WEEKEND WEB: Spalding Guardian letters
Your views on roads, politics and Spalding’s water fountain... plus Thought For The Week
Problems in Surfleet and Holbeach
Has South Holland District Council planning department and Lincolnshire County Council highways department lost the plot?
Before Christmas I was on Gosberton Road eAasing up to access the roundabout at Surfleet when I had to brake quickly as a light lorry came across my front to access a lorry yard adjacent to the roundabout.
A few days later I had a similar occurrence with a fuel lorry. There is no signage to warn of the entrance. This weekend there were ten lorry bodies in the yard, so not a small operation.
How was planning ever passed for this without adequate entrance requirements or do they consider the current provision safe?
This last week in Holbeach the pavement on Church Street has been altered in respect of a new housing development.
Now if you progress up Hallgate to access Church Street heading north you have to either cross the centre white line or drive over the pavement. This has narrowed Church Street.
There is already a problem with visibility at the junction with parked cars on Station Street. The narrower road will surely increase the risk of a collision as there is less space to avoid a turning vehicle.
Paul Poll
via email
Time for revolt – care to join me?
I criticise John Hayes and Mr Garner criticises me for doing so. Fair enough. But if I might use his own words to rebuke his comments…
So I’m guilty of being a “vile-tongued vitriol” and a “demented Rottweiler foaming at the mouth”. Has he ever watched Prime Minister’s Question Time? The floor of the House of Commons is riddled with members that clearly display both of those traits. I’m also “lacking in decorum and etiquette”. Doesn’t television coverage of our MPs show that’s yet another common failing?
While I dispute his premise, does he really expect members of the public to rise to a higher standard than those they represent? Incidentally Mr Garner, isn’t your use of such venom just a tad hypocritical?
Then there’s his accusation that I cherry-pick. My censure of John Hayes has always been based upon his ‘Hayes in the House’ column in the Free Press, although I admit to criticizing his very selective interpretation of the Old Testament. Please, show me exactly where I cherry-pick and Mr Hayes doesn’t?
He also accuses me of a “pure hatred”. Mr Hayes is simply not worthy of such an accolade. He’s not a Pol Pot, Milošević, or bin Laden. Just an MP stuck in a time-warp where his national heroes include those guilty of mass murder, will not entertain questions from men not wearing a tie (I wonder what he thinks of women wearing trousers?) plus continually uses sycophantic and self-promoting comment.
He has a problem understanding the implications of living in the modern world and increasingly relies upon rhetoric rather than relevant fact. He’s little more than a sophist. Why else would May ask him to resign?
As to the planet I’m living on. One where it’s acceptable for politicians to:
• Be suspected of sexual misconduct but government does nothing. Three months since 36 MPs where outed but nothing has happened to either accuse or exonerate. There are very few crimes that supersede sexual harassment but Theresia May is more focused on immediate trivia rather than fundamental injustice – a PM with confused priorities.
• Take us into a referendum without performing even the most basic analysis of the implications.
• Yet again resurrect that discredited bus and have the audacity to suggest the debunked £350 million should be increased.
• Appoint an MP to head EU exit negotiations who freely admits he hasn’t the first clue.
• Be 19 months on from the referendum and still have yet to supply an exit strategy let alone a delivery plan.
Just a few examples that demonstrate a distinct lack of political competence, character and ethical standard. Even the most cursory read of the House of Commons Code of Conduct demonstrates that many members are severely lacking.
Yes, I am angry Mr Garner. My question is why aren’t you? You’re obviously intelligent and display an understanding of what should be, but your only comment is to accuse me of ranting. We have seen our current government bribe the DUP to achieve power, a PM that will not fire loose cannons such as Boris and continually hear from politicians that use pure guesswork when attempting to predict our future and have opinion based on emotion then select so-called facts to fit that view rather than research then determine what is right and true.
There’s little example of decency and honesty being displayed by many of our political leaders plus they continue to pollute the minds of the electorate with unsubstantiated drivel. We are way past the point where common decency prevails. Mr Hayes is but a trivial example but nevertheless represents the endemic incompetence and duplicity that corrupts our political system. I have little chance of influencing central government but might, just might, be able to convince Mr Hayes to resign and pass the baton to someone who better understands modern culture, is more focused on honest, relevant and fact-based communication rather than our colonial past, and is less influenced by religion and ancient dress code.
Time for revolt. Care to join me Mr Garner?
Andrew MacDonald
Lutton
I’d dearly love to see Spalding;s water fountain back in Hall Place
Further to John Charlesworth’s letter concerning the Johnson Fountain, I remember my late grandmother – who was born in 1892 – telling me that the drinking fountain had (pewter ?) cups on chains to drink from. Whether there was a perpetual flow of water, I’m not sure.
Interestingly enough I have also discovered (Gooch, A History of Spalding, page 514) that in 1876 the market rights of the Manor of Spalding was sold to the Spalding Improvement Commissioners on the condition that the Commissioners “their successors and assigns shall for ever permit the drinking fountain erected in Hall Place to remain in its present site for the use, benefit and enjoyment of the public”.
This was obviously either ignored or circumvented when the fountain was removed in the 1954. I would dearly love to see it restored and returned to Hall Place where I am sure it would be a great focal point for locals and tourists alike.
Pat Wensor
via email
Thought For The Week
Today (February 1)is Candlemass, when Mary and Joseph take their baby son to the Temple to celebrate and give thanks for his birth.
In the church’s calendar this is the last of the celebrations of Jesus’ childhood.
We catch glimpses of Jesus in his childhood, for example when his parents take him to Jerusalem when he is 12 years old.
On the way home travelling in their extended family group they realise he is not with any member of the family and in a panic they search all over Jerusalem.
Jesus is found teaching in the temple and not surprisingly Mary and Joseph are cross.
His reply is that they should have known he would be in his father’s house.
Jesus does not repeat his actions. His public ministry does not begin until he is 30 and he has been a carpenter for some time like his father and his hands are rough with dealing with wood.
When he began to preach his experience guided his words, the language of hard work and harvest, knowledge of what it like to be really hungry and thirsty and he spoke with the wisdom of God. Our Lord understands our lives.
Fr Jonathan Sibley
Vicar Long Sutton St Mary
