Chester Chronicle letters

Oct 29 2004

WATCHING the wonderful Channel 4 programme Building of the Year, I felt absolutely bound to comment on the continuous attacks on the so-called Glass Slug.

Chester only got the way it did because we had the people to take imaginative chances. Change things, move out of mud huts and go forward. Let's have new designs, let's have imagination.

The real slugs are the twolegged dull reactionary pen waving kind of which we have a massive proliferation.

I'm in my mid-seventies and time moves on but I hope I never get as old as the all-aged group of reactionaries perhaps best named the 'anti-Glass Slug fusiliers'.

Go for it Chester!
NAME AND ADDRESS SUPPLIED

MANY years ago I took on an allotment in Hoole. I had helped my husband to clear his plot and enjoyed working in natural surroundings with birds singing.

The organically grown food had an excellent taste and we kept very fit.

I well remember the old chaps standing in amused amazement as I, true to form, lovingly planted the beetroot my husband had just thinned and put on his compost heap!

In those days we had a great seed shop in Chester selling seeds by the 1lb.

I felt these plants should have a chance.

The old chaps used to watch me and say 'You're wasting your time there, luv, they'll never grow'.

I put out unusual vegetable seeds, with the same response. However, imagine their surprise when the results of the 'second-hand' planted beet-root came up well.

They were a grand old bunch of chaps. We all helped each other and kept a friendly eye on the blind man who managed most jobs, including planting in straight rows!

Ralph and I, and many others, gave up our allotments some time ago, relentless vandalism forced us to. We still miss the friendly banter, exercise and lovely vegetables. There is something magical about gardens, allotments and natural green space.
AUDREY HODGKINSON Chester

IT IS a measure of the priorities and courage of this government that they will spend money, time and effort banning something that kills vermin, but does nothing to stop something that kills thousands of people each year.

It is no doubt easier to attack the minority that support hunting than stop a substantial (25% of the population) number of people from smoking in public, damaging the health of innocent people.

I await with interest the government's reaction to the recent report, which they have been reluctant to make public, about the danger of passive smoking.

Their current stance on hunting and their cowardice on banning smoking, which research shows actually encourages people who smoke to give up, should focus the minds of those sycophants who see no wrong in this government despite its lies and hypocrisy.

I wonder would Christine Russell MP like to express her opinion on what should be done.

We may then know whether she does have an original thought or can only repeat the opinions of her master, like the good 'Blair Babe' she is.
TONY DAHILL Bramble Bank Utkinton

I REFER to the recent article in The Chronicle by David Holmes headlined 'Costly project to halt floods not needed'.

It would appear this is not just a local problem. I have recently been in contact with a farmer who farms land close to a river in North Wales.

He has been threatened with prosecution by the Environment Agency (EA) because he has been maintaining his section of the river adjacent to his farmland - ie dredging, cleansing obstruction, etc to improve flow.

He claims that the EA was doing little to stem river littering, sifting and erosion in areas which were increasingly prone to flooding! This is all too depressingly familiar with what is happening around areas near to the River Dee and Alyn.

Current EA policy seems to be to do nothing, then lets the blame on resultant flooding fall on 'global-warming' - a convenient peg on which to hang an excuse for wrong decisions.

On the reverse of every Council Tax bill the EA itemises the cost to the Council Tax-payer 'to pay a contribution toward the cost of draining surface water safely to the sea' This would appear is what the EA is singularly failing to do!
PETER LOWE Vicars Cross