• Home
• News
• Sport
• Entertainment
• Comment
• Property
• Property News
• Commercial Property

• Jobs
• Motors
• Motoring
• Family Notices
• Dating
• Free Ads
• Archive Search
• Local Directory
• Business Bid

• Horoscopes
• Competitions
• TV Guide
• Vouchers
• Charities
• Local Links
• Buy Photos

It's your shout ...

Much has been made recently of how good our Parks are.  However, I wonder if Councillor Bell ever goes to Jubilee Park Olton?  Graffiti is everywhere and is never cleaned off despite my requests, stinging nettles abound along paths since the original bushes were chopped down a few years ago, the flowerbeds, particularly those by the bridge, are never weeded, and the loose litter is picked up by dogwalkers and local councillors because the Council's contractors only ever empty the bins and dont pick up loose litter.  Worse of all, is the recent damage done to the grass by the Mowers.  There are large furrows full of water or mud, and the footpath between Brackleys Way and Dene Count Road was barely passable after the recent mowing.  Do these people ever get any training on where it is sensible to mow?  Furrows never really heel and fill with water each time it rains.  Shouldn't the Park Rangers liase with the Contractors to get some understanding on caring for ALL our Parks and not just those with Awards?
Miss S Palmer
Burford Close
Olton

The latest porky from Conservative stooges is that Shirley Park will not be reduced under the concrete and tarmac of the ‘Parkgate’ development.
If these apologists had bothered to visit Solihull Connect or www.solihull.gov.uk to check their ‘facts’, they would have found from reading the relevant statutory notices that a total of 2.64 acres of open space has been disposed of by Solihull Council.  This includes 1.5 acres which even the Council acknowledges is parkland, the rest having been termed ‘parkland’ until this became politically inconvenient.
The 2.64 acres of Shirley Park disposed of by the Conservative Cabinet will not be returned to parkland when the development is complete.  The unique oak circle, other tress and a significant area of green space will be lost permanently, contrary to the Conservative pledges of 2004.  These are the facts.
Councillor Tim Hodgson
Liberal Democrat
Shirley South

Get it right
Messrs (or Mesdames?) Collier and Wilson (Letters 23 August) have misled the public of Shirley.  They clearly do not know the area or the proposals for Parkgate.  The temporary car park granted planning permission in July 2006 measuring 1.86 acres with 160 spaces will definitely be built on a grassed part of Shirley Park - just across the footpath from the children's play area and at the rear of the Saracen's Head.  It is clearly shown at http://www.solihull.gov.uk/akssolihull/images/att4803.pdf
It will not be built on waste land.  The waste land to which they both refer is  open space according to the Council's Cabinet and will be used to accommodate part of the Asda proposal.  It will not be restored to the park as they would have your readers believe and is some 150 metres to the north of the temporary car park.  I hope that the facts (which are those of the Council and Shirley Advance) do not confuse their prejudices or their ghostwriters!
Rodney Pitham
Bills Lane
Shirley

Both my husband and son were recently caught on camera in Streetsbrook Road doing 40mph in a 30mph limit. This camera is situated on a clear stretch of road with no schools nearby. Fair enough, if you exceed the speed limit you pay the price.
The point I would like to make is that on Blossomfield Road there are no cameras yet there have been two very serious accidents, outside the cellege and near the entrance to the school, resulting in, I believe, three deaths. The red Route appears to have achieved very little. I think it is time the council and the Police got their act together,
C Burrows
Blossomfield Road
Solihull.

In response to Justin Kerswekk of VIVA's letter suggesting that I am confused about is turtle protestm perhaps this could be due to his campaign posters usingb the general term TURTLE, which is defined as 'any of various aquatic reptiles;. Nevertheless, any form of cruelty to living things is to be abhorred,. But having now been given by Mr Kerswell the details of the small scale problem in China, the picketing of a supermarket chain in this country is a bit over the top - even for VIVA.
Again, for Mr Kerswell to disparage my comment plants have feelings too shows a lack of knowledge on his part if he is not aware of the range of plants around the world that are sensitive and do react to being touched by animals and humans.
N T
Monkspath

I read with interest your recent article regarding rats and feel compelled to contribute. I live on the edge of Shirley Park and have experienced this problem first hand.
Firstly, we have had to call Solihull Environmental Services twice this year, after seeing rats at the bottom of our garden, and that of our neighbours. Having young children we are obviously very wary of letting them now play in the garden and will not allow them down the bottom end where the rats were sighted.
Secondly, last night when driving home from work, my wife saw a rat running across Union Road from the side of the Woodmans Rest in to a driveway on the opposite side of the road, showing how the problem is spreading.
I agree that something needs to be done urgently about this issue. What will happen to Shirley Park when the Asda development finally gets under way. I am positive that there will be a significant number of nests on the waste ground on Haslucks Green Road, so where will these rats go… parkland, hedges and gardens!
We, and many of the local residents, fully support the view that something needs to be done about this problem, and soon!
Name and address supplied.

