Letters to the Editor: Milton Keynes is a sitting duck for developers

Like many other green spaces being eyed up for infill development the Willen site was never intended to be built on.

Yet the majority of councillors voted in favour of the concrete works rather than risk an appeal.

This reminds me of the decision to approve the John Lewis ‘car-buncle’, which not a single committee member wanted to see built!

But what sort of messages do these half-baked decisions send out to opportunistic ‘developers’? From Primark, which was to be built at the price of CMK’s grid road system, modern heritage and market, to the concrete works at Willen, which comes at the price of a peaceful village, hospice and beauty spot.

Experience shows that certain developers will keep going for the soft option if they think MKC is a soft touch.

So we, the public, need to do two things.

We need to press for strong, clear, democratically-produced planning policies to protect the best of MK from the worst of development.

And we need to press MKC to stand by those policies, once adopted.

If that means a legal challenge or public enquiry so be it! We, the people, will not stand by while mediocrity threatens our City of Trees.

In response to Chris Brown’s letter last week; for a list of which councillors voted on the Willen concrete works and how, visit www. xplain.org.uk

Linda Inoki
Chairman of Xplain

by email

Vermin

Management did not care

Re the story, Vermin trouble at popular shop, Citizen, April 21: I used to work there and the mice and rats were everywhere, including the warehouse and cafe . When brought to the management’s notice they did nothing and would not call in pest control as it cost them money. We had to put mouse traps down ourselves.

Andrew Harris

by email

Olney

No caring for elderly

My mother lives in Oakdown Crescent in Olney. She is Olney born and bred with her generation going back years in Olney. 
For the past seven years my sister and I have been trying to get a parking issue dealt with in the Crescent. 
We were on the verge of getting somewhere when residents from Weston Road have come out of the ‘woodwork’ to oppose any plans to eleviate the fact that 16 tenants of Milton Keynes Council live on a car park. When the bungalows were built the tenants of Weston Road were advised that the bungalows were for the elderly and if tenants parked there they would lose their tenancy. 
I realise that this does not stand now but 16 elderly tenants of Milton Keynes do live in a car park. 
It is time that this country looked after the elderly and not worry about parking their cars somewhere. These Weston Road residents have no compassion for the elderly only themselves.

Sue Warren

by email

Dementia

Thank you day centre

This is a letter to acknowledge the great work done by the staff within Caton House, a small day centre in West Bletchley.

Mum was diagnosed with dementia two and a half years ago and became unable to look after herself. Dealing with all that comes with dementia, and the changes it has brought to our lives, has been difficult for all of us.

Caton House day centre is our lifeline. It is not free but for us it is money extremely well spent.

The two main staff that run it, Anne and Jackie, are amazing.

They took time to get to know mum; how she is now and what she was like in the past.

They both create a friendly, ‘social-club’ atmosphere that mum really enjoys and responds to.

They think up useful ways to stimulate thinking, they foster the fact that mum can still complete crosswords!

They are great at doing things to encourage awareness of current events, they celebrated the Queen’s 90th Birthday with decorations, a cake and lots of reminiscence this week. Plus they always make time to update us on how mum has responded to the day’s events when we go to collect her.

Mum needs some routine to her week and benefits from social contact with people of her own age.

Caton House day centre gives her this and a whole lot more. I am not sure how we all would be coping without this great service. We really cannot praise the staff enough and just wanted to publicly say a big THANK YOU to Anne and Jackie!

Clare & John Groves

by email

Jobcentre

Statistics aren’t truth

The Jobcentre claims unemployment in MK has fallen by 12 per cent in the past year, based on a fall in the number of people claiming out of work benefits, Citizen, April 21.

That’s how the government would like us to see it but it’s one of their many uses of statistics that cannot be relied on.

People stop claiming benefits for reasons other than becoming gainfully occupied and my experience suggests that the Jobcentre doesn’t care where they go as long as they are off the books.

My daughter twice registered at the MK Jobcentre and twice gave up, once because she was misinformed about the rules and once because she was wrongly told she did not have sufficient contributions.

On both occasions the Jobcentre had to admit they were wrong, but only after she had given up and fallen back on her mother for support. I imagine her case is not unusual.

I feel sorry for the staff whose targets are presumably driving this state of affairs. It must be pretty miserable for them too.

Name and address supplied

by email

Honesty

Big thanks to Tesco staff

Last week I called into Bletchley Tesco store to buy some goods for Arabian Gymnastics club, a registered children’s charity.

Unknown to me I dropped my wallet which not only contained private cards but also a credit card for the club and £200 cash.

The next day when I noticed my wallet missing I called the branch in the off chance I may of lost it there. Indeed I had and a member of staff had picked it up and handed it in.

The branch stated they did not know who found it so I wish to personally thank this person via the Citizen on behalf of myself but in the main the charity for their kindness,honesty and community spirit.

Never have I felt so relieved and I feel the public should know of this good member of staff at Tesco.

Alan Armitage

head coach

EU referendum

American blood money

President Obama states that if Britain voted to leave the Europe Union it would take 10 years for us to climb to the top of the list in dealing with the USA.He talks about the “Special Relationship” that is supposed to exist between the USA and Great Britain, how can this attitude be “Special”? How “Special” is this relationship when on December 29, 2006 this country paid the final £45.5 million to end the debt the USA imposed upon us for their ‘help’ during the Second World War, every bandage, bullet and bomb that the USA supplied to this country during its years of need defending freedom had to be paid for by this blood money.

Jon Miles

by email

Parking

I was caught in their trap

Not sure if this is the right way to report a concern regarding a parking situation I recently experienced in Milton Keynes which appears to me to be an easy money grab. Bearing in mind that all four cars parked there were affected, shows that it is really unclear that there is an obscure restriction until 09:15 and as was pointed out in the rejection letter, there is a very small sign on the far extremity walkway and nothing within the extent of the parking bays themselves. This is more than likely capturing and generating quite some revenue at the expense of the unwary Milton Keynes taxpayer or visitor.

I received a rejection to my challenge today and it is too risky and inconvenient for me to pursue a full appeal.

Paul Bazeley

by email