OPINION: Letters to the editor of the Newbury Weekly News
Signage at junction is not good enough
I am emailing to complain about an accident I had last Wednesday.
It was at the junction of Boundary Road and Kings Road by the hideous new Sterling Gardens development.
The fact is that now it is two-way, the signage isn’t good enough to remind people to look to the left for oncoming traffic.
Drivers have been driving over the bridge for many years and don’t really look left.
It was always an accident waiting to happen, and unfortunately it happened to me.
An onlooker told me there had been three near misses already that morning.
Something really should be done about it.
How on earth did the council gain planning permission for that?
I attach a picture of the location of the crash.
It’s an absolute joke.
Leigh Harris
Newbury
Stockcross Linkway a great bonus for village
As a regular user of the officially named Stockcross Linkway I was saddened to read Denis Daveney’s letter about what he describes as an expensive cycleway (Newbury Weekly News, September 12).
It was never intended for racing cyclists.
The clue is in the name – it is intended to enable pedestrians and casual cyclists to travel safely between Stockcross and destinations on down into Newbury.
Racing cyclists would use it at great peril, to themselves, especially on the ‘cobbled’ sections at crossing points, to pedestrians and any vehicle emerging from one of the many driveways along the route.
It was financed from the Get Britain Active initiative, whose money, I am reliably informed by West Berkshire Council, is definitely not available for road repairs.
The Stockcross Linkway is just the first phase of a plan to enable us to walk or cycle safely to and from the north end of Speen Lane and thence down into Newbury.
It is a pity Mr Daveney has not seen any cyclists using the Linkway, but it is used regularly by pedestrians and cyclists alike, albeit not in droves, as Stockcross is a relatively small community.
Certainly, it has now made safe what was an extremely hazardous pedestrian and cycle route, especially the dip by The Vineyard.
For example, it is now possible for children from Deanwood House and Farm to walk or cycle to Stockcross School and for Stockcross residents to access safely Deanwood Golf Club House and The Hare & Hounds without using a car, a great bonus as we no longer have a pub in Stockcross.
With respect to inconsiderate and downright dangerous behaviour of motorists and cyclists alike, what can we do?
The situation has been exacerbated by the torrent of traffic we suffer on the B4000 since satnavs have identified the B4000 as a means of saving one minute off journey times between the M4 Junction 14 and the A34 Bath Road junction.
In Stockcross we have recently established a Community Speedwatch Group; is it not time for residents along the whole of this stretch of the B4000 to unite to bring pressure to bear on satnav providers to change their current advice?
Keith Phillips
Stockcross
Ablaze was breathtaking
I’m sure you will be inundated with letters and photos this week but I just couldn’t not send my thanks and appreciation to the Corn Exchange for this breathtaking and stunning free event at the weekend [Ablaze].
We were lucky enough to be able to get tickets and attended on Sunday night and I appreciate there weren’t enough to go around, but I hope people still went along to Victoria Park as that really was the highlight – the music, the recently refurbished bandstand all lit up, magical.
Thank you to everyone that came together to put this together safely, smoothly, security, volunteers; this was an example of Newbury at it’s very best!
Juliet Clarke
Thatcham
20mph limit mess in Wales and Oxford
Regarding the proposal for three new 20mph zones, I wonder if the council has looked at what has happened in Wales?
The 20mph speed limit experiment has been a complete disaster.
Many areas want to change back, but their councils wasted their money changing the signs etc and now can’t afford to change them back again.
It may be true that you are less likely to get hurt in a collision with a car at 20mph than 30mph, but you have to ask what you were doing in the road in the first place.
If Wales is too far away then look at the speed limit mess in Lib Dem Oxford.
John Gotelee
London Road, Newbury
Has anybody else had trouble at these lights?
I’m very concerned that there will shortly be a serious injury or fatality at the traffic lights in Newbury on Cheap Street towards Bear Lane, which are ridiculous in that approaching from one side they can be red, but green from the other.
I was nearly hit there myself recently.
I’ve raised this with the authorities, but their reply is that this is fine as pedestrians will wait for the green man before crossing.
Not everyone does so in the real world I’m afraid.
I wonder if any other readers have had problems at these lights?
Richard Escott
Norwich
Thanks for helping my husband when he fell
My husband Eric had a fall in the Kennet Centre on Friday and we would like to say thank you to all those people at Aladdin’s Cave and the two lovely men from the Kennet Centre itself who came to help.
There was another man whose name we didn’t get who was wonderful too and he called the ambulance and gave them all the details.
They got everything needed to help him, like blankets and pillows.
They were all angels and we are so, so grateful.
My husband is still in pain, but is getting on not too badly now.
Doreen and Eric Scott
Speen
Politics is not best way to manage the nation
Politics: ‘The art of self-deception, wrapped in the craft of deceiving others, for their own good.’
Why do we (purport) to manage a nation’s affairs, at Westminster, via the dark-art of politics, when no other branch of human endeavour employs that strange device?
Divide and rule is no more intended as an urge to positive outcome, than was 1984 a manual for contented living.
Yet, the politics of Westminster are defined by pernicious division, revelled-in by its practitioners.
I assert; the above realities attract to the office of MP the very individuals least likely to bring prosperity and flourishing to these islands.
I further assert; in those terms, MPs have met expectations.
Barrie Singleton
River Walk, Shaw
