Chester Chronicle letters

Nov 26 2004

SIXTY hounds, is that all the Wynnstay Hunt has got?

By my sums, the Wynnstay should have 600 foxhounds. Where are all the hounds that should still be alive and kicking that were born in 1992, 1993, 1994, etc, what has happened to them. Shot dead by the hunt, I suspect.

I know of a lot of people who participate in blood sports in Cheshire, I've yet to see a single one of those people with one or two retired elderly foxhounds living with them.

All the various hunts have puppy walkers and could easily give the hounds they've walked homes, that's what puppy walkers are for, but none are prepared to give retired hounds homes.

Even retired racing greyhounds and race horses can be retrained, why not fox hounds? I remember seeing an episode of Animal Hospital where two rescued foxhounds from Cornwall were retrained to live out a domestic life.

As for Demise Halstead's letter (November 19), what a load of rubbish, has she never heard of the various indoor winter equestrian events, there is even a ride on Kelsall hill over two days in early December.

People who hunt do so in all weathers, nobody is stopping them riding their horses in all weathers, even with a possible ban on blood sports. I've ridden horses in rain, hail, sun, even snow.

The majority of conservation is in the city, town and other urban gardens, as well as the countryside. Go to the waste grounds near Halton, Liverpool, there is a huge wildflower conservation centre there complete with rare orchids. Go to the countryside and all there is are green fields with little or no wildlife in them.

I suspect most people who hunt go to work in Manchester, Liverpool, Chester, Shrewsbury, Warrington, etc and do most of their shopping in those cities or towns as well, and even less so use local public buses - they've no need to, they have their large pollution-giving 4x4.

I've lived in three Cheshire villages, I've not seen one thing in any of them which the local hunt has done to benefit the people in those villages.

And those are the hunts anyway, who think they have a God-given right to say what happens to the hare, fox, otter or mink population of Cheshire.
NAME AND ADDRESS WITHHELD

I'LL HUFF and I'll puff and I'll blow your house down. So say the hunting lawbreakers.

But they would, after all they've trespassed for years and I've personally seen videos of trespass on Severn Trent nature reserves. Sadly all too often the authorities have turned a blind eye.

But this time it's for real and about much more than trespassers. It's fair enough to maintain and exercise a pack of hounds but now no breeding should take place. Equally, those hounds could and should be electronically tagged.

It's easy for landowners to say certain activities won't be allowed on their land, perhaps their already strapped fairer tenants may not fancy the probable revenue losses. Then, of course, there's the precious subsidies. If you're not quite doing with the land all you should be, what about those?

However, the spotlight will really fall on those who control and dictate police policy and the Countryside Alliance.

Will upholding the law be pursued with as much vigour as, say, during the miners strike? Will the Alliance be what it's always claimed to be and vigorously campaign for alternative employment for that small but significant group affected by the ban, or will it waffle and carry on backing hunting to the exclusion of all else?
ALEX WOODS Long Looms, Great Barrow, Chester

SINCE last March, when the news first broke of the threat of the closure of Kingsway, the action group has been incensed by the injustices perpetrated by the LEA and council.

The various documents produced, from the first consultation paper from the LEA to the final statement from the School Organisation Committee (SOC), have contained half-truths and distortions of statistics to bolster the unjust case of the proposers for closure.

The official face of the LEA presents itself as the unacceptable inhuman face of bureaucracy like a new version of The Terminator.

This time it is the vulnerable 'good and improving school' at Kingsway, which is the victim of the LEA's blundering, clumsy attempts at the charade of consultation, when lip-service is given to the process.

As the action group solicitor stated to the SOC, 'consultation is a twoway process of listening'.

The action group and many others have attempted to make their points but these have been brushed aside as an inconvenience.

It might have been kinder if the LEA had said that there was no alternative to closure and proceeded with the death of Kingsway.

Kindness is not a word that appears in the LEA vocabulary.

Read carefully the statement from the SOC recommending closure.

Is there one word which expresses 'regret' or how they 'agonised' over their decision or their 'sorrow' of what closure will mean to students, parents, staff and a community?

Not a mention, not a thought from these robotic terminators, who deal only in statistics, not human beings.

The director of education, no less, weeping copious crocodile tears and wringing his hands in sadness, sends a letter to Kingsway parents with words of regret about the sad decision and with words of comfort at the death of school community. What words were these? We are still waiting.

The LEA group solicitor, in reply to one of the action group's complaints to the authority about the two erroneous letters sent to feeder primary school parents, states 'it is accepted that computer-generated standard letters sent to parents in spring 2004 allocating places at Kingsway for September 2004 referred in error to there being a waiting list for places'.

It is unclear to whom the council might issue a 'clear and unambiguous apology'.'

Nowhere have we ever heard 'sorry, that was our mistake. We do apologise to anyone who received the letter and to the school, staff, governors and students for any confusion and upset we have caused'.

It's clear enough to us and the rest of the civilised world that a simple 'sorry' would not have gone amiss.

The most recent example of the LEA's crass stupidity is its letter, following the SOC decision for closure, sent to parents of students with special needs at Kingsway.

The director invites parents to attend a meeting - four dates are given, with three of the meetings in the morning (ideal for working parents), to hear of the plans the LEA has to plan for and support these students and parents.

Guess where the meetings are to be held? Kingsway would be the obvious place, as being most convenient and reassuring to parents. But no! The LEA offers Winsford, Macclesfield and Ellesmere Port.

Which planet does the LEA live on? No wonder people are so angry with those who are presumed to be 'public servants' but seem to regard themselves as our 'public masters'.
ANGUS DUNCAN Chairman Kingsway Action Group, Chester