LETTERS - Winter fuel allowance, council criticism and Remembering Istel

‘I can’t wait to read my Standard every week’

HAVING lived in Redditch since the 1980s I was always a keen reader of the Standard.

In those early days we looked forward to it appearing through our letterbox and alongside the local news we enjoyed the adverts for houses and cars.

In this post-Covid era, I’d lost touch with the Standard. Yes there was an online version but I rarely checked it.

My interest has been renewed of late, as a result of the ‘Remembering Istel’ project that I have been involved in – see last week’s Standard article. This led me to start checking the Standard weekly to see any Istel-related articles.

I’ve now rediscovered the joys of local news. I realise that I have missed out on local events as I was not aware of them. So I now have a regular Friday routine of either picking up a copy from the Redditch office or checking the online version.

It’s good to be back.

Dave Handley, Southcrest

‘Council criticisms are baseless and unworthy’

I WOULD urge Michael Chalk, a ‘concerned resident’, to relax as we now appear to have a council that seems to have a coherent plan and is quite good at adhering to it.

Assuming your correspondent to be the erstwhile Conservative Coun Mike Chalk, this is in marked contrast to the council he was a member of which lurched from, to quote his graceless and obviously non-proof-read closing comment on social media, one ‘miss take’ to another.

If, and this must surely be questionable, the county council is foolish enough to close the second busiest library in the county on cost grounds, as he suggests, it will be due to the political spite of his party not the sensible and popular choice of RBC to save our purpose-built library.

Profligate expenditure on foolish projects was a hallmark of the last council not this one.

As regards Ipsley Meadow, the so-called ‘investigation’ under the Conservatives was deeply flawed for reasons too long to cover in this letter but which he, as a former councillor, before ‘not enough good people voted for me’ (to quote his graceless comment again) must be aware.

Nothing could prove this more clearly than Ipsley Meadow and Plymouth Road being among the final three options.

There are alternatives, as he must be cognisant of. Indeed, any other site would be better than Ipsley Meadow.

A key difference between this council and the appalling one he participated in, is that Labour listens to people and considers the social consequences of their decisions rather than ignoring us normal folk.

Mr Chalk is not the only former Conservative councillor making baseless, inaccurate and, frankly, unworthy, criticisms which only serve to remind people of why we voted them out. You had your chance and failed dismally.

Now leave it to competent people to try and resolve the numerous messes you and your colleagues left them.

K Wass

‘MP is there to help all our pensioners’

WITH so much outrage and bile from a number of residents directed at our new MP Chris Bloore, I feel it is important for residents to remember that Chris is a fellow human being and has a young family.

We must also remember that if his contact channels are blocked up with complaints, it could delay Chris from coming back to constituents who genuinely need help from him.

I happened to attend parliament on the day of the Winter Fuel Allowance vote for meetings relating to the Stem Cell Register, and I can confirm that none of the Labour MPs I spoke to wished to have to vote in a way that could put pensioners who need financial support into hardship.

However, we must understand the reason for taking this action is down to the fact that the previous Conservative administration grossly overspent by billions of pounds in a number of areas and also hid this information from the OBR.

I know all MPs and especially Chris will be keen to help pensioners who need support to receive the correct help or guidance on claiming pension credits, as well as the other support mechanisms available.

I would encourage pensioners and their families who want practical help to contact Chris and his team.

James Mackay, Callow Hill

‘Tory library plan would have cost us £7.5m’

IN RESPONSE to former Conservative councillor Mike Chalk’s letter concerning the Town Fund Grant.

1. The county council has already confirmed no reduction in library services is intended as a result of the revised plan to remain in the existing building.

2. If the library had moved, the service charge provision entitled Redditch Council to charge the equivalent maintenance cost as for the old library so the new location would have cost no less.

3. The library demolition project in March 2024 was already nine months behind schedule with no accurate costing having been calculated and no detailed plans yet drawn. At a March meeting with council officers, I was told the council would be asking for an extension to the time limit, but in fact this was never applied for.

4. Due to the massive inflation caused by the Conservative government’s mishandling of the economy, the £4.2million grant would only cover 4/5ths of the budget leaving a shortfall of more than £1million which the terms of the Town Fund agreement meant Redditch BC would have to cover, yet no provision was made for this in their proposed budget.

5. The Town Fund terms state where projects are not completed on time, the money spent would be retained to pay for the work done, but excess would be returned. In demolishing the police station, and building the new, almost all the town fund £8.8million has already been spent with over £2million more supplied from the local economic project fund to cover the anticipated overspend so even with no new work on the Grove Street site, £8million of our tax money won’t be passed back to the government.

6. If the new council returns the £4.2million, it will reduce our taxes which is no bad thing.

7. The Conservative council’s project would have cost us (including interest on the £1milllion loan) £7.5million of Redditch money on top of the government fund. We would have lost our easily accessible library and would have gained nothing but another fountain and an open, wet and draughty concrete space.

Please Mr Chalk, get your facts straight. Redditch showed, through its voting, it is a town with principles.

Margot Bish, Abbeydale