
In 2004 I was diagnosed with breast cancer. As the cause could not be attributed to anything in my family history, medical history or lifestyle, it was attributed to the stress caused by the death of my husband from cancer of the oesophagus.
Having survived, I did not want to risk a relapse brought on by stress on the parish council.
The former clerk and I took our responsibilities to the parishioners very seriously. We kept the precept at the same level for eight years but were still able to put new equipment in all three play areas, refurbish the village hall, obtain traffic-calming measures at the junction of Kennylands Road and Peppard Road, install the 30mph flashing signs in Kennylands Road and Peppard Road, fund a youth leader for the youth club and pay for restoration work on Widmore Pond.
We did this while remaining within our budget and building up a healthy reserve.Large sums of money are being paid out every month by the present council (I am still waiting for Mr Collings to tell me what these were for and who authorised them).
This council also appears to have already overspent its budget with two-and-a-half months still to go before the end of the financial year.
It also decided, at a time of recession when many people are experiencing financial hardship and other councils are cutting costs, to raise the precept by 20 per cent without showing any good reason for so doing. - Yours
faithfully,
Patricia Hughes
Former parish council chairman, Essex Way, Sonning Common
Not enough enforcement
Sir, - Sian Gordon’s article about Summerhouse in Loddon Drive, Wargrave, (Standard, January 20) lifts the lid a little on the long-standing failure of Wokingham Borough Council’s planning/enforcement
performance.
The application for a certificate of lawful existing use in this case "comes five years after an enforcement order to stop use of the building as a home". What happened about this enforcement order? Nothing.
When it comes to enforcement by the council, inaction is the name of the game. Allow me to enumerate the excuses the authority offers to avoid confronting
developers:
1. Human Rights (almost never relevant).
2. "Telling lies in a planning application is not a criminal act." True, but no reason for inaction.
3. Government guidance - to seek co-operative solutions before prosecution. This is just "guidance", no one in Whitehall is preventing enforcement against manifestly recalcitrant developers.
4. "It is not expedient" because the council is overwhelmed with more important issues.
If Wokingham Borough Council’s planning people are overwhelmed it’s because small-time developers (often advised by agents who are former council planning officers) are well aware that the council virtually never gets around to enforcing
anything.
These developers can run rings around the council, wasting its time and our money on repeated applications and appeals, confident that the end result will be inaction by the authority.
We look to our elected councillors to get to grips with this fundamental failure of policy and performance. They should start by establishing the facts.
For example, in the past 10 years how many cases are there where a retrospective planning application has been refused, has gone to appeal and been dismissed by the planning inspector with an instruction that the council should enforce some remediation on the site yet neither the remediation nor the enforcement has occurred? They will find that it is an embarrassingly large number. - Yours faithfully,
Tom Berman
Henley Road, Wargrave
Welcoming landlords
Sir, - Further to the comment by Peter Bland, landlord of the Maltsters Arms, (Standard, January 20), I would like to point out that part of the reason for his success is that he welcomes both eaters and drinkers and has a "hands-on" attitude to running his pub.
He and his wife Helen are nearly always there to chat to their customers, whether they are there for a meal or just a quick pint.
Too many pubs are turned into expensive restaurants positively discouraging those who only want a drink.
This may work in the summer but in the winter when the visitors have gone home most of the remaining customers will be local people who cannot afford gastropub prices. - Yours faithfully,
Adrian Vanheems
Knappe Close, Henley
Sorry for seats mix-up
Sir, - Can I thank your correspondent Lynn Hart for highlighting her experience with a seating problem at the Regal cinema (Standard, January 20).
I would like to apologise for the unfortunate visit that she and her friend encountered on Friday, January 13.
We pride ourselves on offering the best customer experience and it comes as a disappointment to us if we do not meet our customer expectations.
On the evening in question, we had three sold-out screens and the staff member in screen 2, where Mrs Hart had booked a seat, also had to ensure that screen 3 was okay.
The issue in screen 2 was caused by some guests sitting in the incorrect seats in screen 2 while the member of staff was in screen 3 and this caused a "domino effect" whereby other guests had to sit elsewhere.
We normally have one staff member per screen to ensure that everyone takes their allocated seats but due to the business on the bar this was not possible. I know the staff member eventually managed to resolve the situation in Mrs Hart’s favour and she and her friend did not miss any of the film.
