Readers' Letters November 18

CORRESPONDENT Terry Russell complains about the recent repairs to the bridge over the A27 at the Bognor Road roundabout, and wonders if anyone actually uses it?

The answer is that some certainly do. I have used it to take my bike over to the road into Bognor in the summer.

Most of those who use it are probably cycle commuters into and out of Chichester.

However, there is another bridge planned that will be a real waste of money.

On the front page of the Observer of Nov 4 it is reported that although the government can’t afford to build the long-delayed A27 bypass, other work will be undertaken – such as a bridge for cyclists and pedestrians west of Whyke Road – with the apparent approval of our MP, Andrew Tyrie.

There has been no demand by anyone, north or south of the A27, for this bridge, and it is not at all clear who would want to use it.

Instead of building this white elephant, the money should be spent on resurfacing two nearby roads – White Road itself, which is in a terrible state, and some stretches of Quarry Lane.

I dread to think what those two roads will look like after the icy winter weather that has been predicted.

Nigel Sitwell, Cleveland Road, Chichester

I WOULD have an opinion on the A27 proposals if you were able to publish any details, such as where the flyover would be.

I would remind you (and MP Andrew Tyrie) of two general points:

* During meetings and correspondence re the upgrading of the A27 (1972-4) several people prophesied the Chichester bypass would be deluged by being included in a major trunk road.

The Ministry of Transport denied it had any such plans and the ‘Northern Route’ was ruled out (whatever the results of a referendum and public enquiry actually were we don’t know as it was never published) .

* You report 45,000 vehicles per day using the Chichester bypass.I don’t know what your source is but it would appear to be an under-estimate.

I was in charge of traffic surveys in the area for the Ministry of Transport during the period 1996-2004 and here are the figures for CARS ONLY on Tuesday, October 5, 2004: eastwards 16,237 
(75 per cent of total) and westwards 16, 928 (76.5 per cent of total).

The data was collected near the Stockbridge Roundbout between 7am and 7pm and ONLY includes the by-pass users.

The total was 33,165 cars out of a total count of roughly 41,000 vehicles during that period.

Bob Hyslop, Fishbourne

I SEE the most important objectives as (a) getting traffic from the Bognor area and (b) getting traffic from the Witterings/Selsey areas, over or under the A27 into Chichester.

Traffic from Pagham, Runcton and Hunston can be relatively easily steered to one of these ‘crossings’.

In the case of traffic from the Witterings etc; it appears to be a waste of time trying to achieve any route along Stockbridge Road, as the route to car parking or routes north is so fraught due to the railway crossings etc.

The appropriate route would appear to be via Cathedral Way and Via Ravenna, with a simplified north-south fly-over replacing the Fishbourne roundabout and ‘turnover’ traffic being sorted out 
on the Westgate Link Roundabout and a new roundabout near Appledram Lane.

The Bognor Road roundabout could be replaced by a simple north-south (A259) fly-under, next to the railway line, with ‘turnover’ traffic being sorted out on a new roundabout near the end of quarry lane and a new roundabout south of the A27, where Vinnetrow Lane could also join.

At the Fishbourne, Stockbridge, Wyke Road, Bognor Road and Shopwyke Road junctions, access to the A27 eastbound would only be available from the north and access to the A27 westbound would only be available from the south.

This simplification of the junctions would substantially lower the costs.

It also avoids the diabolically dangerous (an accident waiting to happen) idea of traffic lights on the bypass, which are a feature of some other schemes.

If there is money to spare (laughter!), consideration could be given to a single track, single-decker bus underpass at the Stockbridge junction (and one at the Basin Road railway crossing – and the Stockbridge Road crossing closed ?), controlled by barriers and admitting only (electric?) buses (for park-and-ride?) and local taxis.

P Redman, Warner Road, Selsey

I THINK Terry Russell may be referring to the queues on the weekend of September 25/26.

These were caused by repairs to the bridge carrying the A27 over the railway line (unfortunately the Observer referred to the bridge as a footbridge) and nothing to do with the foot/cycle bridge over the A27 at Bognor Road roundabout.

I am very surprised that Terry has never seen anybody using the cycle/foot bridge.

I cycle over the bridge ten times a week at various times of the day and I am very rarely the only person on the bridge and I pass many others who are on route to the bridge.

Without the bridge these people would be risking their lives crossing the A27.

Imagine how many accidents that would cause and the cost and queues.

A total waste of taxpayers’ money?

I suppose they could just drive and add to the daily congestion.

Melanie Adams, Donnington

IN RESPONSE to the recent article by Chichester MP Andrew Tyrie entitled We have to act – the Coalition inherited an economic mess, I must say, I`m more than a little confused.

