OPINION: Letters to the editor of the Newbury Weekly News
Our readers from across West Berkshire and North Hampshire give their weekly take on the biggest issues impacting the area and beyond.
Join the debate by emailing editor@newburynews.co.uk
More must be done to fix the potholes
I cannot believe the state of the rural roads in this county (and others).
This is the third time I have had to have a tyre changed over a period of one month. One of my tyres was less than three weeks old. With all the water on the roads and in the dark it is impossible to see the holes until it is too late.
I have a right, I believe, to be able to use the roads in a sensible fashion and without any damage occurring to my vehicle or passengers.
It is even worse when riding a bike when I put my life in danger every time I mount. If you want to get people on to bikes they should make the roads fit for purpose.
The potholes in Inkpen and surrounding villages are appalling and the roads in a state of collapse.
The council, despite their protestations, cannot possibly inspect as frequently as they are supposed to or if they do they do not action any repairs. They are there for weeks and even months.
Even after reporting potholes they often say they do not meet the criteria for repair or delay repair action, so we continue to drive on unfit roads and risk the dangerous conditions when drivers swerve to avoid the holes.
I am paying road tax to sustain car damage and this is wrong. I can ill afford this money.
We are all collecting bits of plastic and cardboard to save the planet and help recycling – where does the massive waste of tyres and wheels fit into this recycling and resources management?
It is about time the Government set about a programme of road resurfacing, let alone pothole repairs, and councils should be made more responsible for repairs when damage occurs.
Pamela Lucas
Hungerford
A year wasted now on Faraday Road ground
Further evidence the headless chickens are running the Lib Dem administration.
The political football Bond Riverside Estate, formerly the London Road Industrial Estate (renamed by the previous incompetents), apparently is now back under review.
It has gone from the October 23 update which said: “Work has now begun on the first phase of the programmes environmental improvements on Faraday Road. Volker Highways have been conducting pilot-hole checks to identify underground services and suitable locations for SUDS and greening measures. We hope to implement the works over Christmas and early in the new year.”
Four months on the February 24 update says: “The Bond Riverside programme is currently under review and will be resumed once a new approach has been agreed.”
In other words, almost a year from when they took over wasted. More money wasted on consultants and dithering. Meanwhile another tree dies of shame.
John Gotelee
London Road, Newbury
Thank you to all at the Lambourn Surgery
Thank you for printing my letter in support of the NHS last week.
Please add our praise for the excellent doctors, full time and part time, and their staff in the Lambourn Surgery.
Also the very good team at the pharmacy who go the extra mile for us all.
Meg Radbourne
Lambourn
Why the Conservatives need to do a mea culpa
Last year the residents of West Berkshire had the opportunity to vote on the record of the Conservative administration.
The result? Not a single Conservative councillor anywhere in the greater Newbury area and none on Newbury Town Council. Even the leader of the council lost her seat.
Unable to accept that the electorate thought they’d done an inadequate job; exceptionally poor on Green issues, ill-judged investments in retail which have gone spectacularly wrong and new housing estates straddling the A339 as you enter Newbury which are an eyesore.
I invite Conservatives to do a mea culpa of your council’s shortcomings which are evident to everyone.
Start campaigning in North West Hampshire if you want to see more Conservative MPs.
You all know that Farris has absolutely no chance of keeping her seat in Newbury, despite her best efforts to persuade every former and present councillor and every diehard Tory supporter to write in giving their support to her in the NWN every week.
Adrian Foster-Fletcher
Adbury Holt
Israel is not perfect but don’t single it out
The world is painfully full of conflict – the civil war in Yemen has resulted in the deaths of 150,000 people and displaced 4.5 million people, the Syrian civil war has claimed the lives of over 300,000 civilians and displaced over 13 million people, the Rohingya genocide has resulted in the deaths of 25,000 and displaced 700,000.
The conflict in the Congo perpetrated by M23, a rebel group in the Democratic Republic of Congo conflict, has displaced 6.9 million Congolese and results in the deaths of thousands each month. And yet I see no protests taking place against the Houthis, Ba’athists, Tatmadaw or M23.
Perhaps it’s the killing of Palestinians that people find uniquely repulsive. If that were the case then there should have been uproar as the Syrian Government has targeted and massacred thousands of Palestinians and continues to discriminate against the half a million Palestinians in Syria, or indeed the murder by Hamas of Palestinians.
However, there is seemingly no outrage at the far larger scales of the conflicts above or of the killing of Palestinians by neighbouring Arab countries. This leaves only one trigger for the scale of protests that we have seen.
Israel suffered a shocking terror attack, breaking the ceasefire in place until October 7, killing 1,139 civilians with documented evidence of rape and torture, and the taking of hostages, 134 of whom remain in Hamas’ hands.
Israel has launched a military operation to rescue the hostages and neutralise Hamas. A ceasefire could take place today if the hostages are returned and Hamas neutralised.
Hamas chose to invade Israel on October 7 and Hamas chooses to continue the conflict. Far too many civilians have been killed in the conflict, that is the case in any conflict.
Israel has been more precise in killing combatants than either America or UK in the Iraq war. Hamas chose to massacre civilians on October 7, killing young peace festival goers and elderly care home residents.
In Parliament, we saw the Speaker upend tradition out of fear for MPs and their staffers’ safety after a minister’s constituency office was firebombed, an MP’s family home targeted and thousands chanted the death chant “from the river to the sea” outside Parliament.
It is a sad day when the Speaker feels forced into breaking the protocol based on centuries old traditions in an attempt to protect our lawmakers from violent repercussions of voting with their conscience instead of the mob.
At the same time the Jewish community in the UK is subjected to an historic rise in antisemitism as a result of the Israel-Hamas war. As the old adage goes, what starts with the Jews does not end with the Jews.
There are many reasons to protest for peace globally but there is only one Jewish state. Over 76 years it has done its best to survive insurmountable odds from neighbours that wish to cleanse the land of Jews “from the river to the sea”.
It is not perfect but unlike neighbouring countries, Jews, Arabs and many others participate actively in their legislative body.
Protesters are singling Israel out for special treatment and this is driven by the oldest hatred in the world, antisemitism.
George Pye
Station Road, Thatcham
