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Your say online, September
This is the place for users of Hemeltoday to have their say online. Have your say on local news, local issues or the national issues.
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Sally Jones
High Street Green
Hemel Hempstead
Reading the story about the mother who is outraged at the cost of the school bus for her two children had me hot under the collar.
Not knowing the full circumstances, one can only guess that the parents have opted for their children to attend Townsend in preference to the half dozen senior schools in Hemel, all of which are significantly nearer.
Free school transport is available where a child is attending the nearest suitable school.
For anyone to expect the tax payer to pick up or subsidise the tab for their lifestyle preference seems more than a bit rich to me.
It seems some people want it all ways – the right to have their preferences respected but none of the cost or inconvenience.
Name and address
supplied
Why am I not surprised that the West Herts Hospitals Trust disagreed with the Dacorum Hospital Action Groups dossier of patient experiences - and are wasting more of the available cash to pay for another review by 'independent' consultants.
The whole exercise of splitting up the services available to Hemel Hempstead, St Albans, Harpenden and overloading the present facilities at Watford - all in the face of growing local populations - is creating a mass of people dreading the times when they will become sick.
In 1958 my family moved to the new town of Hemel Hempstead from Ealing in South London, we found new housing, new schools, new jobs and more importantly, hospitals.
There was West Herts, a good hospital designed to grow, and another good well-used hospital called St Pauls, whose excellent staff saved me from a heart attack in 1986.
With the improvement to the West Herts Hospital things were allowed to transfer from St Pauls to West Herts Hospital which is only about one mile away.
Now anyone taken seriously ill in Hemel Hempstead will have to be ambulanced to Watford - and, especially if it is in the morning rush hour - I doubt if they would survive the journey.
I am a pensioner now and one of my regrets is that I did not choose to go private when I could have afforded to.
The medical staff working for the N.H.S. is excellent, but we all know about the 'Management Horde' that has descended upon our service.
To say that they have ruined it completely would be overstating their effectiveness, but I have seen groups of people whose jobs were 'Bed Managers' looking into wards who might have spare beds. In the past the senior nurses would have known exactly the 'bed' position.
I was a patient at the time - having been to the toilet - I hurried back to my space just in case my bed got hi-jacked.
Unfortunately this over-staffing of people on management staff has been overdone considerably.
I understand that the new trust chief executive thinks that waiting times are almost things from the past, it's about time that he woke up and checked the figures.
In January 2009 I had a painful lump on the face of my thumb, so I was reduced to being four fingered, unable to use tools properly because of the pain.
My GP referred me to a surgeon for assessment, still in January 2009, the surgeon saw me in the empty fracture clinic of West Herts Hospital.
It was decided to operate and my lump was removed at the Harpenden Memorial Hospital - under local
anesthetic - on 20/04/2009.
The bi-opsy result that I finally received, proved the lump to be a Rheumatoid nodule rather than a cancerous lump. So although my experience was long (waiting 13 weeks) and worrying, it was not too painful, and my thumb is well on the mend.
After weeks following bouts of very bad pain my daughter was ambulanced to hospital and was diagnosed to have gallstones and a dodgy gall bladder that would probably have to be removed.
She attended an appointment to assess her for the operation, and she was told she would have to wait 8 to 12 weeks. She has waited approximately 11 weeks and she has now been given a date for the operation, October 15, this will make it approximately 20 weeks.
The state of the hospitals in the trust, empty wards etc suggest that 20 weeks is a very overconfident/but unlikely estimate.
Considering that my daughter is a nurse and cannot work with her condition - and as a bank nurse does not get sick pay - things
are rather tight at the moment.
I really do think that
those people who have been allowed to get our hospitals in such bother should no longer be working for us in Britain.
Carol Marshall
Ninian Road
Hemel Hempstead
MY stepfather collapsed and was taken to Watford General about two weeks ago.
My mother and I dreaded going there after all the stories we heard.
Imagine our surprise when we were greeted by smiling, super-efficient staff and wards that resembled a hotel!
My stepfather was in for two days and enjoyed up-to-the-minute technology, restaurant-type food and constant attention.
Even the doctors and staff all shook our hands and introduced themselves and they couldn't have been more charming.
So instead of trepidation, I shall feel at east if I am ever unfortunate enough to be admitted.
To sum up - a flagship hospital to which other hospitals could aspire.
Cllr Alan Fantham
Northchurch Parish Council
Boswick Lane
Dudswell
Northchurch
Your letters page never fails to interest, encourage and appal.
Parking: I have no knowledge of Kings Langley. However, I would like to point out that it is perfectly legal to park on an unmarked part of the highway as long as you are not causing obstruction.
Doncaster: Where did all this rubbish about Doncaster come from? Doncaster and its Council and Councillors regularly feature in Private Eye's Rotten Boroughs because of maladministration and doubtful planning matters. Its Child Welfare Department is known as one of the worst in the country. Vive la Doncaster?
Core Strategy: I share the views of your anonymous correspondent regarding DBC's current Emerging Core Strategy and the length of time that can be taken that is to be offered (or indeed was offered) on general public consultation.