Is this the Andrew Tryie MP who said in the piece ‘The Coalition inherited an appalling budget mess...At worst we were on the brink of bankruptcy’ or ‘it is the poorest and most vulnerable people in our society who would suffer the most if we were to fall into a Greek-style crisis’?

Is it a different Andrew Tyrie MP – chairman of the House of Commons Treasury Select Committee who severely criticised Chancellor George Osborne on November 4 (who has repeatedly claimed that Britain had been on the edge of bankruptcy), accusing him to his face of being ‘a bit over the top` in his assertion?

Is it a different Andrew Tyrie who also challenged George Osborne’s claim that the June Emergency Budget was progressive by accusing him of ‘over-egging it a bit’?

Maybe Andrew Tyrie agrees with other members of the Treasury Select Committee that it was completely false to describe Britain as standing on the edge of bankruptcy back in May when other countries such as France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the USA had much higher debts as a proportion of their national economic output, which Chancellor Osborne has subsequently accepted as being true.

Maybe as well, MP Andrew Tyrie agrees with the Institute of Fiscal Studies which has forensically demolished the claim that both he Coalition`s Emergency Budget in June and the Comprehensive Spending Review in October were ‘progressive’?

In all events, in order to find out who he really is, would the real Andrew Tyrie please stand up?

Roger Nash, Chairman – Bognor Regis Labour Party

MR TYRIE’S reasoned contribution to the House of Commons debate as reported in your journal on Nov 4, seemed to me, a long-time Labour supporter, a very balanced assessment any sensible person could not but agree with.

Why then is it necessary in his article to play party politics?

Is every coalition politician obliged to preface any remarks about the current problems with a statement bemoaning the inheritance?

Perhaps they should consider the inheritance they may have had if the Labour Government had not taken measures to stem the run on the banks and push money into the economy in 2008, measures incidentally opposed by the Conservative Party. In Mr Tyrie’s own words, a large proportion of Labour’s term in office kept public expenditure at 40 per cent of GDP.

Global forces beyond control caused the downturn and the last government should not be blamed entirely for the current situation in Great Britain any more than for the downturn in France, Spain, Greece and the USA.

Mr Tyrie knows better than most that there was never the remotest possibility of bankruptcy or a Greek-style crisis and using this type of language is unnecessary scaremongering.

Could Mr Tyrie perhaps identify the alleged public sector excesses – were they the new hospitals, schools etc?

It is certainly untrue to claim that this area did not receive its fair share of resources ploughed into the NHS by the previous administration.

St Richard’s Hospital was completely rebuilt with money provided for that purpose by a Labour administration, something never achieved during eighteen years of Conservative government.

There is no doubt that West Sussex County Council did not receive as high a grant as some northern or midland councils.

A very simple reason – the need was greater there, a very Christian concept.

This however, has not precluded the 99 per cent Coalition West Sussex County Council from awarding themselves huge increases in remunerative and expenses packages (one executive having left recently with a £300,000 package).

Simplistically, we owe a very great deal of money.

Pragmatically, we have to reduce our expenses and raise more revenue.

Most people agree on this and will go along as long as measures are seen as fair.

The laudable attempts to reduce benefit fraud are not however, matched by a determination to seek out tax avoidance.

Consider the Bank Levy, a tax so small that it is more than compensated for by the reduction in Corporation Tax ‘That’s not fair’.

Consider the break up of the Forestry Commission and the selling off of vast areas of forestry owned by us. To whom? ‘That’s not fair’.

Consider too, the selling off of our one piece of modern railway, the Kent rail link with St Pancras Station to a foreign company. “That’s not fair”.

Selling off the family silver. “Is that fair?”

Conservatives, whenever in government do little but slash and burn. They are back to their old tricks, this time with the connivance of the Liberal Democrats.

We should remind ourselves of the ten years of stable economy and tremendous growth under the previous administration. The improvements in pensioners’ income, of human rights legislation, abolition of hereditary peerages, the minimum wage, all very proud achievements.

Don’t let this government mislead us into thinking that because there was a global downturn Labour got everything wrong.

They didn’t!

Ron Partner, Orchard Gardens, Chichester

CHICHESTER MP and much respected chairman of the Treasury Select Committee, Andrew Tyrie, may well be right in his analysis of the current economic problems and the measures which have to be taken to alleviate them but his article doesn’t tell the whole story.

Recently he is reported to have told Chancellor George Osborne at the Select Committee that the chancellor’s claim that Britain had been on the brink of bankruptcy was ‘a bit over the top’.

He accused the chancellor of using language which looks ‘more like the language of opposition than government’ and that his claim that the emergency budget was ‘progressive’ as ‘over-egging it a bit’.

But there is more to it than this.