This was a very rare occurrence and steps will be taken to ensure that it doesn’t happen again. We hope that this outcome goes some way to make up for any recent disappointments and we hope to see Mrs Hart again here soon. - Yours faithfully,
Scott Woodhouse
Assistant manager, Regal Picturehouse, Boroma Way, Henley
Advice for diabetics
Sir, - May I please highlight a valuable and local resource to your readers with type 2 diabetes.
Structured patient education has been identified as an integral part of diabetes management in accordance with National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence
guidance.
It is understood that the more a person understands about this lifelong condition, the better the outcome can be.
The Oxford Community Diabetes Team runs education sessions both for those who have been recently diagnosed and those who have lived with type 2 diabetes for some time.
Both programmes are run by a diabetes specialist nurse and specialist diabetes
dietician.
Diabetes2gether is a three-hour session designed to provide recently disagnosed participants with the skills and knowledge they need to make changes to manage their condition and live a healthy life.
Diabetes4ward is a three-hour session for those who have lived with diabetes for some time and want enhanced information in order to update their knowledge and improve control of their condition.
These free NHS sessions are run throughout Oxfordshire. Through the kindness of the Red Lion Hotel and the Catherine Wheel Hotel in Henley, this opportunity is very local to your readers.
Both sessions have been very well received to date, proving to be "fun", "relaxed", "informative" and "very worthwhile".
Places, dates and further information can be obtained by emailing diabeteseduca
tion@oxfordhealth.nhs.uk or calling 01869 604091. - Yours faithfully,
Gill Byrne RGN
Diabetes educator, Henley
Rugby is a real treat
Sir, - Despite having lived in Henley for more than 66 years, I have only recently discovered Henley Rugby Club.
On a Saturday afternoon, the club offers great hospitality, hot food and drinks, good bar prices and quality rugby on the pitch plus the bonus of covered seating for us pensioners.
How many other locals have missed out on this enjoyment? You don’t know what you have been missing.
The next match at Dry Leas is against Shelford at 3pm tomorrow. - Yours faithfully,
Trevor Beales
St Anne’s Close, Henley
Nominate your hero
Sir, - Do you know a community champion, someone who deserves a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to carry the Paralympic flame in 2012?
Sainsbury’s is looking for individuals or teams of people who you feel have made a real difference by inspiring others around them. This is your chance to nominate them to be part of history by carrying the Paralympic flame on its journey to the Olympic stadium. Nominees should have either inspired someone to do something they never thought possible, or encouraged others to work together to succeed, or used courage, determination, inspiration and equality to make a difference, or pushed the boundaries of what is achievable and helped others to accomplish whatever they put their mind to.
Any person nominated or making a nomination must be at least 12 and should be available on either August 28 or 29. Nominations close on February 14. For more information, visit www.sainsburys-torch-relay.co.uk - Yours faithfully,
Gavin Walton
Communications officer, South Oxfordshire District Council
Music for every child
Sir, - Thank you for your article about Henley Music School and Henley Symphony Orchestra and lovely photo (Standard, January 20).
However, I need to clarify some points.
Firstly, Henley Symphony Orchestra did not perform at Henley Music School - their annual children’s Christmas concert took place at Christ Church.
Henley Music School does not provide only percussion tuition for children but a range of music tuition in groups, all based at Trinity School and open to all school children in the area.
The groups include a wind and percussion band, strings, string ensemble, recorder clubs and guitar group.
The school is delighted with the donation from the orchestra as it is a non-profit making organisation and only charges children who can afford it a nominal fee of £35 per term, per club.
In the current climate, there are fewer opportunities for children to play music in ensembles and the music school was set up so that every child could have the chance to take part.
The money will be put towards some new music, banners and posters as well as bursaries for members.
New members are always welcome. For more information, please visit www.henley
musicschool.co.uk or email me at henleymusicschool@hotmail.co.uk - Yours
faithfully,
Laura Reineke
Founder, Henley Music School, Berkshire Road, Henley
Dabbling in ingredients
Sir, - As a keen follower of Indian food, I read the review of the Tandoori Connoisseur (Standard, January 20) with interest.
Having looked at the ingredients for kulfi ice cream, I have scoured Henley for "dabble cream" with no success. Is it a rare ingredient and would your reviewer have some? - Yours faithfully,
Patrick Collins
Queen Street, Henley
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