Chester Chronicle letters

Nov 28 2003 Daily Post

BUSH and Blair made a big deal out of Iraq complying with UN Resolutions but Israel has been in material breach of UN Resolution 242 since November 1967.

The late Lord Caradon, brother of Michael Foot, the UK representative to the UN at that time, was able to present and carry the Resolution unanimously obtaining the agreement of all 15 members of the Security Council.

It states that there should be a 'withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict'. The recent conflict referred to was the Six Day War.

The London solicitor John McHugo points out that the terms are absolutely explicit and unquestionable.

The fact that the wording doesn't say all territories as some right wing Jewish lawyers maintain is immaterial and does not stand up to scrutiny, because the preamble to the Resolution states 'the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war.' Nothing could be plainer.

Therefore, under the terms of the Resolution, Israel should have withdrawn immediately and unconditionally from the West Bank, Golan Heights and a large part of Jerusalem. George Bush in a rare philosophical moment said 'Are Security Council Resolutions to be honoured or cast aside without consequence?'

If Bush is so keen to ensure that all Resolutions are upheld and strict compliance adhered to then why hasn't he dealt with Israel in the same manner as he treated Iraq?

Irrespective of America's inextricably intertwined relationship with Israel, Bush must apply pressure on Israel and impress upon them that Resolution 242, which has been willfully disregarded with impunity for 36 years, must be obeyed and all armed forces withdrawn from the occupied territories.

MARTIN PHILLIPS Mynydd Isa

WITH regard to the Countess of Chester Hospital's proposals to become a NHS Foundation Trust, I would like to respond to certain questions raised by your readers and others during the public consultation.

We believe that NHS Foundation Trust status would give rise to greater equality for the Countess of Chester Hospital.

The trust currently receives about 10% less funding compared to the national average hospital for our current levels of activity.

We are therefore relatively disadvantaged compared to most other Trusts. Over the next four years a new system of national funding is being introduced to all hospital trusts, irrespective of whether they are NHS Foundation Trusts or traditional NHS Trusts.

This will mean that the Countess of Chester should receive in the order of £4m extra per annum over the next four years for its current levels of service activity.

As a first wave Foundation Trust we will move more quickly to this position of relative equality with other hospitals.

Opponents to Foundation Trusts do argue that a two-tier system will be created. It can be seen from the above that inequality already exists between Trusts which the new financial system will even out over the next four years.

Opposition at a national level to the introduction of NHS Foundation Trusts will shortly be tested in Parliament when the final vote will be taken on the enabling legislation. The response locally, however, to our consultation document has been far more positive than negative.

The Hospital's NHS Foundation Trust public consultation document has been distributed to households in the geographical area that we cover.

This has meant, especially on the periphery of our area, that people who normally attend a different hospital that is much nearer to them, have also received our consultation document.

We very much welcome their views on our proposals to become a NHS Foundation Trust and assure them that this does not prevent them in any way from being referred to the usual hospital of their choice.

PETER HERRING, Chief Executive, Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Trust

I SEE the planning board has approved another phone mast in the City on condition the antennae are the same colour as the building so it blends in.

That makes it OK does it? Out of sight out of mind? I do not think so! Chairman Colin Bain commented there are no proven health hazards. Come on, Colin, you are an intelligent man. These masts have not been proved safe either, so until then lets us all err on the side of safety.

BRENDA SOUTHWARD Chester Mast Action Group

ONCE again we are being conned! All this talk 'Dig for history' in the Chronicle, 14 November, is just a fudge, a fake and a load of flannel!

If you read the small print you will see - they are not going to excavate the amphitheatre!

They are not going to demolish that hated wall which separates the one third excavated from the two thirds still beneath the sod.

They are going to spend £500,000 of our money on conferences, and on expanding the rather irrelevant Chester Visitors Centre and on performing 'key-hole surgery' on this amazing, unrevealed ancient monument.

This may please a handful of academics, our 'intellectual elite', but it will not satisfy us. We do not want to see the already excavated one third re-excavated, and re-excavated.

We don't want to look once again at 'five or ten percent of the total area of the site'. This is just an excuse for doing almost nothing.

The city council owns Dee House, I believe. The massive boundary wall is our property, and it is not a listed structure. Why not demolish that hated wall? Why not under-take a full, open excavation?

Do not think we cannot tell the difference between a footnote in a dusty tome, and the stern reality of those tiers of ancient stone which lie beneath the grounds of Dee House.

Perhaps the problem lies in those sacred grounds. They make an amazingly convenient car park for an anonymous, privileged few, who are allowed to park there every day. Who are these people? How are they involved in making the decisions about our amphitheatre?