Members of the Select Committee reported that Britain’s debt was not as large as those of of other major economies such as the USA, France, Germany, Italy and Japan.

The chancellor had to agree.

In addition, the current government seems to have been able to airbrush out a whole slice of recent financial history.

Where is the mention of the profligacy and corruption in the banking sector?

What about the sub-prime crisis which depended on ever-higher house prices, the hiding of these risks in obscure financial packages, selling them off to institutions who had no idea what they were buying?

What about the collusion of bankers and politicians in the removal of regulations to ensure that such swindles couldn’t happen?

What about the politicians who cosy-up to the bankers and what about the bankers, paying themselves ever increasing bonuses, for whom any sort of decency seemed to fly out of the window when there was a chance of making even more money?

The Labour government may well have been very foolish to get so closely into bed with the City, but the Conservatives would have been no different.

It is widely acknowledged (though not at all in this country) that it was the actions of the Labour government which actually led the way in saving the world’s financial system from complete collapse.

We were only hours away from the cash machines not working!

There has been no contrition from these people even though their banks have been saved by a massive injection of public money, that is our money.

There is no sign of any regulation of the banks.

There is no sign of any control on bankers’ bonuses.

The government is using the crisis in its covert objective to roll back the state, and is scapegoating the public sector.

Everyone who uses public services – and that is everyone except the very rich – is going to suffer.

Jobs are going, poverty will increase, the state is going to withdraw and charities, which depend on public funding, will not be able to cope.

People in this country, even in well-heeled Tory Chichester, are going the feel the pinch.

Wait for the squeals of agony as your favourite charitable or public service faces the chop.

Richard Ashby, Jubilee Mews, Prinsted

JUST A few weeks ago the Chichester Observer reported that West Sussex County Council’s chief executive, Mark Hammond, had been shown the door (sacked), but had been ‘amicably’ recompensed for his ‘services’ (sic) to the council.

Having offloaded one of the most expensive public sector fat-cats in the whole of the UK (allegedly on £266,000pa) we, the ordinary taxpayer, could have been forgiven for believing that at long last some fiscal common sense had started (just) to prevail in the highly polished corridors of power at 
the WSCC.

Alas, it is not to be the case!

In the November 4 issue of the Chichester Observer, it was reported that a new chief executive was being sought ‘on a much reduced salary.’

Apparently, the the post is being advertised at between £175,000 and £185,000 per annum with an annual performance-related bonus as a further sweetener.

The usual public sector job description applies with, inter alia, requirements of: visible leadership; innovation in achieving outcomes for the residents of the county; delivery of council objectives; representation of the council at regional, national and European level; strategic focus; visible and engaging etc, etc, etc.

It seems truly amazing that in these days of austerity such a salary with all the attendant perks is being offered at all.

There are many retired private sector executives who reside in this area who could fulfil this role on a part-time basis and deliver a far superior service at much less cost to the people who are supposed to be the ones served – not the self-serving at County Hall.

What the taxpayer needs and deserves is choice and competition being delivered across the entire range of public services and they should no longer be expected to bankroll a highly-paid local government elite who seek to protect their greatly pampered positions while they plan the slashing of front-line services.

The public sector’s Bisto Express is heading, very quickly, for the buffers!

Phil Thomas, Tangmere

GONE TO KENNEL

Gone to kennel, head on paw and tail between legs, with no juicy bone to chewyou wait for your call.

What have you done?

Why are you shivering with nose so low?

Is your mistress not at home? You poor dog. Let me give a little love. Slowly you lift a paw. We nuzzle nose to nose.

I feel your soft mouth on my cheek.

And in your eye I see my fate.

BOY AND MAN

When boy and man did hold hands

the future slept at my feet.

Madly did I pipe Blake’s songs

walking gladly as I went.

Now man holds sway over boy

I forget to sing as I go.

Time hurries me along

and I no longer stray.

When boy and man hold hands
again

I’ll sing once more the songs I sang

with Sky above and Earth below

and you beside me as I go.

Peter Lansley, Chichester

YOU HAVE asked for opinions on the recent major flooding around Bersted, Flansham and the Five Villages.

There has been understandable anger in these areas over the effect of increased hard surfacing resulting from the Site Six developments.

Parish councillors and the public are right to be outraged and to remind Arun District Council and WSCC that fears over the past ten years of major flooding and an overloaded sewerage system have been swept aside during planning inquiries into this development.

Until recently, that is.

Now, the Environment Agency is taking this issue more seriously, as demonstrated by its statements on planning applications around Barnham, Eastergate and Westergate.

The sewerage and land drainage of an almost flat area in Arun District between the A27 and the coast is not capable of dealing with what is now ‘normal’ autumn/winter rainfall.

