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Posted Tuesday, October 30

Re Yobs in Hemel Hempstead

From: mark smith
Views: Due to the article with yobs hanging around in hemel hempstead i live in highfield,and i think hemel hempstead is a disgrace,the police dont seem to be able to do there jobs unless these people are caught in the act, even though they know who these people are, it doesnt matter were you go in hemel hempstead you will find groups of kids from ages 12 to 18 drinking and taking drugs and intimadating people and shouting abuse and starting trouble and vandalising the area.
the problem will not be cured and just go away as these groups start as young as 12yrs old and they think they are big and invinsable following the older ones foot steps and when the older ones move on the younger ones move up to there level, i know of a boy who was attacked by a certain group of kids and he hit back, but he was the one arrested for it. so these people basically can do as they like,
when will it end...





Posted Monday, October 29

Re George the Parrot dies
CLICK HERE for story


From T.J.

Sad news. I remember him,he made people smile - that's so important these days.



Posted Sunday, October 28

Re: More pupils having schooldinners
(Who serves up the best dinners in Dacorum)

From: Alan pearce
hemel hempstead,
Views: I think that the Reddings in bennets end hemel hempstead serves up the healthiest meals for young children as my wife Donna is the cook there and all the information i get from her tends to point at this.
She says that since easter when she started working there that quite a lot of pupils have now chosen to have school meals instead of there own packed lunch.Which to me seems very promising and encouraging towards a healthier diet for those who choose this.
Also our own two youngest children have ptomised to have school meals when they go back to school after this half term.



Re: Collapsed pensioner gets parking ticket

From: Martin Thornhill of St Albans Taxpayers Alliance
Sandridge
St Albans


Views: This is the unacceptable face of public sector greed. It is so absolutely without appropriate judgement, it is practically fascist.

Mr Watts should get his money back and his record cleared.

Hemel's taxpayers deserve a better deal.



Posted Saturday, October 27

Re: Ladybird ladybird fly away home!CLICK HERE to see report

From: Ralph Harding
Temple Ewell, DOVER, Kent
Views: After a few dull days, sunshine brought out dozens of foreign ladybirds crawling on the windows, trying to get into the house. When they succeed they congregate for hibernation in the tops of the window frames. I realise I am only telling you what you already know because we are right on the coast and in the most intensely invaded part of the country according to the distribution map.



Re bus service in Hemel

From: Danielle
Hemel Hempstead
Views: In reply to Roy's comments regarding Arriva... in my experience, it seems their drivers basically pick and choose where they stop. Unless you're psychic, you stand little chance of catcing a bus in Hemel Hempstead!

Last week, I was told I was waiting at the "wrong stop" for the number 2 bus outside West Herts college, even though there's nothing to indicate it shouldn't stop there and it is listed on the http://www.travelinesoutheast.org.uk timetable as a stop. Then, the very next day, the drivers of both the 352 and 500 services drove straight past me at stop 20 on Marlowes, again despite the fact that the timetable says they should stop there!!

I have complained to Arriva and am awaiting a response but maybe the Heraldexpress / Gazette might be interested in running an article on it, seeing as I don't appear to be alone in my experience!

These are not, by far, the only problems I have had with Arriva but there simply isn't space to list them all here!


Re parking in Berkhamsted

From: Robert Peake
Malaga Spain
Views: In the early sixties before the Berkhamsted Urban District Council purchased a job lot of yellow paint which they splashed around the streets like confetti at a wedding. This feat curtailed the abillity to park unmolested and even double park whilst visit Dickmans the chemist or purchase from the grocers Port, Walton and Hassle.You could even park outside the banks and the police station.
So now this freedom has been curtailed as more and more of those freedoms that were so precious have been taken by well meaning politicians, councillors, health and safety experts to name but three. Somewhere in your archives You have a photograph of Berkhamsteds High before the release of of the yellow line painters and the ever dreaded traffic warden.




Posted Friday, October 26

Re Road Closure

From: Tony Foreman
Gadebridge
Views: Who is the organisational genius behind the current road closure in Galley Hill? No one seems to know what is going on, not even the bus drivers who, with no signs to direct them, are continually at a loss to know what route to take once they get to the end of Gadebridge Road (route 2), or at the junction with Boxted Road (route 3)! Access to Galley Hill seems to change from day to day. This is clearly an unsatisfactory state of affairs as there has been no attempt to tell the people of Gadebridge anything. Why have we been left in the dark? Now we have lost our church and our Post Office are we thus a non-community who warrant no consideration? Where are our councillors when we need them?
There are very few signs of any road works in progress. This is highly frustrating for everyone, not least the bus users who do not know from day to day where their bus will stop or even if there will be a bus!
Come on - somebody must know! How about letting the people of Gadebridge in on the secret!


