Act now to stop loss of more local businesses

SIR – Re: The closure of Cecil Freeman, Butchers in Ampthill, (T&C, May 8), and another local business has gone.

This business was established in 1880 by Mr W Mann whose elderly grandson Mr F Clarke Jnr still lives in Ampthill. Mr Mann carried on this business until he died in 1912 when the business and premises passed to his son-in-law Mr F Clarke Snr who ran it until 1949 when it was sold to Mr K Rowlinson of Luton.

I worked for Mr Rowlinson from 1952 to 1970 and on his retirement became the new owner and lived there and ran the shop for many years until the ill health of my late dear wife forced me to sell it all in the latter part of 1978. I sold to a Hitchin company for whom a Mr A Proud managed the shop and then leased it from them until his retirement this month.

During this period 1978-2008 the shop traded under my name as a goodwill gesture but I ceased to have any involvement in the business from 1978.

Before and after the Second World War there were five butcher's shops in the centre of Ampthill, now we are down to one.

In my opinion the introduction of Waitrose and the associated parking problems has caused many shops to close and will continue to do so until the council acts in the interests of local people.

C Freeman
Russell Drive, Ampthil

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Facility provides free parking for all shoppers

SIR – Our car park provides free parking for two hours to all
shoppers, not just those shopping at Waitrose, in order to encourage
people to shop with other retailers.

This ensures it is not open to abuse during busier periods, which created a higher turnover in the number of people visiting the town centre and allows them the opportunity to shop with other retailers.

We recognise we have an important role to play in the local business community and as a member of the Ampthill Problem Solving Group, continue to look at ways we can work together for our shared benefit.

David Martin
Branch manager
Waitrose, Ampthill

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Have a long think about what decision will mean

SIR – County councillor Tom Wootton complains (T&C, May 8) that he has not heard from Cranfield Parish Council about axing all evening public transport to the village, leaving students and young people high and dry.

Perhaps his transportation officers might have contacted us earlier about their own top-down decision instead of waiting more than two months.

On April 8, Cranfield Parish Council was told: "On January 29, 2008, the Executive of the county council resolved to withdraw financial support from those bus services which the BSET (Bus Service Evaluation Toolkit) has ranked as contributing least to the county council's strategic objectives. The attached schedule gives details of the services affected which currently operate in your parish."

There was no request for our views or any willingness to engage. No interest in the critical part the bus service plays in linking
Cranfield with other villages and with the university campus. No appreciation of the need to provide access for those who are not affluent enough to own a car or be driven around.

Coun Wootton will be hearing from both the parish council and the university, which is jointly concerned about the issue, this week. I will also be writing to him personally enclosing the texts of a flood of email messages from local people affected by the decision or concerned about the effect on others.

I hope he reads them carefully and then has a long think about what this decision will mean.

Laurence Pollock
Broad Green, Cranfield

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Issues are with schools and not the system

SIR – The two articles relating to the proposed shake-up of education in the borough filled me with despair as it became very apparent that once again an attempt is being made to undermine the system which
operates by misinforming the public.

In addition there is the unbelievable assertion from Prof Kate Jacques that middle schools are somehow complicit in low expectations because of the lack of pressure in them.

She also makes the assertion that if upper schools had them for longer they would perform better – why is it then that all over the country
secondary schools have significantly lower GCSE results than many of the upper schools in the whole of Bedfordshire – in two-tier systems?

The issues are with individual schools in pockets, not across the system itself.

Prof Kate Jacques also clearly thinks that parents view middle schools through rose tinted spectacles. Well they clearly understand the development of children better than the vice-chancellor, because a
growing body of evidence is clearly suggesting that smaller, more
personal schools are EXACTLY the sort of schooling that promotes
motivation and raises standards – especially in the lower secondary phase.

Larger secondaries all over the country are realising this and
actually reverting to a 'primary' style model for their Year 7 and 8. Middle schools already provide this as a matter of course – the care of a primary with the specialisms of a secondary.

The standards gained across the majority of middle schools from Year 5 to Year 8 outstrip those across the primary/secondary phase and there is no dip in Year 8 as there is nationally in two-tier systems.

So I have a better idea, with upper schools looking at a future with
compulsory education up to 19 and diplomas, if two-tier is the way why not have age four-13 schools? Now there's a thought.

Phil Allman
Usher Close, Bedford

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You're blaming the wrong person

SIR – If the county council had not delayed the implementation of the borough's unitary status by wasting nine months and nearly £1,000,000 of taxpayers' money the boundary commission would have had time to review the borough's boundaries. And who was on the County Executive that agreed to seek judicial review?

Why, none other than councillor Tom Wootton who now seeks to blame the Mayor for his executive's stupidity in failing to thoroughly read the borough's bid, which included the proposed boundaries.

Councillor Wootton is concerned by large wards being served by only one councillor yet he is quite happy to represent two wards, one for the county and one for the borough.

How can you possibly serve two councils with totally different agendas to the satisfaction of the taxpayer? Is this why he is by no means flavour of the month within his own party group?

Finally, I think it worth pointing out that had councillor Wootton done a little research he would have easily found out that the Mayor actually does not have a remit for boundary changes or determining ward populations.