PATRICK DEEDY BA

MR Deedy's 'Extracting amphitheatre facts' letter (the Chronicle, Points of View, November 21) highlighted important points of concern, certain of which he might usefully place before the city council's culture and heritage portfolio holder.

Mr Deedy is not the first of your correspondents to ask that the hideous boundary wall be demolished, nor to question the use by a 'privileged few' of the parking area.

The latter issue was first raised in your columns on November 4, 2000, at which time the facility was for the sole use of a banking organisation, despite an earlier demand that amphitheatre excavations take place in that area.

The Chronicle issue of September 22, 2000, reported on the city council's proposal to commission a brief for the development of the amphitheatre site.

National and local expertise was to be brought together to mark out the amphitheatre's future. Companies were to be asked how they would interpret the site for the maximum benefit to Chester.

That proposal went the same way as the spring/summer campaign of 2000 to halt the construction of the new county court, and the city council's July 2000 decision to seek permission to demolish Dee House.

The Chronicle of May 11, 2001, printed a Points of View letter which argued for a widening consultation to involve members of the public, and recommended that an exhibition of the following amphitheatre development proposals put forward by local experts be mounted: Concept: Stephen Langtree of Chester Civic Trust (May 2000); Masterplan: Paul Maddock (university thesis publicised in August 2000); Strategy: James Latham, local architect (October 2000); Arena: David McLean Developments Ltd (November 2000); AmphiCentre: a member of the Chester Amphitheatre Trust (February 2001). The idea was not addressed.

The city council's strategic direct-or's reported statements accepting the current proposed project as 'a significant budget issue', with 'an awful lot of people watching what we are doing', clearly demonstrates that the criteria of visibility, transparency, clarity and accountability expected by Council Tax payers must be met.

I suggest the city council has still to demonstrate willingness to give serious consideration to readily available national expertise and to the well-documented locally proposed ideas on developing, protecting and enhancing the amphitheatre site.

Mr Deedy questions the council's proposal to hold an international conference in 2005 to explore the archaeology of amphitheatres and their excavation.

Having regard to well-presented and preserved Roman amphitheatres outside Britain, and given the poor presentation of the amphitheatre site in Chester, that proposal might, on reflection, appear to some as an attempt to run before the ability to walk has been perfected.

ALAN BONNER Huntington

ONCE again the Liberal Democrat-Labour Alliance that runs Chester City Council is refusing to face reality.

In response to the fears expressed by Mr Stephen Welch that the high car parking charges in Chester are damaging to the local economy and that jobs are being put at risk, Cllr David Evans, leader of the city council and portfolio holder for the economy, can only say 'there may be a perception that Chester has a parking issue, but the perception doesn't reflect the facts'.

Unfortunately, Cllr Evans refuses to recognise the facts that the recent survey of car parking charges shows Chester to be expensive, and that a national survey in September showed that Chester had slipped down the shopping league.

Even more damaging is Cllr Evans's complacent claim that car park usage rose last year by 2% and is up by a further 4.6% this year. This statement is true, but fails to acknowledge that car park usage declined when Liberal Democrats and Labour savagely increased car park and park-and-ride charges a few years ago. We are thankfully now seeing some revival, but from a depressed base.

Once again, car park charges are to be reviewed by the Cabinet Budget Committee under the guidance of Cllr Evans (Liberal Democrat) and Cllr Reggie Jones (Labour). Let us hope that this time they will have truly learned the error of their ways.

CLLR B J BAILEY Conservative spokesman, Economy

THE Rev Trevor Dennis - appropriately referred to as the Vice Dean of Chester - seeks full equality for not only homosexuals and lesbians but, according to your newspaper of November 14 - for bisexuals as well.

I'm now wondering when paedophiles might also be included within his ever-broadening circle of acceptance.

In the midst of a world epidemic of AIDS brought on, without doubt, by sexual promiscuity, I wonder just where sexual restraint ceases with this Dean of vice.

Does he really believe that the majority of decent women want a partner (perhaps the term wife has gone out of fashion) who has sexual liaisons with men by day and then comes home to share the marital bed at night? Am I to take it that such a practice is compatible with New Testament teaching and acceptable to the Anglican Church?

Just how far is this Dean prepared to push for the acceptance of sexual lasciviousness and debauchery while still remaining a priest within the Church? Has he not seen the appalling effects of AIDS, both here and abroad, which, once witnessed, haunt one's mind as a living nightmare?

If this 'wolf in sheep's clothing' is not the epitome of hypocrisy then - speaking for myself - I honestly don't know who is! Yet this is the man - of all clerics - who dares to question the moral stand of the Bishop Of Chester.

