We have often waited to use the train as rowdy youths have spread themselves on top, ignoring those for whom its use was intended.
Feeding the ducks, riding on the train, buying an ice-cream, visiting the museum, admiring the birds, climbing the mountain, playing in the bandstand and finally going to the café for a gingerbread man have become a ritual for us.
Mindless vandals must not be allowed to destroy the excellent facilities this beautiful green space has to offer and which have been enjoyed by countless generations and perhaps the time has come for surveillance cameras to be installed in vulnerable places.
We applaud the generosity of café owner Tony Ansell, for offering £1,000 towards replacing the train and for all his constant efforts to maintain and improve the park, a cause we believe very close to his heart.
PS what's happened to the playground roundabout?
Glenys and Derrick Holden
Pinewood Road
Spinney Hill, Northampton

Fruit and veg need to breathe!
During a recent visit to a local supermarket, I noticed a swede shrink-wrapped in plastic, peppers in plastic, also passion-fruit in plastic (in a sweat).
How much of this packaging do we need? Things like fruit and vegetables do not need to be wrapped at all.
I also saw four parsnips in a plastic bag sold for a penny. How much did the farmer get who grew them? It is ridiculous.
Maybe the supermarkets should take the approach of the farmers' market held on Northampton's Market Square, when everything is out in the open; it is much nicer.
This Labour Government could make it mandatory for supermarkets to take back packaging waste and operate refundable deposit schemes on bottles and cut waste by making all retailers charge for plastic carrier bags.
How long are we going to let supermarkets get away with below-cost selling in order to see off the opposition – often an independent shopkeeper or market trader?
The supermarkets' power really bothers me. The fight goes on, read more at www.fitzynorthampton.co.uk.
Eamonn Fitzpatrick,
Ridgeway,
Northampton

Breaking bottles are the problem
One advantage of polycarbonate glass is it does not shatter. It is supposed to withstand four tonnes of pressure before that happens.
It is toughened glass that shatters, thereby rendering them useless as an attacking weapon.
Therein lies the argument: if toughened glass shatters, why is it not possible for pubs to opt for that alternative, which of course many are doing presently.
It is a serious problem, but from the articles that you have printed recently, it appears that the problem is a bottle issue. If bottles were polycarbonate perhaps that would solve the problem for all concerned.
Ray Brown,
Lynton Avenue,
Northampton

Immigration talk is not racist
I have just read both letters printed on April 16 about the BNP and immigration. I agree with John Wright; if you even mention immigration, you are seen to be racist.
I have attended public meetings with each political party, including the BNP, and although I do not agree with one or two of the BNP's policies, I would vote for them in an instant as they are the only ones who are speaking sense.
If, as a nation, we are beginning to worry about talking about issues that affect our country and our lives for fear of being called names and made to feel like a criminal, perhaps it's time we all got together as a country, regardless of colour, and stood up to be counted, like Australia. The Aussies have got it right. We should take a big page out of their book and stand our ground.
I have seen first-hand the lengths illegal immigrants go to to get onto lorries coming into England and believe me, it's frightening. My partner has been attacked while trying to remove them from his lorry in France and the French police do nothing.
We keep them here when we should send them back straight away. If there is no reason for them to be here, they won't come and if saying that makes me racist, then so be it. It's my opinion and I'm entitled to it.
Name and address supplied
but withheld by request

Europe to blame for 'barmy' rules
Brian Binley, MP for Northampton South, does not seem to know that the parliament in which he sits is at the mercy of the EU.
In the Chron, April 4 and 5, he complains that Brussels' regulations now allow for customers or landlords to be taken to court for addressing a barmaid as 'love', or some other familiarity.
Of course it's barmy, but it is no good him asking a Government minister "to stop this farcical additional burden". All these regulations, however daft, expensive or burdensome, must pass in to the law of every member state, without debate or vote, within so many days of their publication in the official EU journal, and the government can do nothing about it.
So, to take a current hot topic, we can't stop the run-down of our postal system. Nearly 10 years ago the EU ruled that the Royal Mail must open up to commercial firms. They, of course, easily won sectors of the lucrative business mail because the Royal Mail could not match their lower bids, burdened as it is with the expensive collection from post boxes and final delivery of all mail.
Another nail was hammered in the coffin four years ago. Like any nationalised concern the post office needs a state subsidy, some £200 million per year. But the European Commission only sanctioned a £150 million per year subsidy, leaving post offices short by about a million pounds a week, thus forcing closures by the hundreds.
Now does Brian understand how his Tory government started the destruction of Britain when they signed us into the then Common Market in 1972?
Derek Clarke MEP, UKIP, East Midlands.

Some hope yet
Hooray for free speech, and the Chronicle & Echo. Backtracking on the rise in parking fees is a triumph for all those who put pen to paper. There is some hope for Northampton. My depression is lifting.
Rosemary Brown
East Hunsbury, Northampton