Lidsey Waste Water Treatment works is regularly overloaded, as are the vital rifes across our local farmland.

We have high winter water tables and minimal fall to the sea; this is a fact.

It has to be recognised and accounted for – not ignored.

Another factor, conveniently forgotten, is the mini-mountain alongside Aldingbourne Rife, called Lidsey Landfill.

This is just to the north of Bersted.

High rainfall courses down its clay-capped slopes into the adjacent rife on its way to Shripney, Bersted and Felpham.

This mound is more than 160 acres and is about to be extended again.

One wonders if, in the past the EA and WSCC had hoped for favourable reports from consultants, in order for developments such as Site Six and the Bognor Regis Northern Relief Road to be permitted in such an obviously-unsuitable drainage environment.

Another 1,500 houses, new commercial development and the BRRR on open free-draining farmland or the flood plain will bring more flooding misery and will be a high price to pay for economic growth around Bognor Regis.

I hope Cllrs Brooks, McDougall and others at Arun DC will consider this when they call the villagers ‘NIMBY’ for opposing further large-scale development of their villages in order to fund an A29 rail bridge and new bypass road at Woodgate for the benefit of their Bognor constituents.

The now-normal winter rainfall will cause those downstream of us to be deluged as more farmland is hard-surfaced for houses and roads.

Felpham, Flansham, Bersted – even Bognor Regis – please take note!

John Penfold, Aldingbourne

REGARDING ‘REGENERATION’ I am in total agreement with the letter from Gillian Farina last week.

I am also concerned that these secret meetings between developers (who I am sure are more interested in profits) and Arun District Council will result in just more and more flats being built and will not be for the benefit of the town’s residents or the increasing quantity of holiday-makers.

A prime site like this seafront one must not be wasted on residential units.

Will there really be a consultation with residents or will we be presented with the plans as the bulldozers wait around the corner?

The Regis Theatre must remain as a theatre (and possibly extended), a mixed-use building was tried and failed and is now the public house!

It was very disappointing to find that Arun had not been clever enough to ensure that when the new Sainsbury’s store opens their bus would only be allowed to take customers into the town centre and not to take customers away from the town with the resulting loss of trade to our shops

GR Diggens, Tuscan Avenue, Middleton-on-Sea

DO YOU remember how wet and windy it was last Thursday, 11.11.10?

This was the second year that a service has been held to remember those who gave their lives for our freedom, in the two great world wars, and in conflicts ever since.

In spite of terrible weather conditions the service was attended by about 50-60 brave souls.

People were welcomed by Cllr Dr Tony Poland; the service led by David Makepeace (what an appropriate name!), with members of the Salvation Army to play the Last Post.

We all had a great sense of gratitude to those who fought for us, and to God for bringing us through the wars, but also, of the waste of lives and resources that war causes.

Once in the dry we warmed up in the council office with refreshments ably served by members of Aldwick Baptist Church.

A poem about the remembrance poppy brought tears to some eyes.

In all it was a good time to remember and to talk to others.

Thank you to Aldwick Parish Council for arranging this for us.

Valerie Collett (Miss), Aldwick Avenue, Aldwick

A BIG thank-you to Aldwick Parish Council for the Remembrance Service in the gardens at the Willowhale Centre on November 11.

In spite of the wind and rain (after all, those we were remembering put up with much worse conditions), it was well-attended, with a sensitive word from David Makepeace and an excellent bugle rendition from a young lady.

Thanks too for the welcome refreshments in the council offices afterwards.

May this act of remembrance continue annually, please.

Marie Stoneham, Aldwick

HAVING READ Peter Homer’s article Theme Park fears over nature reserve’s future (Observer, Oct 28) and prompted by the letter Report is an insult (Observer, Nov 11) I decided to comment also.

When I attended the county council’s select committee meeting about the future of Pagham Harbour Local Nature Reserve, I was surprised to see so many other local people there. It must be an important issue for them to turn out midweek in such numbers.

Around 30 were present, though I understand it is unusual for any of the public to go to these meetings at all.

At a previous select committee meeting that I attended in April, about ten members of the public turned up, several points were raised concerning alternative management arrangements.

It was stated these would be discussed in more detail at a later meeting and mention was made about a service level agreement (SLA) and the fact that local representatives would be working on this.

The meeting was reported in the Chichester Observer dated May 6, 2010 headlined Jewel in the Crown, and I was looking forward to hearing their proposals for the SLA.

Neither the alternative management proposals, nor the SLA, were reported to the latest committee meeting.

Insufficient information was presented to the committee to make a rational decision, therefore the only option was to defer it, resulting in a complete waste of everybody’s time.

