My sisters and I are very grateful to NGH as our mother, Dora Ware, has been under the care of five different departments and had three hospital admissions in the last three-and-a-half years.

While we agree that the quality of the food is not always good and that sometimes there appears to be a lack of nurses, my mum, sisters and I were satisfied with overall standards and felt the medical and nursing care was excellent.

The nurses on Rowan Ward are to be particularly commended for their sensitivity to us during the hours leading up to mum's death in March.

Also Mr Crawfurd and Denise Sweeney should be thanked for their efforts to minimise the delay for a bone scan when the hospital, in an attempt to meet Government targets, said out-patients took priority over in-patients even though the scan was essential prior to surgery for a broken hip.
Rosemary Newbery (Mrs),
Keble Close, Daventry.

Park will be an overgrown mess
Re plans revealed for a new 420 acre country park (Chronicle & Echo, May 24). Is this a joke?

The Lib Dems so far are taken to task daily on this page for neglecting Abington Park, The Racecourse and, of course, Hunsbury Country Park, which has no toilets, and is neglected.

Thousands of pounds needs spending on it to get it into some sort of shape. The Drover Road green lane is so overgrown, the brook needs digging out and clearing and you have printed letters from me regarding the abandoned toilets being turned into a not-required cafe.

It takes three months to fit a new children's toy train, given free of charge, into Abington Park.

Councillor Trini Crake (Lib Dem), states that Northampton people don't need public toilets, then trots off stock Lib Dem answers parrot-fashion to people's problems.

Do you really think that this park will happen? If so, how long will it be before it is another overgrown mess with no toilets that require thousands more on the rates to put it right?
Alan Johns,
Sentinel Road, West Hunsbury, Northampton.

A scandalous waste of money
When I read last Thursday's Chronicle & Echo that 57 policemen had raided the Prince of Wales pub because they had heard a few spliffs of cannabis were changing hands, I had to check my calendar in case it was April Fool's Day!

Why stop at 57 police?

They could have gone the whole hog and brought in the fire brigade, and the army as well, and the entire population of Battersea Dogs Home could have been co-opted in case the four police-trained German shepherds were not up to the challenge facing them.
Did the police expect the three spotty teenaged smokers to start defending themselves with machine guns, or what?

Had the police intelligence been anything other than weak and unreliable, the landlord would surely have lost his licence, which he didn't.

In the opinion of most reasonable people, any high-ranking policeman who orders such a big operation based on such flimsy evidence should be back on the beat helping old ladies across the road and telling the time to people who had lost their watches.

Better still, they should be invited to earn a living in some other job.
There is no logical place in the police force for officers who can order such a scandalous and monumental waste of council tax payers' money.
Mr L C Janaway,
Rushmere Road,
Northampton.

Council right to spy on dirty dogs
Re the debate about the council spying on those who refuse to pick up their dog mess, I fully agree with what the council are doing to solve the problem.

I fail to see what Brian Binley MP is up in arms about.

Has he ever stood in the stuff? I have, and it's even worse getting it off the carpet, because you realise too late you've walked in it.

Selfish and irresponsible attitudes are all too prevalent in today's couldn't-care-less society.
Gordon Bray,
Junction Road, Northampton.

MP remembered with affection
Margaret Bondfield was elected as MP for Northampton, in 1923, at a time when it was very difficult for women to get selected to stand for Parliament let alone become an MP.

When she was elected, men could vote at 21 but women could not vote until they were 30. Margaret Bondfield's determination and success at becoming Northampton's MP, albeit for a short time, is worthy of the acclaim given to her over the years.

I remember in the 1970s being told by pensioners living in Semilong and St James how they remembered Margaret Bondfield with deep affection, respect and how some of their homes had been used as committee rooms to support her. This was the view of people who knew her.

What a pity, therefore, that Guy Nicholls (Viewpoint, May 29), should be so negative about her in order to try to score petty political points.
Geoff Howes,
Alliston Gardens, Northampton.

Future prediction
I was intrigued to read, as from Monday 26 May, a new EU directive under the Consumer Protection Regulations on Unfair Commercial Practices will be in force. Fortune-tellers, astrologers, psychic healers are among those who will be affected.

Surely the global warming soothsayers should be included in this list of entertainers.

After all they are always predicting something.
Eric M Medcraft,
Georges Avenue, Bugbrooke.