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I have been touched by the kindness of well-wishers

I should be grateful if I could use your letters column to express my gratitude to all those who have kindly sent me cards and letters with good wishes and congratulations on my being awarded the Freedom of the Borough of Rugby.
I would have loved to reply to each and every one of them, but even my facility with the pen cannot cope with the sheer number of well-wishers.
I frankly doubt whether I have deserved such extensive approbation, simply for doing a job that has given me enormous pleasure over 21 years as a councillor. But it is heartening for all my hard-working and public-spirited fellow councillors of all persuasions that their efforts can be appreciated by so many of the electors they represent.
Rugby people should be proud of their excellent council and the quality and integrity of the members they have elected to it.
Cllr. Ron Ravenhall,
The Paddocks,
Stretton on Dunsmore


'I believe town planners have messed up parking provision'

Well, our town Planning Committee have really excelled themselves this time. Not that long ago, a developer wanted to build a small hotel attached to the Butler's Leap restaurant.
Planning permission was refused until the developer agreed to enlarge the existing car park to accommodate the anticipated increased traffic that the hotel would generate. Well-done planners!
Then our town planners really put their feet in it by giving up a possible £200,000 plus annual income by not insisting that the developer of the Cattle Market site provide a minimum 100 space car park on the Murray Road-Craven Road corner of the site. Where do the council think that the 100 or so cars that currently use this site every day will park when the development gets under way? Not in the giant Meccano set being built on railway land in Mill Road unless the railway reduce considerably the current extortionate daily car parking charges.
Now the bees knees of all decisions – a 35 bed hotel with bar and restaurant, a four storey office building and a leisure complex with indoor swimming pool and the possible creation of 300 new jobs - Wow. Wait a miute, what is missing? If only two thirds of those employees have cars and no visitor arrives by car then at least 200 car parking spaces will have to be found.
How many have our town planning committee approved – none. Well done to the three members who realised this omission but were out voted.
The developer, Herby Holdings, must be laughing all the way to the bank knowing he has pushed through a centre of town development with no car parking space included on the plans in exchange for some remote idea of signage to tell us that all town centre car parks are full.
The architects are certainly right when they say "this development will set a precedent for future town centre development".
I would also challenge Council planning officer Greg Vigars to actually walk round his suggested 400 car parking spaces within walking distance of the development.
What he will more than likely find is that 400 cars already occupy the 400 spaces. Well done planners!
Howard Finch,
Cook Close,
Brownsover.


Slap parking tickets on wheelie bins

Sometimes I have resorted to parking my car slightly on the pavement to make way for more room on the road. I have been told by parking wardens that this is illegal and warrants a parking ticket as I am hampering pedestrians and mobility scooters.
How strange then that it is perfectly ok for just about every street in town to be literally strew with wheelie bins on a daily basis. It is impossible to walk into town without having to move onto the road at some point. With the councils incessant banging on about the proposed pedestrianisation of Rugby they appear to have turned a blind eye to this.
It could be of course that they get a Government grant of some type for recycling and the rules only apply when they see fit. They spend money on wheel chair access, ramps and traffic lights but giant bins everywhere are fine.
Surely it would have been sensible to give terraced houses smaller bins to begin with? We only have so much room and a one size fits all mentality simply doesn't work. Of course this would mean somebody from the council actually leaving the office to see how we actually live and how their decissions are affecting us.
Stop treating us like seciond class citizens! You're trying to stop me driving and now I can't even walk!
Unless of course...you intend to implement parking tickets for bins! Just think of all that money!
Mr. C Farley,
Park Road,
Rugby.


Let us all in on bin collection secret

A fortnight ago I became the recipient of my new recycling bin, and in the misguided belief that the new system would soon be under way, ignored the fact that the blessed item was something else to clutter the allotted bin space on my property.
We have received no specific timetable for the new collections save the generic alternate weeks' blurb and a recommendation to ring the office if we hadn't definitive information by the 20th March - but three into two doesn't work properly and so in search of the answer to the conundrum 'which week will the other bin be collected' my husband rang the council.
The first phone call went unanswered, the second didn't enlighten us much,'It will be on alternate weeks'. We already knew that, but starting when? 'What's the address?' 'Oh, I can't find it on the system' (strange that the rates department don't have that problem). Then came a positive response 'The start of the new system has been delayed, just carry on as usual until the 16th April.' same girl - but she sounded as if she'd invented the wheel!
Perhaps it is proving more difficult than anticipated, but we seem to have been inundated with publicity; flyers, posters and roadshows, shouldn't someone have put notices in the Advertiser, Observer, Library and the Town Hall to tell us all they've got it wrong (again) and let us all in on the new schedule?
Jackie Hinks,
Main street,
Frankton.


