Your Letters

Lower speed limit failing

I refer to the leaflet dropped through my letterbox on behalf of MP Freddie van Mierlo and wish to query his claim.

While claiming that road accident casualties have dropped by 22 per cent, he is photographed standing next to a 20mph sign implying that the introduction of 20mph speed limits is responsible for that reduction.

Can he please provide detailed information and percentages on the reduction in casualties in 20mph speed limits that were previously 30mph limits as without this information there is no way of telling whether the lower speed limit has made any difference at all.

Mr Van Mierlo says: “The 20mph zones in Watlington and nearby villages have helped massively.”

To be able to make such a bold claim I assume that he has precise figures relating to accidents in Watlington and surrounding villages, both before and after the introduction of 20mph speed limits, so can he please provide them?

If he is unable to provide these statistics, can he please explain how he is able to make such a bold statement?

It is my belief that the casualty rate in the new 20mph zones will have decreased by nothing remotely like 22 per cent.

I think a wider debate on this topic might interesting one.

I would start by asking where are all the people who voted for the 20mph speed limits because I come across virtually none while driving at 20mph in the many villages that I have to drive through.

Trying to maintain such a low speed over a long distance is something that I find nearly impossible to do and, judging by the sheer volume of drivers who appear to be driving at close to 30mph in the new 20mph village zones, I am certainly not alone.

Whenever I do try to stick to the lower limit, I always find that in no time at all I have a queue of traffic backed up behind me and on a number of occasions have been overtaken.

So from my experience those who voted in favour of 20mph limits either don’t go out at the same time as me, drive in villages other than the ones that I drive in or possibly they don’t drive at all.

I have lived around Henley for 35 years and used to be a regular user of shops and restaurants in the town but, sadly, no longer.

To get to Henley from my house I have to drive through five separate 20mph zones and the chances of being caught exceeding the limit are simply too great.

I found a route that takes me into Reading, which only involves a few hundred yards of 20mph limits, which I can cope with.

So I now drive more miles to get to Reading, causing more diesel pollution than if I had driven to Henley, but that is worth it to me to avoid penalty points and a fine.

The sad thing is that I can no longer enjoy Henley and while my shop and restaurant spend may have only be a small percentage of revenue to the town’s shops and restaurants, I dare say that I may not be alone in no longer taking the risk of driving to the town. — Yours faithfully,

Steve Marshall

Address withheld

Freddie van Mierlo MP responds: “I’m proud of the transformation driven by the Liberal Democrat-led administration and its UK-leading emphasis on road safety. This is both through its popular 20mph programme that delivers improved safety through villages and a quieter and more pleasant environment, and through its ‘Vision Zero’ goal to eliminate all deaths and serious injuries on our roads by 2050. I’m confident that it is the right approach to prioritise safety on our roads.

“The figure that I cited in my latest leaflet was released by road safety charity Brake, and showed a 22 per cent decrease last year in the number of people killed or seriously injured in Oxfordshire, compared to a drop of just three per cent in road casualties across the South East region.

“Oxfordshire is the only county in the South East where a comprehensive and sustained rollout of 20mph has been carried out by the local authority. We know that any reduction in speed has a direct correlation with the survivability of a road traffic collision.

“According to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA), reducing average speeds by just 1mph delivers a fall in accident rates of five per cent. Inappropriate speed contributes to 12 per cent of all injury collisions reported to the police.

“A recent study conducted by Edinburgh Napier University’s Transport Research Institute also showed that reducing speed limits to 20mph saves millions of pounds to the public purse.

“The estimated saving is a result of fewer deaths, injuries, and [less requirement for] medical treatment. It is also corroborated by findings in places like Wales which shows that reducing the default speed limit on built-up roads to 20mph has brought multiple benefits. Lower speeds have led to 28 per cent fewer casualties in the first nine months (October 2023 to June 2024) compared with the previous year.

“Lower than expected vehicle damage claims has enabled esure Insurance Group to reduce its premiums for Welsh drivers and esure is now committed to reducing policy prices for customers within three months of identifying a new 20mph area in the rest of the UK.

“I met with Oxfordshire County Council highways safety officers this month and they told me they are continuing to monitor the implementation of the 20mph schemes across the county and will keep them under constant review. While we don’t have definitive data sets for the entire scheme yet, statistics in the pilot villages like Cuxham are very positive where average speeds have been reduced from an average of 32.5mph to 22.5mph, a full 10mph lower. I of course look forward to reviewing the data over the next few years.”