WHAT sort of idiots think it is a sensible and safe thing to ride a horse along a main road during the rush hour?
There I was driving home from work along the Stratford Road on Thursday night and that is what I came face to face with - three horses coming down the big hill from the Pickles Restaurant towards the M40 junction between Henley in Arden and Hockley Heath.
I also experienced the same thing on Bank Holiday Monday with three horses riding along the Stratford Road in Hockley Heath.
On each occasion the riders were young and I presume inexperienced.
Now I love horses and agree that they were here before cars, but as Bob Dylan said - the times they are a changin'.
Like it or not a busy main road is no longer a suitable place for horses, especially in the rush hour.
The situation on the hill just off the M40 island was particularly dangerous as cars come from the Henley direction at at least 50mph around a blind corner and were forced to either swerve violently towards the oncoming traffic to avoid the horses, or slam their brakes on coming to a screaching halt.
Either avoidance technique was terrifying the horses and hugely increasing the chances of the horses bucking and either throwing their riders off or veering into the passing cars.
I understand that horse riders would probably prefer to ride on busy main roads rather than narrow country roads where there is very little room for cars to pass 'wide and slow' or to even anticipate the horses' presence.
But my message to those riders is that there are plenty of bridlepaths across Warwickshire and the surrounding areas where they can ride their horses freely with no traffic to bother them and not annoying motorists.
Just a little common sense is all I ask and riding horses on the main road during rush hour is not a great demonstration of this.
What point is there in all these campaigns to save our greenbelt if people are not going to use it?
G Jones
Via e-mail.
 

Perhaps I owe an apology!
This morning I asked someone to move his car from the blue badge bay opposite John Lewis , I though this reasonable since he did not have a  badge  ( or parking ticket) and when asked said he was waiting for his wife to return , I drove round again and parked after he moved. Having been called over he then demanded an apology and a thank you, after an exchange of comments I lost my temper and called him an” Ignorant ********”. I let my temper get the better of me, one of the side effects of having an acquired brain injury,  unfortunately. I don’t believe on consideration I was correct, perhaps inconsiderate would have been a better word .
Name and address supplied

I am 13 years old and I'm concerned about my future and the envoirment. Recently I have watched Al Gore's film the inconvinent truth it really made an impression on me.
I am worried about the way we use the resources of the planet for example we waste so much electricity and probably right now you may be wasting by simply just having a light switched on or even the computer left turned on while nobody is using it, or your even leaving the TV on while your reading this.
Another example is that we are wasting important fossil fuels on mode of transport such as ferries, cars and planes alot of people now are buying really big cars called four by fours that some members of the public call gas guzzlers by any driver driving there car around it is poluting the air and wreaking the earth's envoirment! I see loads of people driving these massive cars and the only person in it is the drivers themselves. Also alot of people tend to go on massive holidays maybe even yourself this is wasting fossil fuels, by travelling to and from using areoplanes and ferries wreck the earth's envoirment! Yes myself I find it fun going up in the air on a plane or steaming through the ocean but that is destroying the planet!! it is bringing us one step further to not mine and others' future not only others but yours and other people's children's future! in Al Gore's film the inconvenient truth it states that around 20 years' time parts of the world will be under water like norway and parts of New York this will happen in the future if we dont act quickly and change the film even says that we can change by planting trees (somewere in the world everyday deforestation is taking place!),stop wasting electricity and stop wasting fosil fuels it is all up to us now to stop what is going to happen in the future its all in our hands now all we have to do is work together and start changing!! without us all trying to change there will be no future!
Hannah Maitland
Solihull

As I struggled out with my waste paper box, wheezing and coughing
having a puff on my inhaler, and having a virtual heart attack, and then
back for my black bags, and still not done my recycled tins and bottles, I
collapsed back in my chair hardly able to breath,after carrying a weight
outlawed by health and safety for a postman, but at least satisfied that
for another week i had helped save the world, when then aghast i was
watching a tv programme telling me that if i have a private collection then
there is no recycling hysteria, but its all dragged off the a land fill
site, as private collections arent punished by any punative rulings from
europe,is someone havin a laugh or what.
S T Vaughan

The British Red Cross has been given a fantastic opportunity to raise money for its services in our local community - we have been invited by Tesco to collect in every one of its stores on 28 and 29 September 2007.
To cover every Tesco store and thereby maximise the amount raised for the Red Cross, we need a lot of volunteers. It would be brilliant if readers would like to join us - all we are asking for is a minimum commitment of 2 hours, and we will try to match you to your nearest Tesco store.
As Tesco Charity of the Year, the British Red Cross is raising money under the partnership theme of 'Crisis care in your neighbourhood'. All the money raised will be spent locally on crucial British Red Cross services.
Interested readers can sign-up or find out more by calling Steve on 0776 425 3657 or emailing shunt@@redcross.org.uk
We would be really grateful for your help
Caroline Leighton
Director, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, West Midlands
British Red Cross

• | More
• «Back
• «Home
• Contact the Editor about this story

• 

  There's a rat in me kitchen........