Typical case of 'not in my backyard'

I cannot make up my mind if Rugby Borough Council is a bit slow, or complicit in fooling local residents. Cemex are obviously pulling a fast one on Rugby residents regarding their plans for a rubbish conversion plant to ramp up profits at the cement plant.
Firstly they submit two sets of plans for the proposed plant, at almost the same time, one for the plant to be built in Rugby town next to hundreds of residents, the other eleven miles away in Southam. They then sit back and wait for RBC to object to the town centre plans, as you would expect them to do.
The bonus for Cemex is that RBC then suggested that the people of Southam should be subjected to the plant instead.
Why did the Council not object to the plans in their entirety if they thought it was environmentally damaging to Rugby residents instead of taking the 'not in my backyard' approach, now the poor residents of Southam have a harder fight on their hands knowing that Rugby Council actually wants the plant to be built, just not in Rugby.
Let us also not forget that where ever the plant is built, the refined rubbish will still be dragged through our town and burnt at the same old cement plant, so ultimately the Council are not representing our best interests by making this statement.
The whole issue regarding the relationship of RBC and Cemex, and the double standards that our councillors adopt, does little for the integrity councillors should aim to achieve, and we should expect.
We had councillors fighting the proposed airport at Church Lawford a few years ago; they stood at the barricades over the proposed dog food factory up at junction one, and more recently have supported the protest over a abattoir on the outskirts of town.
Why then do some of them constantly suppost any proposal that Cemex wishes to subject the residents of Rugby to, no matter how controversial?
If the Councillors feel so proud of their decision to subject the residents of Southam to this refuse plant, when they had the opportunity to provide honest support, then they should be put on a bus and taken to Southam for a public meeting to explain their actions.
I wonder how many decent people in Rugby feel proud of what our Councillors have done in our name.
G C Prewett,
Railway Street,
Long Lawford,
Rugby.


Phone confiscation totally justified

I was fascinated to read your story about the pupil at Harris School who had his mobile phone confiscated when he answered it during an assembly. I was astonished to read your editorial comment defending him.
Are you seriously suggesting it is acceptable for children to engage in mobile phone conversations during assembly and class time?
The spurious justification - that the child thought he might be in danger - beggars belief. If the father needed to get an urgent message to the boy, he could have called the school secretary. Children have managed perfectly well at school for nearly 100 years without having to carry mobile phones from lesson to lesson. The headteacher was perfectly right to confiscate the phone. The boy should have known better.
Reg de Vere,
Hillmorton Road,
Rugby.


What a collossal waste of NHS cash

IT'S good news to see that Dr Raj Mattu the consultant cardiologist who blew the whistle on overcrowding in bays at the University Hospital, the former Walsgrave Hospital and of bullying a junior doctor has now cleared his name after a seven year battle.
Dr Raj Mattu was originally suspended for blowing the whistle on overcrowding on his ward where five patients were crammed into a ward designed for four, where a patient died because they could not get medical equipment to him in time, when he reported it the hospital stopped this practice.
Mr Mattu was suspended for five and a half years, he was allowed to return last year, and while keeping the respected heart specialist at home since 2002 it has cost the tax payer nearly £5 million at a time when health service managers are seeking to reduce budgets, with University Hospital already in the red.
The General Medical Council has now rejected all 150 claims against him by University Hospital NHS trust. What a colossal waste of much needed NHS cash this suspension has cost, and lets not forget Dr Raj Mattu's brilliant skills that were completely wasted during his time off work.
Stan Buckley,
Reservoir Rd,
Rugby.


Money better spent on road repairs

I ask myself why, and who is the Ashlawn Road crossing for? It is at the wrong end of Ashlawn Road. It is a mystery to us all, except whoever thought of it at our wonderful council.
We already have two silly and stupid crossings in the wrong places, which come off two major roundabouts in Rugby town centre area.
Does the council want accidents to happen, especially with the attitude and behaviour of some car drivers. Do those responsible at the council stop to think before doing things like this?
Following the bad winter weather there are loads of potholes, cracks and dips on Rugby's roads, which need urgent attention and need money spending on them more than new crossings.
In some cases these crossing will be hardly used due to bad positioning.
These two crossing are already causing chaos around the roundabouts, with traffic crammed together and at a standstill. I thought roundabouts were supposed to help traffic run smoothly, but not with these crossings as you come straight off the roundabouts.
Rugby council has shown how to bring traffic to a standstill with their ideas. Well done! It is a nightmare in Rugby around roundabouts at peak times.
Perhaps our council would like to pay out money to drivers for all the distorted wheels caused by poor road surfaces, instead of wasting money on not needed and badly positioned crossings.
I can name several bad road areas in Rugby where the council needs to spend money on essential repairs. Work which car drivers would be very happy about.
Name and address supplied.