Still no action on potholes

Sir, — Despite the useful publicity in your paper warning us of the many dangerous potholes on local roads, no action seems to have been taken. I travelled from Caversham to Wallingford last week and for a large stretch had to keep as close as possible to the centre white line to avoid the large number of deep potholes mentioned in your paper.

I cannot understand why none has been marked with paint as a warning and a step towards repair. — Yours faithfully,

Stephanie Clarke

Caversham

Less posing, more action

Sir, — It was interesting to see our so-called non-political civil servant Mayor Rory Hunt and Councillor Stefan Gawrysiak in two photographs (Standard, February 21).

It makes you think there must be an election coming up soon. Although it’s a good to see the graffiti finally being removed from the bridge after so long, it’s a shame that Councillor Gawrysiak hasn’t been able to fix so many potholes in Henley.

Is this because he doesn’t have much influence being in a party of one at Oxfordshire County Council? — Yours faithfully,

Paul Harrison

Sonning Common

Show up, or make way

As our MP, county councillor for Chalgrove and Watlington and District Councillor for Watlington, Freddie van Mierlo is spread too thin.

Prior to becoming our MP, Mr van Mierlo attended 45 per cent of district council meetings. After becoming our MP, his attendance record dropped to 25 per cent. He may announce his intention to step down as Watlington’s district councillor on April Fool’s Day. But, given he takes 100 per cent of his council allowances, who is he trying to make fools of?

Please contact Mr van Mierlo and encourage him to step up and attend the meetings he was elected to attend, or step down, and allow someone more committed to Watlington to be elected. His email is: freddie.vanmierlo@southoxon.gov.uk

Hopefully, he won’t be too busy to respond.

Richard Riley

Watlington

Instil good habits young

I totally agree with Eva Rickett and Cllr Eggleton’s comments (Standard, February 21) concerning ways to keep our beautiful town clean.

Regarding the twofold issue of litter-dropping and cleaning up chewing gum mess, if parents and teachers were to remind youngsters of the importance of not adding litter to our landscape, and that includes chewing gum, new behaviours could be instilled young, and become the norm.

Perhaps dropped gum outside schools could be removed by pupils during detention, if that is still a thing? A new skill set learned too.

Certainly, gum bins, with a friendly message of thanks next to bus stops and coffee shops, could be an easy way to encourage social responsibility.

The Henley Wombles remove litter around their own homes, and this reminded me of the French approach to clean streets when I lived there some years ago. Their very effective model involved businesses and shops with street frontage taking responsibility for their own space between the premises and the road by brushing with soapy water each morning. Delightful to walk regularly along such clean streets. Perhaps this might be a way forward in Henley, especially with the copious quantities of dog excrement we must avoid nowadays?

Ultimately it is the young who carry learned behaviour forward, for better or worse, but they learn from adults, so it is up to all of us to inspire and support each other, in the interests of our town and our planet.

Most of us know what to do. Here’s hoping we can form good habits together, and enjoy the rewards. — Yours faithfully,

Helen Holbrook

Station Road, Henley

Litterbug students

With reference to you front page lead story (Standard, February 21), I am sorry to say that some of the litter in Henley can be laid squarely at the door of students at The Henley College.

My husband and I live in Victoria Court in Reading Road. The adjacent lane/road is a short cut to the college.

Most days I pick up discarded vapes, coke and beer cans, crisp packets and chip boxes.

The lane was recently adopted by South Oxfordshire District Council and is now called Trinity Lane.

It is to be hoped that it will be added to the regular cleaning schedule, if this exists.

It would also be good if the dog owner who regularly leaves a neatly tied bag of dog excrement on the gate could take it home with them. — Yours faithfully,

Chrissie Godfrey

Reading Road, Henley

Pay penalty for discharge

A financial rescue package has now been agreed for Thames Water (TW) but there are two outstanding issues that need to be addressed before consumers can begin to feel a degree of confidence that the company is on track to deliver adequate water and sewage services:

1. The community needs to know how future demand for Thames Water services is assessed and what engineering commitments are made to meet this.

Major planning applications that have a significant impact on infrastructure should require Thames Water to review and publicly explain how this increased demand can be met without adverse effect on existing services. The company operates as a monopoly so commercial confidentiality is not compromised.

2. Decisions to discharge untreated water and sewage into our waterways should have recorded authorisation with public disclosure.

