Letters round up (Including What a waste by a wasteful council)

Waste management

What a waste by a wasteful council

I am writing with regards to the ridiculous new recycling of waste rules for Hemel.

I have no room whatsoever for any more bins, there is a tiny patch at the back of my house for my neighbour’s bins and mine.

In the summer, they can smell dreadful despite disinfecting the bins and it is a difficult job to get my neighbours to do the same.

It is 5ft away from my house. I am quite sure many residents will have the same problem!

Having rung the council they are sending someone to my house to discuss ‘options’ I had to laugh, as there are no options!

Hemel will look so unsightly with so many bins that are often overflowing or kicked around or left in the street.

It will look like a rubbish dump, and I refuse to have bins on the small front garden of my house. How dreadful.

I will not have anymore bins and will refuse them.

I would like the opportunity for this to be published as I am highlighting a huge waste of money as well as waste by this wasteful council (waste all round!).

How much has it cost the council for this badly planned and annoying exercise?

I have no doubt at the amount of complaints here that it will be scrapped at some stage as it simply has not worked. A crafty way of fining people to make the books look a little better, and how much will this cost to take people to court?

Most of them will not be able to pay a fine, what then? There is little space left now for recycling in the UK there is indeed a huge backlog, some of the waste is causing distress for local residents in some parts of the UK. When it has been crushed, it then goes off to China, where it is incinerated it in the most pollutant way destroying the ozone layer.

They do not adhere to our system of incineration here.

In short, I will not have any more bins and aim to make myself heard for everyone in 
this town.

I am dismayed at such a waste of money by a council that can’t even answer its phones.

Michele R Clarke

Address supplied

Budgeting

£10 charge helps us to reach out

In response to Mary Harris’ letter re: Dacorum Card Holders and Concession Cards £10 charge.

Dacorum Sports Trust’s vision is to create a fit, happy and healthier community through a range of sports, recreation and fitness facilities and services.

We seek to make sport accessible to all and offer a wide variety of activities which are excellent value for money.

Our Sportspace Memberships provide discounts on all activities, whether that’s a visit to the gym, a swim, a game of badminton and much more.

The annual cost of an adult membership is £57, but a concession membership for ages 65yrs and above and Dacorum Card holders is just £10, or 19p per week.

A member would then save £2.90 every time they swam, for example.

So you only need to swim 4 times a year for it to be beneficial.

As a charitable trust, we do not have shareholders, any surplus is re-invested into the services we provide for the community.

A wide range of activities are subsidised for the young and old alike, whether that is through education programmes on childhood obesity, or working with older adults in sheltered housing to deliver chair-based exercise programmes.

Introducing a £10 annual charge on the Sportspace membership makes a contribution towards us being able to reach those who might not otherwise have access to health and fitness facilities.

Elise Hyslop
Marketing and comms director
Sportspace

Tring travellers’ site

Travellers site is small and a must

I wonder why for two weeks running ‘we don’t want your PC traveller sites’ and a similar headlines have been used by the Gazette; the first time without any explanation in the article.

The East of England Core Strategy is bound to include sites for travellers in its provisions for those who ‘habitually resort to this area’.

Please note that only five pitches are scheduled in Tring, five or six pitches being an ideal number.

If travellers do not have proper sites, the chances are that they will camp illegally with the constant threat of being moved on by the police and being unable to get their children educated.

It seems that the one ethnic group that it is still OK to be racist about are gypsies, as indeed Mark Anderson, the UKIP Candidate for South West seems to believe.

I would like to challenge him to come and visit the traveller sites either at Long Marsden or at Crowmarsh Gifford. Incidentally, both slightly larger than the one proposed for Tring.

Yvonne Neville-Rolfe
Bucks and West Herts 
Gypsy Advocacy

Politics

They think its all over ... but is it?

They think its all over, but is it? I refer to the comments made by Mike Penning MP and Howard Koch UKIP (Gazette September 24) on the result of the referendum for Scottish Independence.

David Cameron promised to produce a parliamentary bill to devolve additional powers to Scotland by the end of the year, but now wants to wrap it up with changes to voting rights in the House of Commons.

A move seen by the Scots as a delaying tactic. Failure to deliver on his promise the electorate could rightly claim they were deceived and call for a re-run.

UKIP also puts the agreement in jeopardy. Should Britain vote to leave the European Community the Scottish Government would be entitled to claim that the Britain they voted to remain part of no longer existed and Scotland should have the right to remain in the EC.

Both the Conservatives and UKIP have little support in Scotland which is why the No campaign was led by Labour’s Alastair Darling and Gordon Brown who could rightly be seen as the saviours of the United Kingdom in line with their party’s banner of One Nation.

I was baffled by Howard Koch’s support for a federal Britain when UKIP raises the bogey man of a Federal Europe and calls for an independent UK, but denies independence for Scotland.

Perhaps it is the problem of having to re-name UKIP as the Not Quite United Kingdom Party.

Les Taber
Hemel Hempstead

Fishing

Time to tackle the fisherman de-bait

Can somebody enlighten me,in which gospel does it say that anglers have a divine right to obstruct the tow paths with mountains of gear and to effectively put barriers in the form of enormous poles totally blocking said tow paths?

It may come as a surprise but pedestrians,cyclists and presumably users of mobility scooters don’t necessarily wish to tackle an assault course of fishing equipment while enjoying the Grand Union.

Much less to get an attitude which suggests that they are infringing somebody’s human rights when requesting that these obstructions 
be removed.

Paul Healy
Berkhamsted

Health

Charity warn over diabetic flu jabs

As we head further into October Diabetes UK is recommending everyone with diabetes takes up the offer of a free flu jab from their GP as soon as possible.

People with diabetes are categorised as a ‘high-risk group’ when it comes to getting flu, which means they are entitled to receive a free immunisation – aged six months and up.

But nearly a third of people with diabetes under the age of 65 are still not getting the jab.

Having flu can really upset diabetes control and cause blood glucose levels to fluctuate.

This can leave people with diabetes open to many health problems, including complications of flu such as pneumonia and bronchitis.

We know that people with diabetes under the age of 65 are about five times more likely to die from the flu than those who don’t have the condition in this age group.

It really is vital to have the flu jab every year as the vaccine protects against different strains of flu which evolve each year.

So if you have diabetes and you haven’t already been invited for a free flu jab, please take the time to contact your GP surgery to find out when they are holding clinics.

Sharon Roberts Eastern 
Regional manager
Diabetes UK

Environment

Trust’s concerns over ‘treescape’

The Box Moor Trust has over of 750 mature trees on the Moors in the Bulbourne and Gade valleys.

Over the summer months expert tree surveyors have recorded their species, height and relative health and vigour.

The Trust has had a concern over recent years about the local ‘treescape’ especially with the worsening condition of the landmark horse chestnuts that are so well loved by local people. The chestnuts are nationally under attack by a combination of Bleeding Canker, a fungal pathogen known as Phytophthora and the horse chestnut leaf miner.

A number of the chestnut trees are evidently suffering and the Trust needs to plan for a future when sadly this type of tree will no longer be a feature of the local landscape.

Many of the trees on the Moors are additionally reaching the end of the natural life and although not in a dangerous condition require some tree surgery to help prolong their lives and ensure that visitors are kept safe. In total in the region of sixty trees across the Moors need some specialist work. The timber from the project will be used to either to fuel the biomass boiler at the Trust or use for habitat works around the Trust’s land.

Ian Richardson
Box Moor Trust Centre