Things looked up when the topic was opened with a presentation by Chris Corrigan representing the RSPB.

Perhaps we would learn something about what the RSPB intended to do at Pagham Harbour?

Sadly, this was not the case – it turned out to be just a propaganda exercise for the RSPB and its reserve at Pulborough Brooks.

However, it was interesting to learn from the RSPB, that its objective is to bring more people out of the cities, and into the countryside.

Should not its objective be the protection of birds and their habitats?

By default, we may be subjected to hordes of tourists trampling our vulnerable nature reserve underfoot, leaving behind the inevitable trail of detritus.

The all-pervasive Mr Corrigan, in addition to his involvement with the RSPB, the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA) and the Heritage Lottery Fund, became in 2006, an active member of a project board with Councillor Louise Goldsmith and a representative from the Environment Agency, to develop a new visitor centre at Sidlesham.

I presume that the proposals for this new centre prompted Peter Homer’s headline to include the words Theme Park.

It is interesting to read the brief for the project produced by the RSPB, which is on SEEDA’s website.

It provides for 300 car parking spaces, (and three coaches), a 60-seat restaurant, and a ‘sizeable retail outlet’.

It was based on an estimate that visitor numbers would be increased to 150,000 to 250,000 a year.

The current visitor centre apparently receives less than 30,000 visitors per year.

My nightmare is that ten years from now, our local nature reserve will have suffered irreparable damage. The old landfill site, not only having a regional visitor centre, but being a brownfield site, possibly some other (eco-) business development: the motivation, counting the cash in the till rather than the birds in the reserve.

TJ Wright, Pagham

RE THE threatened closure of Midhurst Macmillan shop.

Thank you for your timely report on the front page of last week’s Observer, which certainly echoes the emotions currently felt about the fate of the Midhurst fundraising shop.

The shop volunteers are particularly distressed by the high-handed way in which the process has been mismanaged by Macmillan area management.

Instead of calling together the volunteers ahead of time, explaining the situation and looking for a calm, productive way forward, a bombshell is dropped from on high.

We suddenly learn, in the space of a few days, that the shop manager is leaving and the shop will have to close unless we can find another manager.

Hence the shop, its fundraising and the volunteers are more or less dismissed, unless in a few days we can scramble together an emergency plan.

In fact, between us we are aiming to keep the shop open until Christmas.

We also suppose that Macmillan area management is paid from funds raised by people like us, who evidently have no compunction about ‘biting the hands that feed them’.

We are also extremely annoyed that the funds we raise are regarded as trivial in the greater scheme of things because the charity has to look at the ‘financial viability (of the shop) for the future’.

If a shop staffed by volunteers and selling donated goods is not viable, then what is?

The Macmillan shop enjoys a level of goodwill from local people that many a retail business would die 
for, and few can emulate.

Why?

Because we sell quality goods at knockdown prices, solely in order to support the caring and clinical services provided by Macmillan.

As volunteers, we work extremely hard, under difficult conditions in antiquated premises.

We are mostly well over retirement age and significantly understaffed.

We do not expect particular praise, or thanks, since we enjoy the work and believe in the cause that it supports.

But we do expect Macmillan to treat us with proper courtesy and consideration and to assist us in what we try to achieve – instead of the rather thinly-veiled devaluation of our efforts displayed by our recent treatment.

Margaret Versluysen (Mrs), Macmiilan shop volunteer, Midhurst

I WISH to give my thanks to those kind and caring Chichester people who came to my aid one Thursday recently.

My daughter and I had been to admire the interior of your lovely cathedral and were walking towards the city centre when my shoe was caught suddenly by the raised edge of one of the large and, I guess, ancient paving stones on the path between the cathedral’s lawn and the West Street bus stops.

I fell hard and more or less head-first onto the edge of the next paving stone.

Immediately there was help from Chichester folk.

A gentleman stopped to help my daughter raise my head to try to stop the flow of blood.

A young lady stopped to say she would call an ambulance on her mobile.

Another gent took off his warm jacket, leaving his own arms and back in the chill of the north west wind. He tucked it gently over me.

A lady took off her warm woollen scarf, wrapped it round me and left without it.

Several passers-by asked my daughter if there was anything they could do for either of us.

I only hope that when we return home to Boston, USA, and folks note my black eye and two stitches on my brow, they won’t think we’ve met some toughies in England.

I’ll tell them it isn’t people but pavements that are hard.

Diana Hearne, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

AS ONE of the children who called Bognor Regis their second home for a long period during the second world war, I’m afraid I must correct one of Ken Scutt’s memories.

On Friday, September 1, 1939, the day the Germans invaded Poland, my primary school was evacuated from Clapham in South London, to Littlehampton first of all, and then, after nine months, we were moved 
to Bognor.