Currently it appears that Thames Water (and other water companies) are able to discharge at their discretion directly into river systems whenever there is an alleged unusually heavy rainfall. Experience suggests that the company is using this option to avoid investing in adequate sewage plant facilities.

If there is inadequate justification for these discharges then Thames Water must pay a meaningful penalty. So far regulator Ofwat and the Environment Agency have failed to control this avoidance of corporate duty and these two organisations need to adopt a more robust approach towards Thames Water.

Ultimately its investment objectives must be to stop polluting discharges with all treatment to be contained within its facility. Thames Water must now engage openly and directly with its customers if confidence is to be restored. — Yours faithfully,

Christopher Nash

Bolney Road, Lower Shiplake

Beholden to BT upgrades

Sir, — After four decades with the same landline phone number, I now have none as BT “upgrades” its landlines to digital. Never mind the risks of power or internet failures and the lack of emergency communication that ensues, as that is another story.

In order to keep my phone number, I am obliged to replace my existing state-of-the-art and sophisticated broadband router with a very inferior and rather basic master router provided free by BT.

It has a little green socket into which to plug your landline phones. If located too far from my telephone sockets, they provide (free) a plug-in mains powered phone relay box which only talks to their own router, nobody else’s.

Unlike all the other WiFi devices in my household this relay is not WiFi compatible and only communicates with its own boss.

After long discussions BT confirmed I had to destroy my existing modem, with all the attached links which make up my in-house intranet and only use their rebadged so-called “new smart hub” router.

Unlike most modern routers, theirs cannot be assigned as a “slave” or “access point” and take instructions from a more senior pre-existing router. It can only work in one mode: “I am the boss”!

Technology-wise this is medieval in this day and age and rather arrogant to suggest that it is superior to everyone else when its capability is most definitely “second rate” with zero operating mode options.

The final words from BT were effectively a blackmailing “use our kit or we cut your legs off”.

I still have my legs but no dial tone so am currently using my mobile to tell everyone on the planet not to phone my number of the last 40-odd years as it no longer exists. Presumably I will receive a bouquet of flowers from BT to lay on the recycling bin in which my phones will be laid to rest.

Subsequent to our conversation I had a text asking me to score them from 0 to 10 for customer service. I think your readers will have no problem guessing my score correctly.

Yours faithfully,

Capt Dirk Jones (Rtd)

Kennylands Rd, Sonning Common

Remember landline?

Sir, — I do not live in Henley and never have. But I wonder how many of all these people objecting to these mobile phone masts (Standard, February 14) have only a landline and do not own a mobile phone.

It would be interesting to know what the percentage is. — Yours faithfully,

William Lunnon

Benson

New Best Friends...

Sir, — Will the world be a better place with NBFs, Vladimir Trump and Donald Putin? — Yours faithfully,

David Gealy

Baskerville Lane, Shiplake

History, lesson one

Sir, — In Biblical times there were no Bibles

Or deities, and other hearty jokes

They came later, all written, of course,

By blokes. And that, folks, I Pray

Is where we are today. — Yours faithfully,

James Kelso

Gorwell, Watlington

City meets country

Sir, — I was interested to read Diana Barnett’s column about seeing cows (Standard, February 14). It reminded me about my experience as a young teacher at a comprehensive school in inner Manchester.

A group of pupils would meet me on Piccadilly station to catch a train to the Peak District for a hike.

They told me that the cows we saw there were the first they had seen in fields.

They had only ever seen them before in a lorry on their way to the abattoir. 

Yours faithfully,

Andrew Hawkins

Berkshire Road, Henley

Childhood memories

I was fascinated to see a secret code I recognised and used as a child myself in the time capsule John Barham found at Shiplake College.

The alphabet arranged across a Noughts and Crosses grid of nine and then reduced to two lines and dots.

Regarding John’s unfinished code, I’m not sure I could help with without more info. I was a huge fan of Sixties spy show The Man from Uncle and rather fancied myself as a young Napoleon Solo in training as I left clues at home for my mother to find! How I miss those fun times. I left a time capsule at my parents’ farm which now would probably be intrinsically intertwined into the tree’s roots, only to be revealed on the felling of the tree! — Yours faithfully,

Richard Pinches

Henley

Secret war factory

I was just reading about the VE Day anniversary and the fact Henley will have a replica Spitfire on display (Standard, January 31).