Well, if this is not the frying pan calling the kettle black then I really don't know what is!

It is surely not the Bishop whose resignation one should be calling for at this present time, but most appropriately that of the Vice Dean.

The Rev JAMES THOMPSON Former Senior Hospital Chaplain Holywell

IN RESPONSE to the letter printed last week by the Rev James Thompson, Cheshire Constabulary would like to reassure the people of Cheshire that our inquiry into the comments made by the Bishop of Chester did not impact upon frontline policing, because all actions were undertaken by telephone, between the constabulary and the CPS.

The decision as to whether or not Dr Forster's comments amounted to criminal conduct was made by the CPS, and was reached very quickly.

The constabulary acted upon a complaint from a member of the public, and were duty bound to look into the matter in order to identify if any criminal offences had been committed. The investigation did not cause any officers to be taken off the streets, and did not affect the normal functions of the constabulary.

We cannot predict or choose the complaints we receive, instead we try to deliver a fair and equitable service to every member of society. The constabulary is committed to reducing all crimes, and improving the quality of life for all members of, and visitors to, our community.

It appears that the Rev Thompson may have seen inaccurate figures reported in the Daily Mail on Tuesday, 11 November.

Cheshire's crime rate stands at 86 crimes per 1,000 population, as opposed to the national average of 113 crimes per 1,000 population.

So far this year our detection rates for all crime are up by 3%; household burglary has fallen by 8% and detections have increased by 4%. Vehicle crime is also down and more offences are detected. This all indicates Cheshire is one of the safest places to live in the country.

JASON MURRAY Press officer, Cheshire Police Corporate Communications

I AM a Scot who has lived in Chester for 30 years and take great pride when I do the commentary on the Chester City Sightseeing Tour in telling the visitors about the Kale Yard Gate.

In 1275 Edward I gave the monks in the abbey permission to put a gate in the wall so they could get into the Kale Yard straight from the abbey. The king imposed three conditions for the gate, one of which was that the gate had to be shut every night at curfew, and this has happened every night up to the present day.

The monks, and later the clergy, over the years would have had to contend with a siege, no doubt, foot pads, drunks, the plague and two world wars, and still the tradition was kept going.

Then, in the 21st Century, a few dead-beats have managed to stop this wonderful tradition that many countries would give their eye teeth to have.

It's a pleasure to see the expressions of awe that come over the faces of people from this country and abroad when we tell them this information.

We have just observed Armistice Day, where millions of men gave their lives in two world wars so that we could keep our freedom and traditions.

How these men and centuries of city fathers and clergy must be looking on in abject disbelief that today's city councillors and cathedral clergy have so spinelessly surrendered an 800-year tradition.

All they can come up with is a CCTV camera.

Why can't our much-vaunted city centre police remove and charge the people responsible, and provide a con-stable to escort the verger for the short time it takes to lock the gate?

Before the word cost is raised, I say that you cannot put a cost on an 800-year-old tradition.

This tradition must continue and, if the police and council won't act, one way would be to give it more prominence by having the verger escorted by two watchmen and making the closing of the gate a local and tourist spectacle.

Or maybe the tourist officer could come up with an idea that will cost less than a CCTV camera.

The council and the people of Chester must not throw away one of the oldest unbroken traditions in the country, or don't people care anymore and tradition and sacrifices mean nothing?

PETER JOHNSTON Chester

AS a true Cestrian (born within the city walls), I cannot tell you how saddened I was to read in The Chronicle that yet more of our city's heritage is being eroded by the mindless yob culture we have to endure today.

I refer to the nightly ritual of locking the Kale Yard Gate.

As a youngster I lived near Grosvenor Park and attended a Brownie pack held in one of the large houses on Abbey Green - I cannot remember being escorted to and fro!

I shouldn't like to think of my granddaughter attempting the same today.

A few years later the 10-to-9 curfew was also my curfew to dash home from my friend's house (near the Gaumont, now the bingo hall).

On another occasion I cycled home from school, popped into Woolworths and propped my bike on the kerb on its pedal.

Later that evening my father asked if I had put away my bike - a quick dash to Eastgate Street and there it was some five hours later, still propped on its pedal on the kerb!

Happy days! We may not have had great material possessions but how we respected our friends and neighbours - and their possessions.

Then Bonfire Night was just that - November 5, a few sparklers, a catherine wheel or a rocket which we hoped would ignite.

Now we have to endure an endless bombardment on our ears and senses continually through the year.

My dog is still having treatment following a scare from fireworks on October 19 and to date it has cost us £1,500.

My memories are from 50-60 years ago - have we progressed? I think not.

A DISILLUSIONED CESTRIAN