When France fell, the south coast of England was, indeed, open to invasion and, no doubt, our government did decide to evacuate the more vulnerable of that area’s citizens, but my school wasn’t among them. We stayed put and remained until 1943.

The Girls High School in Chichester played host to a school from Streatham (which I joined in 1940) and, because of the shortage of space, with two schools sharing one building, we had our art and music lessons in the Bishop’s Palace.

Then, as mentioned, most of us returned to London in 1943, to circumstances and surroundings completely different from those we had left in 1939 – but that’s another story.

Vivienne Portch (nee Elmore), Parklands Road, Chichester

I THOROUGHLY agree with C Bullen that we should know as customers how the meat we purchase has been slaughtered.

It is only relatively recently that the usual way of stunning an animal before slaughter has changed to the halal way and your correspondent suggests that the reason is MONEY.

Maybe this is the ultimate reason, but I feel that once more it is the surreptitious Islamisation of our country!

It behoves us who care about this and the way our meat is slaughtered to inquire of the supermarket or butcher as to how their meat is prepared.

B Long, Chichester

IT IS reassuring that other readers support C Bullen’s letter regarding the clandestine distribution of halal meat in our shops.

Certainly there is the animal welfare issue and there are religious reasons why we should know how animals have been slaughtered.

I quote from a recent press report quoting an Islamic slaughterman ‘Animals that are stunned are not halal.

‘An animal that is unconscious is not going to listen to the prayer.

‘In the Holy Book, it says that the animal should listen to the prayers of Allah.

‘If it’s unconscious, then it won’t be able to do that’.

As a Christian I object to meat which I may buy having been ‘blessed’ and offered to a pagan god.

As I say ‘to reason without data is delusion’, and many believe that the Koranic god as defined in Islam is the same as the Judea-Christian God as defined in the Bible.

They are not the same god.

Yes, there is only one God; and for me the attributes of the Trinitarian God are more positive and holoistic than that of the Islamic god.

A difference many ulemas, (Muslim scholars) recognise.

St Paul said a thing or two about meat offered to pagan gods in his letter to the Corinthians, worth looking up!

I have written to our MP to support Mr Rosindell, MP for Romford, secretary of the Associate Parliamentary Group for Animal Welfare in his efforts to have halal meat clearly labelled.

I await Mr Tyrie’s reply, but am not hopeful of his support.

Although if he was on that website list of MPs supporting the Iraqi war, he might be persuaded!

John Hutchings, New Park Road, Chichester

I READ the article about Peter Dunnaway and his fine for cleaning up rubbish and I am speechless at the sheer petty-mindedness and lack of civic spirit of the Chichester District Council (Observer, front page, Nov 4).

Children are taught Citizenship at school, but if they have such examples as the CDC to follow, why should they bother?

The council has just set itself up to be ridiculed.

‘A taxi is not a suitable vehicle in which to transport rubbish’ – so council members have each got two cars, one to transport their families and one for runs to the tip?

How many taxis transport people in the boot?

Give me strength!

Mr Dunnaway states that his taxis don’t have meters, yet he was fined for having a meter running – somebody needs glasses or a hearing aid, or at least to be spoken to in words of one syllable.

His cars have no meters. Conclusion?

No-one was paying the taxi to take rubbish, so it wasn’t a commercial act, it was a civic act and he should be praised for it!

If Mr Dunnaway felt obliged to do this sweeping, then maybe the powers-that-be need to overview the quality of their street-cleaning.

How about fining CDC for not cleaning the streets properly?

Unbelievable, or, sadly, all too believable.

Bridget Stap, Godwin Way,Fishbourne

I WAS interested to read your front page story (Nov 11) on the ‘20’s Plenty’ campaign to try to reduce the speeds around parts of our city and save serious injuries, possible deaths and substantial sums of money.

Some might even describe the decision of whether to introduce this initiative as a ‘no-brainer’.

However, I turned to the motoring section to see a headline across the page stating Abarth 
500 is a ‘properly quick’ hatch (the Observer’s quotation marks, not mine).

The feature then goes on to describe the Fiat Abarth and its engine with such phrases as ‘a harder, faster edge’, ‘a properly quick hatchback’ again, ‘turbocharged powerplant’ ‘firing the 500 to 60mph in under eight seconds’ and ‘128mph top speed’.

Is the Fiat Abarth built to transport people and items from place-to-place, to race with on the roads, or perhaps see how much we can break the speed limit by?

The latter two, some people seem to need reminding, are illegal and, in this country alone, will continue to cost many innocent people their lives.

To get 20mph speed limits adopted in Chichester, despite the widespread benefits of doing so, as described in your article, the campaigners will have to give up much of their time and overcome much opposition.