Did you know that there was a secret underground factory off Wargrave Road, about a quarter of a mile on the left towards Wargrave?

This is where Spitfire parts were engineered and it was owned by Godfrey Howden. It was mothballed after the war but used for manufacturing again in the Seventies.

— Yours faithfully,

Henrietta Chapman

Tokers Green

Soldier’s tale from front

In order to celebrate the 80th anniversary of VE Day in May, the Henley Archaeology & Historical Group has been researching news items in the wartime editions of the Henley Standard.

We found a letter written home in August 1943 by a Henley man serving in the Royal Signals with the Eighth Army, telling of the adventures he and his companions encountered during a Commando raid on Italy a week before the invasion of the country actually started.

We thought that your readers might like to read this letter as it coincides with the broadcasting of the SAS Rogue Heroes series on BBC Television.

The letter appeared in the November 19, 1943 issue. — Yours faithfully,

Elizabeth Toms

Meadow Road, Henley

Sgman. E S Stansbury, son of Mr Stansbury, of St Andrew’s Road, Henley, and his wife Doris, wrote as follows:

“It was on the afternoon of August 28 that two of my pals and myself were detailed for a Commando raid on Italy.

“Well, we left Sicily in a landing craft at dusk. Everything went well and we reached our objective just before midnight, ran up on to the beach and started work on our wireless sets.

“And that’s where fate crept in for, instead of getting back for breakfast, we were ordered to destroy all our equipment and make our way up the beach, as our boat had met with a little trouble.

“We searched around, found a few biscuits and filled our water bottles and then crept on our stomachs up the beach, where we met three sailors off the boat.

“We had been told as we left the craft to make for the hills and stay there until another boat came to fetch us and, failing that, to wait for the invasion.

“So the six of us agreed that we would stick together and that the first thing to do was to find a convenient hideout. It was a dark night but we found a gully and decided to stay there until morning and see whether it would be suitable.

“When dawn came we found we were in an excellent little place, as we were able to look down on the road, the railway and the sea, and at the same time there was enough cover to make it very difficult for the enemy to observe us.

“We then looked into the food and water situation, which wasn’t so good as the sailors, who weren’t used to that sort of thing, had brought nothing, so all we had were three bottles of water and a few broken biscuits.

“By that evening we were parched and hungry but the situation looked much brighter as we had passed a day in enemy territory without being discovered and I thought we had a very good chance of getting out of it, especially as a boat might be coming for us any time.

“We had seen both German and Italian patrols passing along the road below us and that morning our ship was shelled for about an hour.

“Well, that night we had to get food and water from somewhere, so soon after dark we left our hiding place and crept down towards the road.

About half way down a dog started barking, so we went to investigate and found a small cottage, but no one at home.

“We hadn’t been there long when someone came walking up the path, so we challenged him with a revolver and never have I seen anyone so shaken in all my life.

“Up went his hands and he said “Amigo, camaradie!”

Fortunately one of my pals had been learning Italian and he was able to make this chap understand what we wanted — food and water.

As it turned out, this Italian proved to be a good friend and we used to go to his place every night and sit and wait to see if any boats came in and he supplied us with figs and prickly pears and water.

Once he was able to give us a little stale bread but had had so little of anything that he was hardly able to feed himself.

He also used to give us information about enemy troops stationed in the neighbourhood.

One night he told us that the Germans had been asking the people in the nearby village if they had seen any “Inglees” and that they had all said: “No.”

The second day, what was left of the ship was dive-bombed by Messerschmitts and patrols were still passing along the road.

The day passed very slowly and we were all feeling hungry, as we were eating only figs and prickly pears (the latter come off cactus plants).

The third and fourth days we saw some bombing by our own planes and we really thought the invasion would come any time.

As each night passed, our spirits got lower, probably because we were so hungry, and it was very tiring even to walk a quarter of a mile each way to the house of our friend.

The days we spent sleeping except when it was too hot and then we used to talk about home and what we would do when we got back there.

Before dawn on the seventh morning we could just hear a terrific barrage in the distance but no ships came anywhere near us.

That night we heard the news we had been waiting for.

When we got down to the cottage, our friend rushed up and shook us all by the hand. I wondered why he was so excited until my pal translated that our troops had landed at Reggio and then we all danced around and hugged each other.

However, the next day nothing had happened as far as we were concerned and we wondered whether we had understood him
correctly.

We hadn’t seen any Germans for a couple of days but there were still plenty of Wops about.