Re: Man jailed for town centre killing

From: teresa billings
Views: I can see where kevin sister is coming from there is no justice these days.




Posted Thursday, October 25


Re rules of Hemel Hempstead's Magic Roundabout
From: paul de havilland
Views: just treat the magic roundabout as any other roundabout. Left for left, and if you are going to another junction, graduate your lane torwards the direction you require.

Re: Man jailed for town centre killing
From: rachael alderman
Hemel Hempstead
Views: it ant fair, he should of got life for what he did, kevin was our brother and a lovely man he loved kids so much, an he finaly got alittle boy what he always wanted an then this happens, i still miss kevin every day 24.7
R.I.P. KEVIN love ya so much hun your sis rachael x x

Re Halloween
From: kerryViews: I WOULD LIKE TO SAY IM VERY TERRIFIED ABOUT GOING TRICKLE TREATING THIS YEAR AS IM 16 YRS OLD AND HAVE ENJOYED IT ALL THE TIME,! NO U DONT KNOW WHETHER UR GOING TO GET STABBED, SHOT, OR ANYTHIGN ELS HORRIFIC I JUST WISH THE POLICE WILL BE ON PATROL ROUND GROEVHILL AREA!!!!!!!! THANKYOOO XX



Re Bus Service
From: Roy
Views: When are Arriva buses going to get their act together? With much needed repairs to roads taking place across Hemel bus routes are being diverted without notice to the public.

The number 13 route no can no longer travel along part of Swallowdale Lane. Call Arriva's customer service department (as I have three times) and they insist the bus is not diverted and carries along the normal route despite me advising them this is impossible as the road is closed in the direction of the normal journey. They weren't able to advise which route the bus would take, where it would stop, if there were temporary bus stops elsewhere and insisted they have had no advice of any diversions. Bus stops have no notices either leaving their passengers completely in the dark and guessing where they are meant to catch their buses from.

As a result of Arriva's appalling service I have missed one bus home this week through waiting at the usual stop after Arriva insisted it was business as usual. Last night after waiting at a normally unused bus stop on Maxted Road (which I have since discovered the bus is using as an alternative route) the bus driver refused to stop leaving me with a fifty minute walk home (no point in waiting for the next bus as I can walk home before the next service would get me there).

A colleague of mine has had exactly the same problems in trying to deal with Arriva. Perhaps the Gazette can extract some useful information from them where we have failed as this disruption will continue for weeks.

In these days of carbon footprints and global warming why on earth would anyone wish to leave their car at home when the alternative is to use a bus company which is happy to misinform their customers in the face of contradictory information and treat them with such blatant disregard?



Posted Wednesday, October 24

Re Hemel Hempstead Hospital and Hospital Chief Resigns
From: Peter Benton
Crossgar, County Down.
Views: Oh dear Hemel Hospital Fails!!!
No one listened when in the 80's I said two half hospitals for West Hertfordshire will not work. I proposed one new real hospital on the St.A side of Leverstock Green. Stupid bastard everone said following a little Labour party woman MBE. No support from the Gazette. I watched everything getting worse as a member of the Health Authority for eight years, no one took any notice when told of the wrong stae of things.
So the last state is worse than the first.
Makes an old Alderman very very sad.

From: Jim Keyte
Views: I have just read that David Law has resigned perhaps the rest of the management team ought to resign as well, after all they are the ones who have got our Hospital in a mess both financialy and cleanwise.If these people had done there highly paid jobs properly there would not have been the closures at the hospital we are seeing now.We need that hospital and all the faclilities especialy with the population of the town getting greater all the time.
Lets have a good clear out of the management team and get people in who will listen to the people in the Dacorum district.Jim Keyte.



From: Paul Emerton
Views: For years we have followed the health trusts gross abuse of power at the top. During their time they have created massive debts and closed services. We have heard that 'extra investment' has been made during their time, but all they have created is chaos and substantial mental and physical pain for patients, family and staff.

A day does not pass without the trusts own demoralised hospital staff speaking out against their intended destruction of Hospital services. Ambulance chiefs tell us there is no difference in journey time, whilst the ambulance drivers regularly snubb trust chiefs and admit the system is in absolute meltdown. Whilst services are moved, the public picks up the transport and consequential environmental tab - it costs hundreds of thousands in extra fuel to get sick and dying adults and children to services miles away.

