October 20: Council did what Hitler failed to do
Richard Morris (October 10) is absolutely correct that the demise of 18th century grade two listed Thornton Hall is a sad symbol of Northampton's decline.
Unlike other major towns and cities that have preserved their heritage, eg, Banbury, Chester, Leeds and York, our councils at Northampton over the last few decades have had this suicidal approach of destroying our heritage.
In fact during the 1960s and 1970s the borough council did for Northampton what Hitler failed to do.
Many of the beautiful buildings were demolished, eg, Notre Dame High School, the New Theatre, the Emporium Arcade on the Market Square and Phipps Warehouse.
Could there be a ray of sunshine on the horizon?
The Friends of Delapre Abbey (FoDA) was founded by Graham Walker approximately 10 years ago with the aim of preserving our heritage and keeping Delapre Abbey, a 12th century grade two listed building and its parklands open for the people of Northampton and not being demolished and sold off for private development.
In the 1950s Miss Joan Wake CBE also raised a successful campaign to save Delapre Abbey from demolition and so nearly 60 years later FoDA is still continuing the battle with various administrations.
In 2006 the council agreed to rent the stable block at the abbey, which is now the tea rooms, to FoDA.
The stable block which was in a poor state of repair due to neglect was restored by volunteers using their own resources and donations with no financial input from any administration.
In 2007 a massive project with the restoration of the Victorian vine greenhouse in the walled garden was undertaken using materials being supplied by sponsors and donations and 90 per cent of the labour supplied by volunteers and again with no financial input from the borough council.
So our heritage can be saved and restored, but what administration can be trusted with our heritage.
If organisations like FoDA were given more support and less hindrance, what more could be achieved in the future?
K Lomer,
Delapre Crescent Road, Far Cotton, Northampton.
Phone cash may have helped mail
Re the letter from Yousuf Miah in the Chron of October 16 under the heading Mail strike will kill off goodwill, I would suggest that Royal Mail would be in a far stronger financial position today, if a former doctrinaire Tory Government had not sold off and privatised the telephone side of the business.
If the phone service was still owned by Royal Mail, the surplus generated could be used to subsidise and improve the postal service which we all expect to deliver six days a week even to the most remote regions of our country.
Instead the profits from the privatised phone service is lining the pockets of private shareholders.
In his letter Mr Miah says: "The union the CWU has called for strikes again. Apparently the majority of their members wanted it. How so? Only sixty per cent of the forty per cent that voted opted for strikes. Hardly the majority!” He seems to be suggesting that this shows a lack of democracy within the union.
I would ask Mr Miah and readers of the Chron to consider how many MPs and local councillors are elected to office on similar figures under our first-past-the-post system of elections.
For example, in the recent by-election in the Norwich North constituency, the winning Tory candidate got about 45 per cent of the votes cast on a turn out of voters of about 40 per cent and some candidates are elected on even lower figures than these.
In Mr Miah’s words “hardly the majority”. Is this democratic? Do we really live in a democratic country? I leave the readers of the Chron to draw their own conclusions.
Harry Tuttle,
Northampton-Save our Public Services.
Our way of life eroded bit by bit
Ted Spanswick (Viewpoint, October 17) is right. In 1975 we were fooled into giving the green light to membership of the then Common Market.
Since then our way of life has been steadily eroded, but bit by bit so that we do not notice.
As an example Adam Lansbury (Viewpoint same date), draws attention to the decline of our postal service, once a model of efficiency and cost effectiveness.
He mentions the loss of contracts where “cherry pickers” raid the service. This includes Dutch firm TNT, whose managing director, Jean-Bart Henry, cheerfully admits that they are cherry pickers.
But it is the EU which let them loose via the 1998 Postal Services Directive.
This requires EU national mail companies to allow commercial firms to bid for sectors of the service.
Naturally TNT, and others, chose the lucrative business contracts, leaving Royal Mail to struggle with the loss-making side.
Effectively, Royal Mail is a nationalised concern and needs a subsidy. But this is in the hands of the EU so, three years ago, Tony Blair applied to Brussels to allow us to spend 200million of our own money to keep the Royal Mail and Post Office afloat.
He was allowed to spend only 150million per year, so we are about one million pounds a week short, hence the poor service, closing post offices and the postal workers’ anger.
As long as we are in the EU, this kind of story will go on and on where action like the postal workers strike will be repeated, first one sector, then another.
Keep your eye on Vauxhall.
Problem: only UKIP says we should get out, the other parties are determined to keep us in this destructive empire.
Derek Clark,
MEP East Midlands and Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Northampton South.
Meetings were not negotiations
The recent letter published in the Chronicle& Echo from the regional operations manager of Royal Mail, Paul Jobling, is misleading and without doubt the national script which is written and prepared for him by the Royal Mail Board.
To set the record straight, 70 meetings with the union were not negotiating forums, they were national managers turning up to inform the union of change and how existing agreements would no longer be recognised. Six thousand-plus jobs have already been removed from the industry over the last five years, second post has gone, Good Friday deliveries and Sunday collections ceased.
Why doesn’t Mr Jobling visit our customers that are now often receiving their mail late in the afternoon or teatime and explain how he considers this to be modernisation of postal services?
Perhaps he would also consider visiting postal workers in Northamptonshire and explaining why their jobs and overtime have been removed without agreement or why their pensions have been raided.
Royal Mail imposing a pay freeze is just one of the very many issues at the core of this national postal strike.
At the National Distribution Centre (NDC) in Crick the drivers have had their entire duty schedule removed without agreement, attendance patterns changed and for some a loss of 600 a month.
Mr Joblin goes on to say that there are no further plans for efficiency changes this year which is rich considering that they have already made the savings at the detriment of his employees and the service we provide.
On the same day that his letter was printed a document was leaked to Newsnight making it perfectly clear that Royal Mail has no intention of reaching an agreement with the union and makes perfectly clear that it will steamroll ahead without agreement.
The document states that this is supported by the shareholder which is of course the Government.
Comments from the local Conservatives such as Yousuf Miah about the democracy of the ballot are ill-judged and I am sure any local councillor or MP would like to be returned with a 76 per cent in favour and 67 per cent of the electorate taking part.
Royal Mail refuses to use Acas to arbitrate and it refuses an independent investigation into bullying and harassment within Royal Mail.
I can assure you that our members did not take the decision lightly to strike and the CWU will continue to do everything possible to reach a negotiated settlement if Royal Mail is genuine about reaching an agreement.
Mick Fitzmaurice,
Branch Secretary, Northamptonshire Amalgamated Branch, Communication Workers Union.
Above the law
I read a report about a policeman being kicked down and dreadfully injured after asking a boy to get off his bike and off the pavement.
It is appalling and disgusting to injure our police.
What is the world coming to?
This Government must do something and make them realise what the law is and that they are not above it.
Bernadette Sibley,
Park Wood Street, St James, Northampton.
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