‘Date to celebrate 100th anniversary of gardens’
I REFER to Philip Bladon’s letter regarding the opening of the Gardens of Remembrance on April 2 1925.
According to my records the 100th anniversary of the opening of the gardens will fall on July 16 next year (2025).
The gardens were designed by John Gibson Blakey, who was for sometime head gardener to the Rev Canon Horace Newton who lived at Holmwood.
Finally I would like to thank Philip for bringing this event to the attention of the borough councillors.
Philip K Jarvis,
President of the Redditch Branch of the Royal British Legion
‘MP’s letters out of date… by 42 years’
ON MY return home today I found that two letters had been delivered intended for neither my wife nor me.
Not so uncommon, you may think – commercial material is often mailed out using dubious data bases.
However, this was different.
The stationery was of high quality, posted first class and carried the House of Commons Portcullis.
This was no advertising tract.
Intrigued, I opened the letters to find they were from Rachel Maclean, signed by her so presumably written under her hand. However, I know for an absolute fact that the two people have not lived at my address. for some little while -– in fact for 42 years.
They were the couple from whom I bought my house!
Mrs Maclean thus seems content to waste money from the public purse in sending mail to people who have not lived at an address for 42 years. Surely she should be using an up-to-date list from the current electoral register?
I wonder how many other people have received such correspondence but been unable to determine the intended recipients? It could conceivably add up to a tidy sum of taxpayer-funded expenses.
Dr David Cox,
Oakenshaw Road
‘Tories’ integrity and honesty are long gone’
WITH regards to the recent Conservative election pamphlets promising so much if they are reelected on May 2, I would like to share some thoughts.
Why if the finances are so good, and while there is a Tory central government, did the party not freeze the Redditch Borough Council tax in 2024/25?
And the material does imply it will freeze the whole bill and not just the borough element since that is all the group can freeze. On band D and at three per cent it would only give a saving of £7 to £8-a-year.
Sadly the days of honesty and integrity with the Conservative Party as a whole is sorely missing.
The Tories claim the town is cleaner under their leadership.
Well certainly not in Matchborough or the town centre. And dog poo is still being left by dog owners on footpaths.
Why not tackle the problem head on and employ a litter warden with the power to issue fixed penalties for littering including dropping cigarette butts?
This has been successful in other towns and cities.
And also fine those who allow their dogs to foul but never clean it up.
I am a dog lover and owner. I have complained mainly times about this and all you get is we prefer to educate and fine. Well, fining will much more effectively educate those who do this and generate some income at the same time.
I recall the Conservatives blaming the then-Labour council for M&S moving out of Redditch.
So why have they allowed so many other businesses to shut branches?
As a retired accountant I know there is nothing you can do but again it comes a back to honesty and integrity, which is sorely missing.
The council is obsessed with litter picking on the Bromsgrove Highway where this is not a single council taxpayer or business rate payer.
Yet the roads we live in are lucky to get swept once a year at best.
Are the council more concerned with improving statistics but not the residential areas?
John Smith,
Ledbury Close
‘Membership of history society on the rise’
I AM pleased to report that during 2023 membership of Redditch History Society has steadily been increasing, which resulted in us returning to the main room at Oasis, to accommodate the higher level of membership.
Last August we had to postpone our meeting due to electrical work at Oasis and so we reinstated a December meeting.
The change seemed to be well received and therefore we are going forward with that change in monthly meetings, leaving the summer available for holidays.
We ran a full programme of presentations during the year, with four of our meetings provided by external speakers, which has widened the number of topics presented and for this I wish to thank our enthusiastic speaker organiser, Pat Bushaway.
I would like to pass on my thanks to all the members of the committee for their valuable contribution to the success of the society.
I particularly want to thank our secretary, Tony Green, for the huge amount of work he carries out throughout the year.
Elizabeth Simpson
Chair, Redditch History Society
EDITORS COMMENT
THE Tobacco and Vapes Bill is the most logical and beneficial piece of legislation to go through Parliament in years.
It is ridiculous for those MPs, including Redditch’s Rachel Maclean, who voted against the bill to suggest it is ‘restricting freedoms’ as none of the people affected should have even started smoking yet.
Current smokers are not impacted and ‘still have their freedom’.
It has the potential to save the over-burdened NHS billions of pounds, make the nation healthier and help people live longer.
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