The suggestion of 'burying bad news' during the August holiday is well aimed. Similarly, there is a high percentage of the questions that have been asked, included to get the answer which Dacorum (and indeed Herts County Council) would be glad to receive. I am, as a Northchurch Parish Councillor, particularly interested in the question regarding the link road between Northchurch New Road and Billet Lane. I am well aware that a large percentage of the residents of Tunnel Fields (and indeed some from Bridgewater Road) will probably be against this idea. When the question is asked "should we still retain this link road in the plan?" what is going to be the action following the receipt of answers? If 200 people say "yes, keep it in" and 190 say "take it out", is it then automatically to be kept in? Personally, and declaring an interest, I am of the opinion that it should be left.
An Appeals Inspector in 1992 decided that it should be included in the last DBC Plan. Nothing has changed since then except the possibility of building some 50 houses in Lock Field, Northchurch New Road. The situation is exactly the same except that officials and councillors have not made any efforts to comply with the Inspector's decision which appeared in the Dacorum Plan in 1992.
Your correspondent on the Homes Consultation was right that it was an Appeals Inspector who threw out development of the link road. However, that is not the complete story. The Appeals Inspector was an Appeals Inspector who decided that the road would not be paid for by the penultimate developer in Tunnel Fields. He did not say it should not be built; he said that this particular developer should not pay for it - a subtle difference.
I think, in the main, that this consultation seeks to get the answers that officers mainly and councillors would like to see. Needless to say, this councillor and the parish council he represents do not think that the idea of the link road should be abandoned.
Sheila Lawrie
Newford Close
Hemel Hempstead
It's more than four years since you published my photos of the litter at the Maylands end of Wood Lane End, with the title 'Ashamed'.
Maylands Business Park the 'showcase' of Hemel Hempstead? I think not.
The streets around here are not just 'unclean and horrible' as Linda Smith of New Park Drive suggests (Gazette September 16), they are filthy and disgusting.
I also have lived here for more than 40 years. The Maylands area needs policing. It is not the residents in the area that create this mess but employees using Wood Lane End as a racetrack to get to their place of work with their car windows wide open and their radios on full blast.
If a team of residents attempted to clean up, they would need to hire several skips.
It took months for one of the councillors to succeed in getting the pavement opposite the banks in Wood Lane End cleared of overgrown weeds and brambles.
The gutters are blocked with filth which has been there for months, consequently when it rains, the roads and pavements become flooded. I have seen road cleaners picking up litter on the Leighton Buzzard Road way out of Hemel, so why can't this area be cleaned up?
I was ashamed of the place four years ago and am even more so now.
F.W.Rush
Further to Sheila Lawrie's letter regarding the state of the Wood lane End/Maylands Avenue area.
I fully agree with her comments,and have myself made a number of calls to the Coucil on this matter.Why on earth the offending bushes opposite the banks cannot be removed completely,I fail to understand.As far as the rubbish is concerned,we were promised litter bins
at the bus stop,but these never materialised.
However,I feel that it is not only the responsibility of the council,but also the people who use the area.Unfortunately,it is a fact of life nowadays,that where there are food outlets ,there will be rubbish.
Where are the so called "litter police" when they are needed.
Peggy Cotton
Lombardy Drive
Berkhamsted
HERE in Berkhamsted we have the Marie Antoinette syndrome "let them eat cake".
How insensitive of County Councillor Andrew Dawson to ever suggest that the elderly of Berkhamsted can "go to Hemel Hempstead or Tring".
Perhaps he knows how those with walking difficulties or are generally unable to get around unaided can travel out of Berkhamsted; or is he willing to pay for transport to collect them from their usually housebound premises.
Manor Street Day Centre was a joy for these people - a club in fact.
Berkhamsted, thanks to Dacorum Borough Council (DBC), is now grossly overcrowded and to demolish a perfectly usuable building to increase people and car population is quite grotesque.
Please DBC, just for once, listen to the people of Berkhamsted and its elected officials and stop thinking of us as a milch cow.
Richard Casserley
Doctors' Common Road
Berkhamsted
FURTHER to your letter 'No room on new trains' the writer does not seem to realise that one of the cardinal rules for those responsible for designing new rolling stock is that the carriage shall be less comfortable than their predecessors!
This trend has accellerated since the first design of electric coaches was introduced on the line in 1965/66.
I am old enough to remember the compartment stock built by the London and North Western and LMS Railways in the 1920s and 1930s.
The basic design had nine compartments, each seating 12 passengers, with a door to each compartment for quick entry/exit (instead of just two per coach as we have nowadays) and adequate full width luggage racks above the seats.
I appreciate that on longer journeys, some people may need a toilet, but they were catered for by some compartments having adjacent small toilets (which reduced the number of compartments to eight).
Other 'improvements' that we could well do without are the ineffective
and energy-consuming air conditioning (what is wrong with a window that opens?) and 'Sonya' (get's 'Sonya' nerves) who admonishes us every few minutes not to leave our luggage on the train when leaving!
Mrs Johnson
Cemmaes Meadow
Hemel Hempstead
AT this time of global recession this is hardly the time to plan the future of the area in 20 years' time.