As a member of the public declared in a recent 'Trust meeting in public' "How can you expect us to trust you when you don't even have the trust or faith of any of your own staff?". Following an ovation from the attending public, the Trust responded by showing us a list of services in Watford - once again showing they were probably listening to headphones instead of any member of the public they serve and obtain tax to pay their salaries from.

One member of the public said 'When I went to the meeting, I was deeply concerned. What made me realise these people really did live in their own world was when they said to be it was nice to see someone young interested in the hospital for a change instead of just older people. I was shocked! They obviously are totally ignorant of the 5,500 young people that have joined the online petition and action group at www.myspace.com/hemelhempsteadtown - proving that it isn't just David Law that is responsible for failure."

Another lady at the same meeting described how IT systems had failed during an urgent x-ray of a young child. After being sent to Watford and then sent all over the hospital, the consultant or doctor that was booked to look at the x-ray couldn't get the x-ray up on his PC and on calling the IT department heard an automated message instructing them to wait until the next working day for support - leaving the child in pain without suitable treatment. One man may certainly have taken the fall, but that is not enough - the rest of the trust should go now.

To the trust we say this - We demand your resignation - understand that we have served you notice and expect you to leave along with your chairman. We will no longer accept woodworm in our Health service. Hospitals are about LIFE. Our lives - that we shall vigorously defend.




Posted Tuesday, October 23.

Re dirty streets

From: michael
Hemel Hempstead.
Views: i have recently begin to notice how much litter is begining to accumalate on the streets of this neighbourhood on the day after refuse collection days.i don't know who's to blame.isuspect the binmen are droping it from the bins when bumping down kerbs to load ontoback of vehicle.my concern is that the litter thats being left behind is not being picked up but left in the gutter to rot,creating litter and could attract rats and cause potential health hazards.i would like to know who's responsible for cleaning up the streets of hemel- disgruntled tax payer?.

Re Hospital chief resigns

From: Richard Evans
Hemel Hempstead,
Views: I notice in the quotes from David Law looked at the bright side of the situation and didn't even address the fact that our hospitals are not clean enough.

Not addressing this gave the impression of someone who is out of touch, and if this is the case then it's good he has gone.

Yet it seems the trust can't even manage this right. Speaking about his departure, chairman Thomas Hanahoe highlighted the positives from Mr Law's tenure.

The bottom line is that in this area we are being forced to be treated in hospitals that are not clean enough. Rather than waxing lyrical, it's about time the trust started facing up to people's concerns.

We don't want to hear the hospital paying homage to Mr Law's dignity in falling on his sword. We need them to tell us why things have gone wrong and how they are going to fix them.

From: Brian Kent
Pimlico
Hemel Hempstead
Views: And about time too. David Law may think he has done the honerable thing but like so many 'Trusts', there is one heck of a mess left behind him. Just when are these fools going to realise that a Hospital is NOT a business, it is a community neccessity, you cannot fire nurses and doctors while retaining the full compliment of management.

I spent 3 weeks in HH Hospital with a heart attack, just yards away from an Angio Suite that could have stopped this heart attack in its tracks, but nobody suitably qualified could use it? so my the front of my heart died off.

The pitiful manner in which wards are laughingly 'cleaned' is a joke, it takes more than just using a mop on the floors though these contractors they use have no idea about cleaning a hospital anyway. Why is it they have no idea about 'Disinfectant' and not just the floors, the walls, the beds, everything. MRSA and C.Diff can all be controlled with proper cleaning not his stupid hand cleaning. How many times have you seen a nurse clean her hands then blow her nose, then just carry on.

What happened to this 'Golden Hour' spoken of by Doctors in the know. A heart attack victim from Berkamsted would have a 50 minute transportation to Watford and would likely not make it, its a disgrace. Mr Law, just as the rest of the board he leaves behind will one day need hospitalisation, my only hope is that they suffer this 1 hour drive, maybe only then will they regret the manner in which they destroyed our hospital.
A
m I concerned that David Law jumped ship, not in the slightest. He only did this because he knows that with disastrous targets and figures he knew that the trust would be taken over, so he jumped. We should insist that all expensive management do the same, then the NHS will suddenly find it has a lot more money.





Posted Monday, October 22.

Re Hospital chief resigns


From: John Newberry
Hemel Hempstead
Views: David Law resigns.
Please don't get excited by this resignation. Mr Law was only the mouthpiece, he will be replaced and the policy will not change. The damage being done to Hemel Hempstead is all down to the policy of the government and no amount of politically-driven spin from Alan Olive should make anyone believe otherwise. The people are not stupid, look what happened to the Labour Party in the local elections. We know who's to blame.