Councillor Ian Clifton
Deputy Mayor
Bedford Borough Council

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The real reason we need new eco-towns

SIR – So Marston Vale is to be clobbered with an eco-town of 15,000-20,000 houses of which 50 per cent are to be 'affordable' social/council houses.

The Local Government Association claims it will become 'the eco-slums of the future'; the UK Green Building Council worries they will be 'green ghettos.' 15,000 houses mean at least 50,000 people who need schools, public transport, hospitals, doctors, dentists, fire and police services, waste disposal, parks, shops and jobs – a new town with so-called 'green' knobs on.

Why do we need 15 eco-towns, 13 of which will be built in the south because Labour are terrified of further alienating their traditional
voters in the north?

The answer, because we belong to the EU and have surrendered our control over all immigration from Europe. Well over a million legal
immigrants have arrived within the last three years (official national insurance registration figures). The Office of National Statistics estimates that by 2050 our population will have grown from the current 60.6 million to 77.2 million, with at least half of it due to immigration (in 2006 147,000 children were born to mothers who did not come from Britain). The massive, economic, social, health, educational and housing problems this will cause doesn't bear thinking about.

The fault can be laid firmly at the door of deceitful politicians of all three main parties who have handed over control of European
immigration to this country to the EU along with (once the Lisbon Treaty is ratified) virtually all legislative powers without any authority from us to do so.

It may interest readers to know that Gordon Brown recently went to Brussels cap in hand to ask that he be allowed to reduce VAT on certain 'green' items – he was told (politely) to shove off.

Mark Adkin
Putnoe Lane, Bedford

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Don't try to cover up your own failure

SIR – The Conservatives are kicking up a song and dance about ward boundaries to conceal their own incompetence.

When faced with the suggestion that the number of councillors in the new unitary authority would be 37 (previously 54 borough and 20 county councillors in the same area) their first concern should have been to find out how this would work and whether there would be any
boundary changes.

Certainly the Labour group held an early meeting to discuss this and Independent councillor Margaret Davey also registered her concern in respect of Castle. The Tories are the biggest group on the borough but the question doesn't seem to have occurred to any of these mighty brains, including Tom Wootton or Roger Rigby.

As they know perfectly well, I have no influence on ward
boundaries nor on numbers of councillors in each ward. Nor do I want any; if I had there would be immediate claims that I was favouring one side or the other.

Sorry, ladies and gentlemen, the ball was in your court. Don't try to cover up your own failure by blaming me.

Frank Branston
Mayor of Bedford

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Closing service will prove costly mistake

SIR – The recent revelation that the Citizens Advice Bureau Money Support Service in St Paul's Square, Bedford, is to be closed down, would seen to be a very short-sighted decision.

This, especially in the days of increased credit debt, arreas of one kind or another, re-possessions, redundancy, combined with spiralling costs, makes no sense.

Thus, when one considers the huge workload Ms Joyce Hilditch and her her team, provided to clients on an impartial basis, in such an exemplary manner, was a service of which Bedford could have been proud and rewarded by retention at least, rather than closure?

The real tragedy is that when the ladders of redress are stymied, the courses of action open to people earning less than the national average wage, are limited.

When will all our leaders learn that to invest in helping the 'little people' they also make an investment in their own futures too?

Richard Pill
St Michael's Road, Bedford

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Our Michelle's a record breaker

SIR – On behalf of all her Scouting friends, may I use your pages to congratulate Beaver Scout Leader Michelle Frost of the 101st Bedford Scout Group on her magnificent marathon world record on stilts.

The Guinness Book of World Records has just confirmed her award for completing the distance in 8 hours 25 minutes, the first person to do so.

World records don't come very often to Bedford and I am sure the town can be justly proud of Michelle's hard won achievement. It has taken her ten years of dedicated effort and almost 12 months of early
morning training sessions to build up the stamina she needed.

But Michelle deserves an even bigger thank you for the £7,000 she has raised for the REACH charity that has helped her disabled sister Samantha.

Next year we are all hoping that Michelle will be on her stilts once more to defend her world record.

Graeme Watt
District Commissioner
Bedford District Scout Council
Abbott Crescent, Kempston

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Get aboard BABUS

SIR – Your readers will be aware that there are uncertainties affecting users of some bus services across Bedfordshire at present. As well as reductions in contracted services we now face local government re-structuring.

However, there are also positive developments in prospect eg introduction of real-time information through individual bus stops, the
redevelopment of Bedford bus station and better bus/rail integration at Bedford railway station.

The interests of bus users in this area are promoted through the Bedford Area Bus Users Society (BABUS).

For more details about the work of BABUS please visit our website at: babus.org.uk , or call our enquiry line on 0870 486 1369.

Colin Franklin, chairman
Bedford Area Bus Users Society (BABUS)

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Giving young people a voice is essential

SIR – My constituent, Alistair Burt MP, describes the idea of
lowering the voting age to 16 as a 'gimmick'. This dismissive approach is unhelpful at a time when young people are becoming increasingly disengaged with politics.

If we are serious about convincing young people that politics is relevant to them, the last thing we should be doing is excluding them from democracy.

It is simply unfair that 16 and 17 year olds can go to work and pay taxes, yet they have no say in how those taxes are spent.

Far from being a 'gimmick', giving them a voice is an essential step towards a fairer system in which young people play an active role.

Coun Tim Hill
(Lib Dem) Wootton
Bedford Borough Council