I HAVE sent this letter to Rachel Maclean MP:
I am asking you to ensure that your boss, the Home Secretary, is made aware of my feelings and the feelings of absolutely everyone I’ve spoken to in the last week, some of whom are lifelong Conservatives.
Priti Patel’s response to the humanitarian catastrophe created by the war in Ukraine – the biggest in Europe since World War Two – is utterly shameful.
She has answered desperation with delays.
Crisis with confusion.
Pain with paperwork.
It could not be clearer that Priti Patel is not up to the job of Home Secretary.
As the buck stops with the Prime Minister he must sack her immediately.
It is in our power, more in yours than mine, to act correctly and compassionately to this situation.
After all, it might be you and me one day.
N Braithwaite, Headless Cross
NEWS on the cemetery development in top Ipsley meadow, Arrow Valley Park.
I have sent to the council an evidenced based, formal complaint about their conduct in relentlessly pursuing, our lovely Ipsley Meadow in our Arrow Valley Park South for the ongoing, operational cemetery.
We have just lived through two years of the stress, and for some the tragic, Covid pandemic.
If it has brought anything to the fore in our lives, it is what is of paramount importance to our wellbeing.
Our families, and the need for our green open spaces that are close to our homes, stand out in most people’s minds.
We, whose lives will be changed forever, will not be silenced, and let the loss of our lovely recreational parkland go unchallenged when other land is open to them.
This complaint is now in the hands of their principal solicitor.
J. Lovell, Matchborough
I WANT to acknowledge and give thanks to two Redditch Borough Councillors who are standing down.
Councillor Julian Grubb has served the residents of Abbey Ward for four years, and in this time, he was also a portfolio holder and Deputy Mayor as well as the borough’s Armed Forces Champion.
Julian is one of the best Conservative Party members I have met, and, in his retirement, I wish him all the best and remain forever grateful to him.
Councillor Jenny Wheeler is standing down too.
I understand that Jenny is standing down for health reasons and so I would like to wish her all the best and send my sincere thanks to her for many years of dedicated service to the people of Redditch.
I have always valued Jenny’s work as chair of the audit, standards and governance committee and hold a deep respect for her.
Being a councillor is not an easy undertaking, but both Julian and Jenny exercised their duties with exemplary diligence, compassion, and dignity.
Councillor Mike Rouse
Portfolio holder for finance & enabling
REGARDING the letter from A Thompson (Redditch Standard) I suppose there was a certain distressing predictability that, at a time when most people are uniting behind the heroic resistance of the Ukrainians, someone from the ill-named Liberal Democrats, a party that believes in neither liberalism nor democracy (remember ‘revoke’), should seek to make cheap and ill-founded political points.
Peaceful protest is one thing, but annoying, noisy and disruptive demonstrations can easily metamorphose into a riot, as indeed has occurred on a number of occasions.
It is generally considered women gained the vote in 1918 through their invaluable contribution to the war effort in World War One.
This dispelled any notion they were undeserving of the vote merely by gender.
To quote Lord Birkenhead, speaking in 1928 when women belatedly gained the franchise on the same basis as men: “Had it not been for the war [we could have] continued to successfully resist this measure for an indefinite period of time.”
K Wass, Matchborough
I HAD to smile when reading the letter from M Acton about residents and Redditch council planting cherry trees (Redditch Standard).
Over the last few years Redditch Council workers have been cutting down cherry trees along with all other types of tree.
In the Winyates area alone every week another tree is cut down.
If this carries on there won’t be anything left.
I only hope that in a few years the hard work by these residents is not in vain.
J Gibbs, Winyates
THE old doctors in Church Hill centre was derelict for a few years.
It’s now been turned into 20 apartments.
Thought it was a nice touch that they named it the old surgery.
Ray, Church Hill
THERE are grand plans for improvements to the town centre and lots of good work being done but one improvement which could be made, relatively cheaply, would be the repair of the fountain by the bandstand.
M Jones, Southcrest
