March 13: Marina will attract thousands to park
I would like to make some comments to those who criticise the proposal for a marina in Becket's Park, Northampton.
Have they not at some time stood fascinated, watching, as a child or adult, a boat negotiating a set of locks; or watched people having fun in rowing boats, perhaps hiring one themselves?
Wherever there is water and boats, you will find people enjoying themselves, some on the craft, some just watching.
I am old enough to remember having many a pleasant afternoon rowing on the River Nene.
The other day someone mentioned the popularity of Foxton Locks and Stoke Bruerne.
Thousands of people visit these places, have a drink in the pub or a meal in the restaurant or pop in the souvenir shop, every year.
We could have them visiting Northampton, spending their money here.
Some of our older residents may remember the Nasa Rose, a 60-ft narrowboat owned by the council.
I have taken many young people on weekend trips, Cubs and Scouts, on this and other boats and told them about the history of the canals and their influence on the industrial revolution.
Perhaps a dry subject in a classroom, but not on a boat!
Perhaps one day, when better times are here, the council may again have its own boat.
Pleasure and school education trips could be organised.
We will not see a quick return on the money spent, but life is not all about making a quick buck.
In these days of gloom and doom, we need to consider ways to lift our spirits and do something positive, to make Northampton a happy place to live in and visitors to visit.
It is then businesses will move in and the town will again prosper.
It will take time, but if we do nothing but moan and act in a negative way then Northampton will become one of the backwaters of England.
This proposal is just one way to making the town more attractive.
Regarding Becket's Park, the river and lakes area has been neglected over many years; it could, with careful planning, be one of the town's greatest assets.
Regarding the balloon festival, I share the disappointment of its demise, but at the end of the day the money spent was for just a few days' enjoyment, great though it was.
Money spent on this marina and the facilities around it will bring pleasure to people every day for many years to come.
J Crake,
Ash Lane, Collingtree, Northampton.
It won't cost the council anything
In the 33 years I have been going down to the Sea Cadet Corps in Becket's Park, the lake area has turned into a total jungle. It has been on the decline for years. The area that will be the marina is a dump.
I went to the Northampton Borough Council planning meeting on February 4 and it was stated that the marina will not cost the local councils anything.
They will hand the lake and surrounding area over to the Environment Agency to develop it.
It is them and WNDC and English Partnership who are putting up all the money to alter it into the marina and if we reject it, then the money will just go elsewhere and the area will lose out.
The only cost to the council will be when the other bits are added in the park in later years.
It will also vastly improve the current visual outlook for the Sea Cadets and improve the access that has always been a problem since the Cadets moved on to the island in 1951.
A C Johnson,
Dore Close, Northampton.
Mayhem as six wardens are lost
Reading the two letters printed in the Chronicle & Echo's Viewpoint from Mark Gee of Wollaston and Mrs Layford from Cumbria following a visit to Southbridge, it was reassuring to find yet more readers felt as I do, word for word.
The Far Cotton Residents' Association (FCRA) discussed the fact that we may lose our Neighbourhood Warden, Sonia Holton.
For once the borough councillors had developed something that worked, both for the people and the borough council, but the council appears to have a policy: if it's working well to the satisfaction of the tax payers, let us cause mayhem and restructure it.
I maintain that we are losing six Neighbourhood Wardens.
Lib Dems, who are suppose to represent us, have sacked three following on from an interview and evidently completely ignored letters sent by members of the FCRA before the cabinet meeting.
The other three wardens were upgraded to environmental crime . . . are they duplicating the work of the PCSOs?
The nine remaining wardens will have to cover a larger area of the town, covering many miles, so there will be little chance of them doing their usual walkabouts.
Because of the many problems we now have that require answers, the FCRA is holding an open meeting on March 17, 7pm at the REC Centre, Towcester Road.
We can then compile these problems and complaints and put them before a council meeting, providing the solutions to assist our councillors in making decisions based on what the population of Northampton wants.
Kate Connell,
Claughton Road, Northampton.
Dredging at last
I was quite surprised to find out the other week that the Environment Agency had finally agreed to finance the dredging of the River Nene by South Bridge, with the silt being put onto land to the west of South Bridge itself.
Perhaps Councillor Brendan Glynane and his colleagues in the borough council can now properly clear out all the blocked and silted up drains in both Far Cotton and St James housing estates, so that the Easter floods of 1998 don't occur again.
The water in the housing estates caused the greatest amount of damage because it couldn't reach the River Nene through the underground pipe system.
A D Hiam,
Rillwood Court, Lumbertubs, Northampton.
Challenge to our minimum wage
The recent industrial disputes at the Staythorpe power station and at the Lindsey oil refinery could well be repeated elsewhere in the East Midlands. But next time it will be with EU backing.
In Strasbourg this week, a massive 578 to 72 vote majority adopted a report which will enable companies to have official registered offices in other countries. That means UK companies could recruit a workforce abroad for a contract in the UK.
These companies would do so in order to have a "Collective Agreement", where the workforce would be paid less than the UK minimum wage. Trade unions in the UK would be powerless to stop this "social dumping" because of the European Court of Justice.
The ECJ has already squashed four national protests of this kind, finding in favour of the employers every time.
Four national parliaments saw their minimum wage policies shattered. To them we are no different and rulings of the ECJ can not be appealed.
Derek Clark MEP,
UKIP East Midlands.
English lose out
Further to the item NHS charges to go up 10p, Chronicle & Echo, World Today, March 6, it would appear to me that rather than going up, NHS prescription charges should not exist.
If discrimination means to show or single a person into groups etc for special favour or disfavour and we take into account that Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, don't pay for their prescriptions, or will not when legislation has been passed and not withstanding that many people in England have free prescriptions because they are on benefits etc, the people of England are being discriminated against by the Government.
To add to that on official documents, although I was born in England, I am British. Does this apply to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, or does England not exist?
I believe that what is good for the goose is good for the gander.
V Graham-Hole,
Elgin Street, St James End, Northampton.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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