This is somewhat at odds with Mr Ansell's letter of praise in September 2005 thanking the council for £222,000-plus for the park improvements.

Didn't take long for reality to click in did it? More praise though to Mr Ansell for sticking to his guns.

However, I also note David Kennedy in January claimed £270,000 per year was being spent on Abington Park including four full-time gardeners and £10,000 on flowers.

This in addition to the many thousands of pounds spent (to great effect) on Foot Meadow, Victoria Park and others.

In August of 2006, the Chronicle & Echo was kind enough to print my article pointing out the dilapidation of Thorntons Park and pleading for action. What happened? Absolutely nothing.

In fact, things got worse.

I told of damage to an ancient wall . . . it is now totally demolished.

The ha-ha, one of only two or three left in the county, is virtually wrecked. Nettles abound and, in wet weather, pathways dissolve into a sea of mud.

The hall itself, sold to a developer in 2006 and subsequently resold to other developers, is still not occupied and the stables look to be in terminal decline.

In spite of Mr Kennedy's statement that the council will always take care of these great assets, Thorntons Park has still not seen a gardener, ranger or even a single flower bed.

Not one officer or councillor (apart from Sally Beardsworth) had the courtesy to respond or comment on the article but the Chron's columnist John Grosvenor took the trouble to view and comment.

I did attempt to verify the sum spent on each individual park but was told the expenditure was not recorded in that manner.

Given the continuing proliferation of flats in the Kingsthorpe area, most having little or no recreational space, is it not long overdue that this premier park received its share of the largesse being distributed elsewhere?
Derek Smart,
The Green, Kingsthorpe, Northampton.

Please let me talk to a human
When will the powers-that-be, who design and ultimately force their automated telephone systems, realise, as us mere mortals have done for some years, that half the time they don't work and that when they do you still can probably only get a result by talking to a human being?

Two years ago I spent two weeks attempting to get through to Alliance and Leicester.

Unable to make contact, I called into their offices in Market Square and the assistant (I refuse to call her – nice as she was – a "financial services consultant") reluctantly agreed to try for me.

She immediately got through. On asking how she did it she replied "I just didn't press any buttons".

I have now attempted, virtually non-stop for two-and-a-half days to change my pin number with the Post Office. At the end of my tether I finally got someone, a supervisor, I would think, to try it for me.

Having assured me that there was no problem and that I should try again, she eventually tried herself.

You've guessed right.

She failed.

Two days later I'm still waiting for something to happen.

Meanwhile join the club I'm setting up.

When asked to press button this, that or the other, do nothing. You'll be amazed.
Owen Bryce,
Blisworth.

Estate's path is now a stream
I read your article about Northampton Borough Council advertising for a director for regeneration and planning (June 5).

Maybe our council, as they have money to spare, would like to spend some of this on a problem we have in Lumbertubs. During the winter, a lagoon which had been increasing in size over a number of years, overflowed.

The lagoon is located in Billing Arbours Wood, next to the Rillwood Court recreation area. These woods belong to the council and they are responsible for maintenance.

The path has now become a stream and our children's playground is flooded. This was reported to the borough council in February and so far very little has been done.

The path underneath the water is covered in algae, making it very dangerous to walk on. I know of one person who has slipped over in this water, luckily they were relatively unhurt.

The footpath is a main thoroughfare between Thorplands and the Lumbertubs estates and is in constant use. The play-ground is full of stagnant water, making it dangerous and unhealthy to play in.

The summer holidays are fast approaching, when the children's playground will be in constant use.

Will Northampton Borough Council please get off their backsides and resolve this situation before there is a serious accident.
Sharon Attfield,
Rillwood Court, Lumbertubs, Northampton.

Brushing failings from history
Margaret Bondfield's memory is probably ill-served by a proponent like Geoff Howes (Viewpoint, June 6) who seems to believe that reiteration of the initial premises of his argument ad-infinitum will pass muster as a valid historical analysis.

Bondfield was at her best in the industrial labour movement and her achievements in advancing women's and children's rights are rightly acknowledged.

Yet full and balanced evaluations of her overall contribution do not pass over the feeling of betrayal shared by many of her constituents and across the Labour movement as a whole when she joined MacDonald's National Government in 1929.

When she became MacDonald's Minister of Labour in that year the economic circumstances were not propitious and her record is not marked as one which significantly advanced the life prospects of the ordinary people.

The energy and involvement Bondfield brought to the fight for the rights of women and workers before assuming political office resumed after she had left it and were sustained up to her death in 1953.

It is for these chapters in her life that Bondfield is rightly remembered with respect.

In all lives there are successes and failures.

By seeking to airbrush the failures from the historical record Geoff Howes does a disservice to the memory of those he purports to defend.

In acknowledging the rounded quality of all our lives we begin to recognise and learn from our mistakes.

Had they learnt from their past mistakes and delivered for their core supporters, Labour might not now be facing the prospect of melt-down at the next election.
Guy Nicholls,
Elmhurst Court, Spinney Hill, Northampton.
This correspondence is now closed - editor.