Twenty years ago who would have predicted the almost total loss of Hemel Hempstead Hospital? (Where and when will a new one be built I wonder?)
Who foresaw the explosion at the Buncefield terminal and the devastation that caused? Global warming could cause flooding in low lying areas and green belt land is under discussion.
Any new government may well change any plans. Look at the changes that have happened in the last five years, let alone 20 years.
Even my crystal ball cannot predict the changes that will occur so far ahead.
Like previous consultations, the Hemel Hempstead Action Plan is a waste of taxpayers' money.
Name and address
supplied
I write in response to your article of August 26.
My experience of the so called consultation process is one of complete mistrust and a feeling of being deliberately impeded by Dacorum Borough Council.
It is strongly my belief that the timing of these consultations has been deliberately timed to minimise responses from the community. The first consultation taking place in the run up to Christmas and the second timed to coincide with the summer holidays.
I found out about the Site Allocations Supplementary Issues and Options consultation which ran from 03/11/08 – 19/12/08 purely by chance from a neighbour.
On June 1 DBC informed me by email that the East Hemel Hempstead Area Action Plan was available to view and comment between 1/6/09 and 31/7/09. Later that day I was informed by email that this was incorrect and no date had been set.
On July 20 I was informed of the consultation again by email with an apology that some problems had occurred with notifying some sections of the consultation. This was therefore after the meeting held on 14 July for Berkhamsted residents to have their opportunity to meet with DBC and discuss the consultation. (Hardly surprising that this meeting was poorly attended)
After emailing Francis Whittaker on July 23 he replied stating that: "I hope you would agree that this 5 week period still provides a reasonable length of time for residents to respond to the consultation."
I do not believe this to be the case considering the amount of information to read, as well as the difficulty and lack of an easy, user friendly consultation portal. Like many people I was on holiday for a large part of the remaining five week period, therefore reducing my opportunity to digest the relevant information and respond, to effectively three weeks.
It is easy for us to forget that not everybody is at ease or even owns a computer these days. Much of Berkhamsted is populated by residents that have lived here for 30 to 40 years or more and as such are of an age that they do not own or find their way around a computer or the web easily. The odds are considerably stacked up against this large group of our community ever finding out about such consultations.
DBC I understand believe they have provided an expensive and comprehensive consultation.
However the facts are that many people I have spoken to know nothing of this consultation, which by definition must surely mean that DBC have failed in notifying their residents of their opportunity to have their say in the shape of the communities they will live in in the years to come.
Bridget Tossell
Coppins Close
Berkhamsted
I would like to point out that following Louisa Felton's article on the Core Strategy this week, (Gazette, August 26) it is pretty obvious from the public response that the consultation process has been grossly inadequate and I would like to point out the following:
Firstly, the two consultation periods over Christmas '08 and August '09 were set a very bad time for people to communicate over such matters and far too short.
As a result, the number of responses to the questionnaires cannot possibly be a true indication of those who wish to contribute to this process.
Secondly, the article
published in the Dacorum Digest – which by Dacorum's own admission was the major vehicle for raising awareness – makes no attempt to put across the
seriousness of the suggested proposals and the threat to our living conditions, thereby ensuring very little response.
Thirdly, is it not obvious at this stage that even with the limited time that we have had to communicate, the response indicates that the people of Dacorum are anything but apathetic and if we are living in a democracy, deserve a chance to be heard.
Lawrence Hewitt
Bell Lane
BerkhamstedHow to run a council: a maverick mayor elected after promising to slash council spending, clear the streets of yobs and ditch politically correct services is the torchbearer for how towns should be run.
On his first morning as Mayor of Doncaster in South Yorkshire, Peter Davies cut his salary from 73,000 to 30,000 then closed the council's newspaper for "peddling politics on the rates".
Now three weeks into his job, Mr Davies is pressing ahead with plans he hopes will see the number of town councillors cut from 63 to just 21, saving taxpayers 800,000. Mr Davies said: "If 100 senators can run the United States of America, I can't see how 63 councillors are needed to run Doncaster".
He has withdrawn Doncaster from the Local Government Association and the Local Government Information Unit, saving another 200,000.
Mr Davies said: "They are just talking shops".
"Doncaster is in for some serious untwinning. We are twinned with probably nine other cities around the world and they are just for people to fly off and have a binge at the council's expense".
The mayor's chauffeur-driven car has also been axed by Mr Davies and the driver given another job. Mr Davies, born and bred in Doncaster, swept to power in the May election with 24,244 votes as a candidate for the English Democrats, a party that wants tight immigration curbs, an English Parliament and a law forcing every public building to fly the flag of St George.
He has promised to end council funding for Doncaster's International Women's Day, Black History Month and the Lesbian, Gay,
Bisexual and Transgender History Month.
He said: "Politicians have got completely out of touch with what people want.
"We need to cut costs. I want to pass on some savings I make in reduced taxes and use the rest for things we really need, like improved children's services".
Mr Davies has received messages from well wishers across the country and abroad as news of his no-nonsense approach spreads.
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Friday 10 February 2012
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