Chester Chronicle letters

Oct 8 2004

THINKING of emigrating? Where do you start? What does it involve? Are you eligible?

Find out the answers to these questions and more at the forthcoming Migration Information Day being held on Friday 22nd October 2004 at the Hoole Hall Hotel, Chester (10.00am to 5.00pm). This is the ideal opportunity to get information on:

New Zealand Migration; Australian Migration; Removals & Storage; Financial Matters - banking, tax & pensions.

Representatives of specialist Emigration Consultancies, Job Search companies, the New Zealand Immigration Service and other specialist migration service companies will be available to speak with.

Regular seminars will also be held throughout the day.

Price of Admission is £5 per person or £10 for a family.

For further details, please phone Consyl Publishing on 01424 223111 or The Emigration Group on 01244 321414.
PAUL Chester Emigration Group

I READ with interest the letters you print from UKIP supporters.

Without doubt, electorally 2004 must be the year of UKIP, with major gains in the June Euro-elections and a third place in the Hartlepool by-election, prompting the party to declare that is to contest every Parliamentary seat in the country and Robert Kilroy-Silk MEP to declare that they would replace the Conservatives as the main opposition to Labour. It could happen, in the same way Labour replaced Liberals at the start of the 20th century.

However at the moment UKIP seem only interested in contesting Parliamentary and Euro elections. To be taken seriously, it needs to contest all politicised elections, including politicised local elections. There are the county council elections next year. All nine seats in Chester District are up for grabs. There is no deposit to worry about losing. Come on UKIP, if you are serious, contest these council elections also!
POLITICAL COMMENTATOR Name and address supplied

THE long saga of the hunting debate would have ended sooner had the media been able to secure access to expose the cruelty behind the glamorous facade.

An example now is cub hunting, the training of novice foxhounds to hunt fox cubs.

The leading expert the late Duke of Beaufort highlighted the inherent cruelty in this pastime in his book Fox-Hunting.

The object of cub-hunting is to educate both young hounds and fox-cubs...it is not until he has been hunted that the fox draws fully on his resources of sagacity and cunning so that he is able to provide a really good run...It is essential that hounds should have their blood up and learn to be savage with their fox before it is killed.'

If hounds being savage with fox cubs before killing them was televised, with multi-angle replays and slow motion as in the genuine sports of rugby league or cricket, blood sports would surely have been banned long ago.

The Burns Hunting Inquiry endeavoured to inform Parliament but even they were barred from seeing cub hunting. Their guided tours by the hunting fraternity lasted only from February to June 2000. With cub hunting staged in August until the end of October they missed observing the full measure of savagery. Nevertheless this Inquiry judged that fox hunting seriously compromises the welfare of the fox.
M J HUSKISSON Animal Welfare Information Service

WITH reference to whether students are bringing parking problems into the college area. Nothing personal but they are! My neighbours and I regularly get cars parked outside our house for weeks without moving.

Last Christmas I know Catherine Street had only six cars parked in it at one point, I actually counted them in disbelief! Have another look at the photo you printed.

The main problem however is not all the students' fault - it is the sheer volume and weight of students in the area, packed in by irresponsible, non-residential landlords who bring nothing to the neighbourhood and whose only objective is sheer gross profit.

A few bad students don't do themselves or their classmates any favours by:

Waking their neighbours in the early hours on a regular basis. (My sister has to go to work early every morning and she has not had many unbroken nights' sleep since the start of the term!)

Use of foul language so her kids cannot go in the garden. The dumping of rubbish in the alleys, usually just after the bin men (I take my hat off to them) have done a good job.

Landlords also just dump ex-tenants' belongings at the end of the term.

The college is also at fault. They should provide free car parking, and soon! Also a contact number for assistance concerning problem students.

The council should also restore a Balance by stopping further multiple housing occupancy which is destroying the community, driving out families and overwhelming the neighbourhood.
BUNNY Chester

I WOULD like to thank the two ladies and gentleman who came to my assistance in Oldfield Drive, opposite the Church in Vicars Cross on Monday 4th October, when I fell.

I would also like to extend my thanks to the ambulance staff who arrived promptly.

Unfortunately I was unable to take your names and addresses to be able to thank you personally.
NAME AND ADDRESS SUPPLIED

ON May 17 this year I was injured in a car accident from which I am still recovering.

As I now feel able to write about it I would like to say thank you to everyone who helped me.

To the doctors Holly and Lewis who arrived first on the scene, the really kind firemen and ambulance service who helped to get me out of the car, the lady car driver who stopped and tried to help me.

Then also thanks to all the dedicated staff at the Countess of Chester Hospital in A and E and the hard-working X-Ray department staff and then on to the tender care of all the staff in Ward 47 and even now to the continuing kindness of the physiotherapy department.

So thank you all once again, I know things would have been so different if you had not all been there for me.
JEAN BARNES Thornton Drive, Upton

I HAVE just come home filled with delight after watching murder and betrayal all presented against the background of filthy slums!

No I am not talking about Chester's problems again but rather about another daring venture offered by the Gateway Theatre. The opera Rigoletto, performed by the Mid Wales Opera Company, was a triumph for such a small company with Rigoletto himself a particularly commanding performance.

Okay, there must be problems in trying to stage opera in an inadequate theatre such as the Gateway. The scenery contrasts between the Duke's Palace and the slums just wasn't there. The orchestra pit could barely contain the ten man chamber ensemble, just two of the many difficulties obvious in this splendid performance.

Even so, the theatre was healthily filled for a cold Monday night which illustrates again Chester's desperate need for a quality performance space. Are we really convinced the new Performing Arts Centre will give us this or must we always accept compromise and second best?

JACKIE LEECH Mount House, The Mount, Chester