Meanwhile, every week newspapers and magazines – and the Chichester Observer is far from the worst – will write articles extolling the benefits of fast cars, despite the widespread costs.

Martin Emmett, Chichester

LAST WEDNESDAY I joined thousands of students, sixth formers, lecturers and teachers to protest peacefully against the rise in tuition fees.

I find the recent proposals surrounding education funding very concerning.

I am currently studying for my A-levels and hope to continue on to university myself.

However, I think this issue extends far beyond my own personal hopes for the future.

I believe that education is a right and not a privilege; all those with ability and an aptitude for learning deserve access to affordable education, and the opportunities which a degree opens up for them. I fear the tripling of tuition fees will exclude many talented young people from higher education.

Already, there are large numbers of very able students who won’t even begin to contemplate higher education because of the soaring levels of debt involved.

Although many would argue that there will be bursary systems in place to protect such students, and that they will still get a ‘fair’ deal, I think the problem is as much about perception as it is anything else.

Some students from lower income backgrounds, particularly those whose parents haven’t attended university, simply don’t feel gaining a degree is a realistic expectation.

I think this is wrong.

The government are doing nothing to address the misconceptions surrounding university and their current proposals only go further in discouraging ambition among the poorest young members of our society.

It was with these concerns that I attended the NUS march in London.

Once part of the 50,000-strong crowd, I was immediately struck by the sense of unity.

Here were a group of people, across the age range, from all over the country, with a real interest in the future of education.

We were keen to send a clear message to the government; yes, we understand cuts are necessary but education is not the first place to turn to, if anything it could be part of the solution, not the problem.

There was never the intention to use violent methods, damage buildings, or injure police officers 
in the process of getting this message across.

I join so many others in condemning the actions of a few individuals who overshadowed what otherwise was a well organised, successful event.

It seems a great shame that a handful of people have undermined the credibility of what is a very important cause.

I only hope that the public will be able to look beyond the image of mindless violence that has been so vehemently portrayed within the media, and see an entire generation demanding fair education for all.

Claire Amaladoss, 17, Grangefield Way, Aldwick

BOGNOR REGIS councillors seeking to persuade Arun District Council to bridge the A29 at Woodgate may find that they are pushing against an open door.

On September 24, 2008, on the BBC’s Inside Out programme, the BBC asked Councillor Bower, cabinet member for planning (while standing in a field at Aldingbourne):

BBC – ‘If the Eco-Town doesn’t get the go-ahead then the pressure to build will return here, to Aldingbourne.’

Cllr Bower – ‘It is my understanding that there is a developer looking at this particular field here but there are other development sites around Aldingbourne and the Westergate area.’

BBC – ‘How likely is it that this would be developed?’

Cllr Bower – ‘Well, I think there is a strong likelihood that it will be developed at some point in the future.’

As cabinet member for planning, Councillor Bower has overall responsibility for spatial planning and speaks for the council.

If Arun District Council decides to bridge the A29 at Woodgate there is a strong likelihood that it will face charges of predetermination at some point in the future.

On the other hand, if Arun decides not to bridge the A29 at Woodgate there is a strong likelihood that the council may stand accused of making decisions in order to avoid charges of predetermination. Catch 22!

In any other council this might have been considered an untenable position.

So how did Arun deal with it?

Cllr Bower resigned as chairman of the LDF sub-committee because his impartiality was compromised (and this in itself was seen by the public as evidence that he had behaved inappropriately) – this was reported in the Bognor Regis Observer on December 18, 2008.

A spokesman for Arun District Council stated: ‘The Local development framework is a complicated process and the council must remain impartial at all times. Cllr Bower’s decision to stand down is appropriate given the circumstances.’

Councillor Bower was very quickly reinstated as chairman of the LDF sub-committee (he only actually missed one meeting!) and apparently with the full support of his fellow councillors, and continues in office as cabinet member for planning, to carry through the council’s plans, as if nothing happened!

It could only happen at Arun!

That is why there is a strong likelihood that Bognor Regis councillors seeking to persuade Arun District Council to bridge the A29 at Woodgate may find that they are pushing against an open door.

Indeed, a spokesman for Arun District Council might even say of Aldingbourne that ‘there is a strong likelihood that it will be developed at some point in the future.’

Tony Dixon, Barons Close, Westergate

FOLLOWING THE recent article in the Bognor Regis Observer regarding Bognor’s Regeneration Board, I am most concerned that their meetings are private and no decisions are made public.

This is so wrong, denying the people of the town the right to have a say in the regeneration plans.

It flies in the face of the present Coalition government’s decision that local issues be decided locally, with no mention that they should be decided in secret by non-elected people and businessmen with vested interests.

