Your views: Cemetery plans, business rates holiday for supermarkets, Garden Suite and more - The Redditch Standard

Your views: Cemetery plans, business rates holiday for supermarkets, Garden Suite and more

Redditch Editorial 22nd Nov, 2020   0

LETTERS FROM REDDITCH STANDARD, NOVEMBER 20

REGARDING your story ‘Volunteers Required’ in the Redditch Standard.

The report on volunteers is factually incorrect.

Myself and many others working on the wards were laid off wholesale in March of this year due to our age.




We are fit active, and experienced in making patients lives that bit more bearable.

We understand patients needs and fears and are completely flexible in our approach irrespective if it is Christmas Day, Boxing Day or New Years Day.


We have served the patients and the wards giving both our time freely and reliably through thick and thin.

We have saved the NHS many thousands of pounds over the years.

Our only crime is that we are over 70 years of age, active and in good health.

I feel sorry for Anna Sterckx who works extremely hard but is only obeying the instructions of those above, who appear to be lacking in ‘the ‘b’ obvious’ and ‘snowflake policies.’

We are capable of walking and also delivering small parcels and showing people around, we’ve worked there for years.

So come on, we would never have won the war without Dad’s Army.

We want to serve…..again!

Captain Mainwaring – Headless Cross Platoon.

RECENT press reports suggest the UK’s major supermarkets will benefit from a business rates holiday in the current fiscal year, at an estimated cost of £1.87billion to the taxpayer.

I have written Rachel Maclean MP, asking her to explain why this measure, designed to protect retailers who were forced to close during the lockdowns, is available to supermarkets which have remained open throughout the pandemic, and have profited handsomely as a consequence of other retailers being closed?

Our Government says it is keen to support town centres, which are suffering a massive downturn in footfall and turnover as result of enforced closures.

Under current regulations, supermarkets are classed as ‘essential retailers’, but a visit to any local supermarket shows that the ‘non-food’ areas – approximately 50 per cent of the total floor area in most cases – are trading strongly.

It cannot be right that supermarkets are permitted to sell non-essential items such as TVs, clothing and housewares, whilst equivalent retailers specialising in these products remain shut.

The fact that, in addition, those same supermarkets benefit from taxpayers money in the form of business rate relief – if true – is scandalous.

Given that the devolved administration in Wales managed to restrict sales of non-essential items in supermarkets during their ‘firebreak’, I fail to understand why could that not be done in England.

P Roberts, Redditch

REGARDING The Garden Suite, Alexandra Hospital Redditch.

Donations received in lieu of flowers for Gary Cooper were £1,220.

His wife and daughter would like to thank everyone who donated money – without you we would not have been able to do this.

We would also like to thank the Garden Suite for the care they gave to Gary during his treatment.

L Williams, Redditch

IT has gone very quite on plans for a new cemetery at Ipsley.

Does this mean the council is going to get its way?

I cannot believe they want to put a cemetery in a public park.

Everyone goes on about how important open spaces are in the pandemic and here is good old Redditch council putting a cemetery in the middle of one.

And let’s face it, a cemetery is a place most people want to avoid so what they are doing is cutting off an important part of the Arrow Valley Park for everyone.

Abbey cemetery is on the outskirts of town, so is the one at Astwood Bank and the next Redditch one should be on the edge too.

L Howard, Matchborough

I FEEL I must express my admiration and gratitude to my local councillor Pattie Hill for the help she has given me.

For over a year now I have been contacting the council about the considerable problems I have with squirrels causing a lot of damage in the loft of my council house.

I am not able to do the repairs myself.

The result has been water leaking through my ceiling and airing cupboard and damage to the rafters.

The last straw was when all the electricity upstairs failed.

In desperation I e-mailed Pattie Hill, whom I had never met, and was amazed how quickly she got things moving.

The water pipes and the electricity were fixed within days and the other jobs are being organised.

Pattie contacts me nearly every day to make sure things are being done, and I feel so glad of her support.

So my thanks to you Pattie Hill. A councillor who really cares.

C Lynn

THE Covid-19 pandemic continues to be exceptionally difficult for all of us, but has also led to crisis levels of ‘pet poverty’.

PDSA is a charity that provides free and low cost vet care for those who struggle to pay treatment costs for their sick and injured pets.

Since the first UK lockdown began, we’ve seen an overwhelming number of additional enquiries from pet owners who have hit hard times.

In the first three months of lockdown alone, we carried out more than 6,400 operations and 15,000 X-rays for pets in need.

On average, we’re providing 2,300 phone appointments every day to desperate pet owners. For many sick and injured pets, whose owners are struggling financially, PDSA is their only emergency service.

For information on how you can help, visit PDSA.org.uk/whywematter

P Manktelow, PDSA Vet

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