OPINION: Letters to the editor of the Newbury Weekly News
Why we must fight to keep Kennet Centre
Newbury needs the Kennet Centre. It is part of our lovely market town.
Let’s keep it and stop any more ugly skyscraper buildings that have slowly crept up on us under the guide of progress.
The two ladies’ letters were spot on (Newbury Weekly News, October 17). Well done ladies.
I am sure many people of a certain age can remember the Kennet Centre when it was a busy shopping centre.
Every unit was occupied and people came from afar to shop and enjoy the pleasant shopping experience it offered.
So to West Berkshire Council, please think again.
Don’t let the centre be destroyed for I fear that will be the start of a downward spiral of a once beautiful market town.
I personally visit the centre almost every day and the staff do a wonderful job keeping it clean and tidy, with a smile and a cheery ‘good morning’, even though they must fear if we do lose the centre they will lose their jobs.
So WBC, don’t let it happen. Keep the Kennet Centre.
When I moved to Newbury in the 1960s the town was in the Royal County of Berkshire.
But over the years, Berkshire has become Barkshire, as all the TV announcers etc now call it. Can anybody tell me why?
So if we now live in a different county, we need to keep the Kennet Centre as hopefully that will keep us in the correct county.
Michael W Cryer
Enborne Road, Newbury
The situation in Kings Road is getting worse
On August 6 the B3421 was opened to traffic. Designed to remove all the through heavy traffic, at long last, from Kings Road.
However, we are now nearly three months later and the situation is worse than ever.
HGVs, buses, logistic vans all generated by businesses in Hambridge Road are still thundering down Kings Road and grinding to a halt at the traffic lights at the Kings Road, Hectors Way junction.
These lights were adjusted to give priority to the traffic on the new road, quite rightly as that is where all these wretched people should be.
The road sign at the top of Hambridge Road/Kings Road clearly says ‘all routes’ then an arrow pointing left down the new road.
Are motorists stupid, arrogant, or could not care less about the residents in our narrow vehicle-fumed and noisy environment.
Millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money has been spent on this new road yet nothing was done to ensure the traffic went down it.
There is no excuse for any Newbury buses to be using it, waking us up at five o’clock in the morning.
Nor any police cars ending up being stuck in traffic at the lights with their sirens blaring.
The HGVs should have been banned from the date of opening.
The planners are a disgrace and designed and planned the introduction date without thinking it through.
Another example of so much that is wrong in our country today.
Will our MP Lee Dillon fix it? I doubt it.
How much longer do the residents have to sit in their front sitting rooms and wait for action to get peace and quiet?
We should not be looking out of our windows at doubledeck car transporters and HGV stationary outside our houses.
Highway authority, get it fixed, we are paying for it.
Graham Young
Kings Road, Newbury
We need a waterpoint at the Wharf in town
West Berkshire Council clearly values the Kennet and Avon Canal.
With partners Sustrans and the Canal and Rivers Trust (CRT), they plan to spend £20m over the next 10 years to upgrade towpaths to improve access for residents (Newbury Weekly News, October 24).
A recent planning application (23/02875) outlines a scheme to invest £357,000 in enhancing the quayside near the library and tearooms in Newbury.
This will shortly see the installation of a ‘rain garden’ and soft play area near the water’s edge.
However, there are no plans to include a waterpoint.
Waterpoints are needed by boaters to fill their tanks.
Many boaters visit Newbury each summer, bringing economic activity and income to the town.
They are often surprised to find no waterpoint facilities.
Others, including some of the most disadvantaged in society, use the canal to ‘liveaboard’, continuing a unique community and way of life that has existed for more than 200 years.
No waterpoint forces them to travel to Aldermaston or Kintbury to refill their tanks, or rely upon carrying water from the tap at the public toilets in the town, a time-consuming and difficult process for many.
There were canal-side waterpoints in Newbury when the canal was re-opened 30 years ago, but a sorry tale of misunderstandings, ineptitude and broken promises has resulted in their loss over the last 10 years.
Access to water is supposed to be included in the annual boat licence.
Despite several meetings between the CRT and West Berks, the council has so far refused to include a waterpoint in the refurbishment of the quayside.
A water supply pipe is available just a few metres away.
With contractors engaged and working on site, fitting a waterpoint should be easy to achieve in a cost-effective way.
Valuing the canal should include valuing those that use it.
West Berkshire Council and the Canal and Rivers Trust need to work together, respond to the needs of the boating community, and agree a plan to deliver a much-needed waterpoint in Newbury.
Nick Swift
n/b Ajax, K&A Canal (occasional resident of Newbury)
Fake Hallowe’en spider webs kill wildlife
I wonder if it would be possible for the NWN to take up what has become a very worrying and important issue.
This is the use of fake spider webs at Hallowe’en.
These are extremely dangerous to a wide spectrum of wildlife from insects, including our endangered honey bees, to birds of all kinds.
The webs are so strong that they trap these creatures which find it impossible to free themselves causing injury and, usually, death.
There are many anecdotal tales concerning this danger which I am sure you can find online.
I have personally been told of dozens of bees trapped in one and a woodpecker in another one.
This danger really needs to be trumpeted far and wide.
People don’t want to hurt wildlife, but they simply don’t know how dangerous they are.
Carol Lewis
Downs Road, Compton
We clearly need another way to fund our NHS
I have long thought that the funding model for the NHS (free at the point of entry) is broken and needs reform.
I appreciate that it is a political minefield.
The previous Conservative administration simply threw money at the problem from time to time.
I did once think that Wes Streeting might tackle it, but the package of reform that he has just announced also avoids the fundamental problem.
Back in 1946 the Dutch government surveyed all the likely post-Second World War demands on the Dutch state and concluded that just meeting health needs alone would absorb the entire Dutch GNP.
So they opted for a model whereby the Dutch government provided a basic level of health care but users of the health service would also have to contribute.
A similar model was adopted in other European countries, but not, of course, in the UK.
Back in 1948 life expectancy for men was in the 60s – today it is around 80.
Back then there were no hip replacements, knee replacements, heart stents etc and a limited range of drugs.
Now we have all that, but the cost is through the roof.
Yet we still expect the NHS to run on a taxation only model.
Today we spend just 40 per cent of our GDP on the NHS, when it should be 100 per cent plus.
I am amazed that with such limited resources we get the service we do.
The reform package announced by Labour is just tinkering with the problem.
I know some people will throw up their hands in horror and say look at the American health system.
I know all about the American health system and it is truly appalling.
Nine years ago my daughter was almost killed in a road accident in Mexico and was taken to an American-run hospital.
She was turned away as she was unconscious and could not produce her insurance.
She was taken to another hospital not on the list because they were too expensive.
They decided to treat her first, as she was on the point of death, and argue about the money later.
So within 48 hours I found myself in Mexico guaranteeing to pay the bill, which eventually came to £170,000.
Fortunately for me, after a week’s wrangling, my daughter’s insurance paid, not me.
So forget the American system, but I have just returned from a holiday in Australia.
I developed an infected finger and the friend with whom my wife and I were staying insisted that I get I treated.
So in Melbourne I was taken to a drop-in clinic for immigrants.
I was seen and treated within an hour and was charged just £6 for antibiotics.
Our friend told us that their Medicare system works well; they pay more than we do but not that much more and there are no waiting queues.
So why aren’t we looking at the Australian system; the Dutch system etc?
Clive Williams
Pangbourne Road
Upper Basildon