The whole affair is undemocratic and Arun District Council has admitted that we only know about this because of leaked information.

It is disgusting and Bognor Regis Town Council should be able to decide our future, not the ‘alien body across the river’.

Ann Rapnik, Stroud Green Drive, Bognor Regis

WITHIN FIVE months of this stitch-up Coaltion government we are witnessing not ‘back to Maggie’ but back to the 30s in terms of naked, unashamed Toryism.

Now it’s means-tested council housing, so goodbye to the idea anyone in need can actually have somewhere to call home.

The housing benefit regime to be brought in – I didn’t say this would cause Kosovo-style cleansing of areas, it was the Good Boris.

Councils told they don’t need to ensure there are homes for the needy any more – Tory Arun is clapping its hands.

Not only are people not going to be able to afford to buy homes any more, there won’t be social housing either.

Guess what? People crowding into over-priced, expensive private rented properties, more dispossession and eviction, more kids taken into care.

Cathy, where are you?

And these guys didn’t even win the election, they cobbled a government together with the Lib Dems – who now have the gall to say eg in this area they will oppose this and that consequence of these cuts when it is Clegg, their own leader, and LD MPs who are making this happen with their Tory allies in Parliament.

When people praise the new schools in Bognor, they might also thank fortune we got them under a caring Labour government before the coalition education team, including our own Nick Gibb MP, got their fangs into the schools building budget which was helping shape a better future for all our children not just the privileged few.

‘Britain’s debt’ they are squealing. Our debt-to-GDP ratio is better than the Germans, French, Italians and Japanese, and we don’t have to take this uncertain, risky path of a dash to cut the debt.

Labour’s plan was – and is – socially responsible and fair, which is far from what one can call this calamity.

Jan Cosgrove, Longford Road, Bognor Regis

I AM very aware that people are seriously at risk on the North Street pavement which is not 
really wide enough for one person to walk along.

A parent with a child or a person with a pushchair is very lucky to reach the end of the road without being knocked by passing vehicles.

Because North Street is a long, straight road most drivers use this as an opportunity to show off the powerful speed their cars can reach.

Pedestrians are either invisible to them or just a damn nuisance.

So, seemingly, are the very obvious signs at every entrance to the town: 30mph speed limit!

Testosterone always wins over commonsense, respect for other road users and traffic rules.

We do not need speed cameras to prove that most drivers are speeding in Petworth.

It is blatantly obvious.

Even around the tight, bendy route of Pound Street, Park Road and Church Street.

One does not need to be a rocket scientist to realise that screeching wheels indicate speed.

More rules or signs will not stop these arrogant drivers.

We need an action plan from the council and police to catch and prosecute those drivers who break the traffic rules – including speeding around the Leconfield Hall in Market Square with mobile phones glued to ears.

Otherwise the council might as well stop wasting our money on more signs which are not enforced.

Meanwhile, is it not possible to provide a safe walkway from Hampers Green into town along the Shimmings Valley parallel to North Street?

This would make a walk to the school, the shops or play groups a great deal safer.

After all, Petworth lies in the National Park area and ‘national parks are not just beautiful and historic parts of the countryside, but places where people live and work’.

K Consentius, Petworth

REGARDING your recent article on ambulance response times in the Petworth area.

I am now nearly 60 and about 18 months ago I called the ambulance, as directed by NHS Direct, when I had a suspected angina attack.

It took the ambulance more than 45 minutes to get to me and, as I live on my own, they asked me to stand at my gate to show them where I was!

When the team arrived they were very professional and helpful but it still gives great cause for concern, particularly in these times of cuts.

Is it realistic to expect the service to be improved?

Kate Farrington, Petworth

THE RECENT letter from Tim Hudson stating that the media coverage of the Pope’s recent visit to the UK was treated in a rather sycophantic manner, was rather at odds with what I saw and read.

I thought the coverage was balanced and entirely in keeping with what we would expect for any such state visit.

As for his criticism of the ‘establishment’ I presume he means the Queen and our parliamentary leaders.

This visit was at the formal invitation of the Queen, initiated by Gordon Brown before he was defeated in the general election; because of his new-found position, David Cameron assumed the proper role of the incumbent PM.

What was wrong with that?

Indeed, if the Pope had refused the invitation it would have constituted an insult to Great Britain and the Queen herself.

Mr Hudson points readers to QC Geoffrey Robertson’s book for further revelations about the ‘sex abuse scandal’.

If readers want a more reasoned answer to many of the accusations levelled by secularists and others against the Pope and the Catholic Church in general, I would point readers to the rebuttal by Neil Addison (also a barrister), which can be found at www.christendom-awake.org

Garry A Duguid, Aldworth, Northchapel