From: Paul Emerton
Views: Now David Law has gone, we need someone who will rebuild the Hospital Services he has destroyed. No more Labour puppets, no more political games. Lets get someone in who is responsible for our healthcare, not finance or government games.


Name: David Angell
Hemel Hempstead
(Views: Come Health Secretaries,
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that is David Law
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it is DHAG.
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'!

The health system and old ways that governed our hospital have 'changed their sheets'. This is a clear indication that all we fought against, the denials and spin that attempted to cut us down were proved wrong. We must encourage the new Health Minister and Hospital Trust Chief Exec to ignore the mal-treatment of the hospital of the past and start afresh.

Re bridge at Lower Road
From: Clare Smith
Hemel Hempstead
Views: After reading about the safety protest campaign regarding the bridge on lower road,it brought back memories as seventeen years ago i was involved in a car accident as i was run over inside the bridge after making my way home from school. I can't believe that to this day that we have not won the campaign to produce a subway like the bridge near abbots langley. It has been seventeen years since my accident and there has probably been many more since i will never forget what happened and luckily i have survived to tell the tale maybe next time someone won't be so lucky.

Re Family left 'disgusted' at prison sentence for killer
From: Name supplied, Bedfordshire
Address: Bedfordshire

I would just like to send my condolences to all the family. Where is the justice? 4 years is nothing especially when you have lost someone for a "Lifetime".
Mr Thomas obviously does n't know what its like to lose someone he loves, "In time I'm sure he will"




Posted Sunday, October 21.
Re Waggon and Horses

Click Here for Waggon and Horses story and photos

From: Ben.
Views: The Waggon and Horses was the best Pub Restaurant in Hemel, they should never have demolished it,



Posted Saturday October 20

Re Thumbs up for speed cameras
From: Ms Smith
Views: Please, please put these cameras along Redbourn Road. They are well needed, and will hopefully stop the speeding, especially in the early hours !!


Posted Friday, October 19

Re problems getting to hospital in Watford
From: amanda jarvis
Views: Jean was lucky to have got down Vicarage Road.

My daughter was extremely ill May last year and was transferred to Watford from Hemel. The A41 was blocked by an accident so the ambulance driver had to go out to to the MI south . When we got to Watford it was gridlocked due to a Cup match. When we finally got to Vicarage road the police refused to allow the ambulance through despite the blue flashing light. We then faced a further 20 minute detoour around the time.

The ambulance driver said it was a regular problem - the A41 , he M1 , Watford's Ring Road and match days.



Posted Thursday, October 18

Re Family left 'disgusted' at prison sentence for killer

From: Name and address supplied
Views: father of two murdered - i am discusted at the courts verdict the judge needs to feel bad about the sentence and i guess the government officials that work out these sentences have never lost anyone in such a brutal and mindless way. his sons are a credit to him and they deserved a better verdict than this in 4 years thomas will be free the boys and family will have no father brother and son for life.



Posted Wednesday, October 17

From: Phil Masters
A concerned Hemel resident
Views: I think it is disgusting that this lady from Berkhamsted had to spend 3 hours trying to get to Watford Hospital to see her husband just because a football match was on (particularly as he had been transported there as an emergency!

What is going to happen if someone is being taken to the hospital maternity unit or the A&E department and suffers a similar delay? I have had to attend Hemel's A&E department twice in recent years, once I was transported in a private car and the other by an ambulance, if we had to travel to Watford, I am not sure if the outcome would have been the same! I do not believe the health authority have thought through the closer of Hemel properly, particularly with regards to the A&E department.

I am certain that this closure will lead to loss of life, particularly if we have a "major" incident in the Hemel and Berkhamsted areas! Also having had to attend Watford hospital recently, I was appalled at the current state of affairs with wards closing, the general dilapidation of the buildings and the cleanliness etc, none of which gives me confidence for the future!

Comments posted Tuesday, October 16


Re Hemel's Great Win
From: Chris Hull
Hemel Hempstead
Views: Sorry to appear pedantic, but in your article about Hemel's football team is "The second half the Reds (playing in green today) set their stool out to attack Brackley" the correct use of the word stool? As a Luton supporter I am not unfamiliar with the word, but I feel Hemel on their current run deserve better.
Chris Hull
and
From: John Newberry Views: ". . . set their stool out . . ."

