LETTERS - Miserable Redditch, education budget and concerns over drug use

‘All very positive and laudable’

THIS “Miserable Redditch” business is quite awkward to get to grips with.

Coun Dormer is right to claim ‘people are pulling together and doing something good in the community’.

In the December 22 issue, there were seven or eight articles highlighting companies and organisations collecting/distributing food, toys, clothes and so forth for the less fortunate at Christmas.

All very positive and laudable.

However, there is much wrong in Redditch, including the current council seeming to actively promote misery with its bizarre policies.

A couple of hours at a Christmas event does not make up for the permanent loss of a purpose-built library or, especially, valued parkland at Ipsley meadow.

There are plenty of other examples of ineptitude, including their appalling stewardship of Arrow Valley Park in its entirety.

They cut back hedges and trees with total disregard for both the welfare of wildlife and the appearance of the park.

Whilst acknowledging there has to be landscape management, the council butcher places and leave a sea of mud where grass was and stumps where there used to be healthy trees and thick bushes for wildlife.

I suppose the ultimate test of how content or miserable we are about the town is whether we would stay in Redditch if we won the lottery!

K Wass

‘Increase isn’t enough’

HOW concerning the increases in the education budget are as stated last week by Rachel Maclean.

I am surprised she is ‘welcoming’ them.

The increase to Redditch’s budget is just 1.6 per cent which just about covers our population increase from 2022 to 2023.

There is therefore no allowance for the 5.6 per cent inflation increase in general prices.

Instead of £1.1 million, we should have had £3.1million, leaving us £2million short, and that does not allow for any rebuilding costs required due to the recently publicised concrete defects in schools.

Likewise, the increase to the national budget has been quoted over a two year period (to make the figures look better, I suppose).

So the 10 per cent increase should have been 15.7 per cent – only 2/3 of the required budget.

Along with the failures and backtracking in climate change targets that will impact on our children’s future, this shows a serious lack of concern for the well being of our children.

Come on Rachel, we need investment in our children, if not for humanitarian reasons, at least to give strength to our future economy.

Margot Bish,

Abbeydale

‘Drug use is concerning’

AFTER eight months of being a councillor I feel something needs to be said.

There is an issue in this town that nobody is talking about. Yet it is perhaps one of the greatest tragedies we face. Put simply, its drugs.

Elected politicians are out on the streets a lot. You cant do the job properly unless you are. Because of this I now know the smell of despair and defeat and it is the smell of cannabis. Its everywhere.

I can see how it takes hold. I grew up on a council estate myself and know that when life chucks the kitchen sink at you an easy escape is very tempting indeed.

But drugs are a hope killer. And where there are drugs there is also crime, violence, poor physical and mental health and poverty.

There is good work being done in Redditch by the police, charities and statutory services. But it takes place in near silence.

If we are to restore any civic pride to Redditch we need to shine a spotlight on this issue.

I have some personal views about what should be done but for now I will keep them to myself. However, what I am calling for is an open, transparent debate about this issue in our town.

I hope that this letter is a first step to starting that debate. I have also asked my party to consider calling for a summit on drugs should we be successful in taking the council in May.

Ian Woodall

Labour,

Headless Cross and Oakenshaw

‘Volunteer for the RNID’

HAVE you made your new year resolutions yet? Need one more? Why don’t you sign up as a Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID) volunteer?

RNID, the charity supporting people who are deaf, have hearing loss or tinnitus are looking for volunteers to support our vital work across the UK.

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What are you waiting for? For more information, visit rnid.org.uk/join or contact us on 0808 808 0123.

Jackie White

Director at RNID

EDITOR’S COMMENT

THE ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office was both compulsive viewing and truly shocking that such a scandal was allowed to take place over several years.

The excellent programme has also brought the Horizon debacle to the forefront again and will hopefully get justice for those involved and their families.

Sadly any resolution, legal justice and financial compensation will come too late for some who have since died.

Those responsible need to be brought to book for the many lives they have ruined.