Now comes the most exciting part of it all, beginning in the afternoon of the seventh day, when we saw one of our destroyers passing along the coast.

We decided to go down to the beach and try to hail it, so, for the first time in daylight, we moved from our hideout.

When we reached the road, we sent two on to the beach while the other four of us guarded the road but unfortunately they couldn’t attract the attention of the warship.

While this was happening the three chaps with me were under a small bridge beneath the road while I was acting as lookout.

The first person I saw coming along the road was obviously a soldier and, much to the amazement, it was one of our Commandos.

He told us that the invasion had started and suggested we moved into the nearby town, about a mile away.

This we did and soon our numbers had swelled to a dozen, as five more Commandos came in from the hills with 15 Italian prisoners, so we moved into an empty house.

We then sent out a search party for food, leaving myself and a Commando guarding the prisoners.

About 5 o’clock that afternoon a Jeep dashed past but we couldn’t see whether it was our own soldiers in it or whether it had been captured by Jerry.

But we decided that if it came back we would hold it up. Well, after about 10 minutes it did so.

The Commando with a Tommy gun and myself with a pistol made it stop and told them to keep away from their guns.

Much to our delight, it turned out to be a Canadian officer and two men, who told us that Canadian advance patrols were about 10 miles away.

Before they left, they gave us food and soon after the other lads came back laden with wine and grub and what a meal we had. What was left we gave to the prisoners.

Soon after the mayor of the town and the police surrendered the town to us and brought more food and wine with them.

It was quite a sight that evening to see the 12 of us, unshaven for a week and waiting to see what would happen, when the retreating Italian army passed through.

That night we took it in turns to do guard on the prisoner and two on the road.

I expect you find it very hard to picture me lying in the middle of a main road behind a Bren gun but there I was.

The night passed quietly, for, as we learned later, the Italians had heard that British troops (all 12!) had taken the town and had bypassed it taking to the hills.

At dawn the next morning I was awakened by a terrific din and was more than surprised to see about 20 more Italian soldiers had surrendered to us.

Well, that was the beginning of it for during the next hour groups of soldiers were seen coming towards us waving their national flag (white) and the limit was reached when a whole company, including officers, appeared with a sheet on the end of a pole.

At the same time other Commandos were coming in, bringing their own prisoners, some of whom they’d had for days.

By this time the road was thick with green uniforms — I should think there were about 500 by this time, lined up in threes.

We searched therein and, as we knew there was no transport to take them to our lines, we started them walking and, as each new party arrived, we took anything valuable from them and set them on the right road.

About 10 that morning, that is eight days after we were marooned, a Canadian truck came and picked us up, three Signals, 10 sailors and 12 Commandos.

The villagers weren’t at all pleased to see us go and there were plenty of handshakes all round as they had been very good to us.

We got back to the Canadians, who gave us a wonderful medal and from them we joined up with the old crowd.

It was certainly an experience and one I wouldn’t like repeated, although, now it is over, I’m glad I was in it.

The worst part was definitely the food situation for the biscuits were eaten the first day and after that it was just figs and prickly pears.

The third day was about the worst, as I seemed to be used to feeling hungry after that.

What would have been the outcome if the Italians had any fight in them or if the people weren’t anti-Fascist and anti-German I can only surmise.

It doesn’t seem possible that the same thing could happen in Britain. In fact, I’m sure it couldn’t.

But, as I say, the inhabitants were very friendly. German and Italian columns did go into the hills in search of us and ran into two of our small parties at night and although there was a running fight, so far as I know none of our men was hit.

For some reason or other, they (the enemy) kept to the road in daytime, though we always talked in whispers in case anyone should be about. We did hear footsteps on several occasions but kept quiet and they passed by.

I had a beautiful beard when I arrived back and all my clothes were in tatters but I was back safe and sound and that was all that mattered.

You will probably find this story a little hard to believe but I can assure you it is quite true.

It does seem fantastic, as some bloke I met a few days back found it.

He had only just come out from “Blighty” and asked when we arrived in Italy.

My pal told him and added that I had been there for six days before the invasion and when I told him what had happened I think he was under the impression I was pulling his leg.

It is certainly the most exciting thing that has ever happened to me so far since I have been away, though there have been other occasions when things have been a bit hot.

This is the third time the enemy have had a good chance of taking me prisoner, buy my luck was held, as I’m sure it will do until the end of the war.”