Now that was a dirty trick, no wonder they won!
(Sorry, our mistake)





Comments posted Monday October 15

From Karen:
Views: Like many other Dacorum residents I find the idea of living in a town without adequate hospital cover absolutely deplorable especially as the population of Hemel Hempstead is growing daily due to the expanding building work in the area not to mention the huge council tax costs for what amounts to really little provision.
Still as our collective concerns and voices have fallen on deaf ears it now appears we are to loose what is a perfectly good functional hospital and will now have to travel to Watford for any hospital visits. My biggest concerns are the fact I do not drive and am totally reliant on public transport - such as it is.
Therefore will there be extra buses laid on to the hospital as at present it is either a train to Watford junction and either a taxi or bus to the hospital or a bus to the town then a walk to the hospital? Also there is the added worry of the heavy traffic in and around the Watford area especially when Watford FC or the Saracen rugby team are playing at home which could delay an ambulance getting through the traffic, as I have seen it on a Saturday absolutely solid and there would be no way an ambulance could get through which could potentially mean a life or death situation.
On that note is the Trust prepared for any ensuing law suits that may occur if someone was to loose there life due to the fact that there is no hospital in this town to serve the community and that transportation to another hospital being necessary led to a fatality?
Speaking for myself, my daughter suffers from chrons diseas and is often admitted to Hemel Hospital and has always been trated very well and effieciently in A & E and on the wards.
If my daughter or any of my family should not receive immediate correct medical attention if needed which should lead to further health complications I will not hesistate to take legal action as in these days when the words 'human rights' are banded around willy nilly in some cases such as these it is every person in this area human rights to recieve prompt, efficient medical treatment in their town of residence.
Also can you let the public know your plans for the hospital site - is it to me yet another housing project which would be ironic as that would result in yet more people moving in to the area who could at some time or the other need to use the services of a local hospital and as it was reported that recently Watford could not find beds for patients now - how the hell will they cope with the influx of more patients.
The whole situation is absolutely ludicrous and it is only a matter of time before lives are lost beacuse of it.


Comments Posted Sunday, October 14

Re Rugby and football
From T.J.
Views: Great results for England at Rugby and football.
But let's hear it for Hemel too! They could really be on the march to the Conference and beyond now!


Re Buncefield
From: RJ & SA Pilkinton
Markyate.

Views: In Markyate we were very fortunately little affected by the actual blast at Buncefield, although our Fire Fighters played their part in controlling the fire. We have therefore had less direct interest than many who live as near as we do to the site.

We have seen the newspaper reports, most recently devoted to bringing part of the plant back into use. We have also watched the recent BBC 'Coast' programmes. One described the former gunpowder production site on a Scottish island. The site was surrounded by sand dunes and the presenter demonstrated, by actually making two explosions, that the blast from an explosion could be dramatically reduced by sand dunes. And this is why the site for the factory was originally chosen.

It occurs to us that while the Buncefield site has been badly compromised by the developments permitted up to it's boundary since it's original siting, that the future of the site should be planned with the expectation of an explosion. And the area to be reused should be screened by sand, buried underground and so on such that any future explosion would be contained within the site.

This would enable Hemel Hempstead to recover the business that the oil depot brought to the town, while protecting the other businesses that are now around the site. It may cost the oil companies a considerable sum of money to build assuming another disaster, but it would enable them to use again much of the pipe network they had established, saving them from building from scratch, with all the damage to the countryside associated with pipe laying.

To us this would seem to offer a gain to both sides, and we wonder why this principle has not been adopted.


Comments Posted Saturday, October 13

Re Hemel Hospital
From: rachael alderman
hemel hempstead
Views: if hemel hempstead hospital shuts how are we ment to get to watford if you cant drive.

i suffer with dislocated knees day in and day out and hemel hempstead hospital will not do nothing about this and i always have to keep going back down there to get my knees put back inplace.

every day i have to watch where i step and how i walk just so that they dont dislocated, and if hemel hempstead hospital shuts i can not get to watford or any where else.

what if some one is dying? we pay for all our treatments and now hemel hospital is shutting where is our money going.


we pay our taxes and the roads are still poor and im sceard to take my little girl to the park cause there is rubbish on the floors and you never know if you'll come across needles or get abuse.

hemel hempstead is getting bad and soon every one will be sceard to go out there front door. look at kevin chiles he was our best friend and part of our family and we will always love him he was killed for nothing and no reson.


Re rules of the Magic Roundabout:

From: ancletus ernest
In St Lucia West Indies.
Views: 1 .the highway code as it's told and i teach the rule give way to traffic on your right 2. think of it like a clock any thing from 6 o'clock - 12 o'clock is on your left am i right are you ok with that 3' any think from 12 o'clock - 6 o'clock is on your right ok
4.

i do not know of the streets you are talking of , so you just use what i send for you and let me know if that help you . so good luck with your driving and roundabout . i would like you to publish this info any time i have a driving i have been teaching the roundabout this way for years it works . my driving is SOS DRIVING SCHOOL