The second is your very muted response to


the selling-off of our local heritage. Irefer to the sale of the six bedroomed Raigersfeld House and the smaller Raigersfeld Lodge along with 2 acres ofMote Park. This is prop- erty and land owned by the people of Maid- stone. It was sold at auction for £450,000, a very


reasonable price to pay for two houses and two acres of park land with access through the park direct into the centre of town. There was no mention of this in the Tory propaganda before the election, no consulta- tion with the people and as your article says the sale boardswent up before the end of the deadline for scrutiny of this decision. This is definitely not the time to say “local


Tories seem ambitious and confident and we must all wish them well”. Jim Grogan, The Landway, Bearsted


Sorryjust not good enough Dear Sir - Iread with interest your front page story ‘Royal Mail sorry for postal woe’ (East, June), but realistically, sorry isn't good enough in many cases. Like many other read- ers Ihave been affected by this apparent re- structure. However, as well as only receivingmymail


intermittently over the six weeks or so, Inow have a much greater problem. Icurrently have a total of four packages or parcels, which Iam expecting to be delivered from different sources, which have not arrived. They are all products that Ihave paid good money for and Iam therefore hugely out of pocket. Ihave evidence from the suppliers that payment has been received and that Royal Mail has sent the products first class and yet, in some cases, more than three weeks later, the parcels have still not arrived. Iattended the local sorting office this morn-


ing and they confirmed there were no parcels awaiting collection and Iwas therefore given a customer services telephone number to call. The manager on the end of the phone went through the parcels awaiting delivery in our area and was only able to confirm there were no parcels awaiting delivery.


Iunderstand the need for restructure within companies, but when things are going this wrong, sending out a Royal Mail spokesperson to "apologise for any incon- venience" just isn't good enough! Sarah Gough, Marion Crescent, Shepway


Beware of parking charges Dear Sir - Iwould just like to make your read- ers aware of the time limits in various car parks.


Ihave recently received a Parking Charge Notice (£60 fine) for parking in the Asda Liv- ing car park in Maidstone for two hours and 10 minutes. Iwas in Asda the whole time having a cof-


fee and then shopped, unaware of the time restriction (two hours). Although there are signs, these are easily missed. Two hours is just not long enough for a coffee and a shop. When Iinformed Asda they did not care


even though Ihave still got the receipt for the purchases Imade that day. You are pho- tographed on the way in and photographed on the way out. Ibelieve a similar scheme is at Quarry


Wood in Aylesford and many other places. I think it is appalling the way innocent shop- pers are targeted.


Karen Carpenter, by email


High-speed train is all hype Dear Sir - Is it only me, or can others remem- ber the fuss about a possible station for Maid- stone on the high-speed rail line which passes our town? The borough council, our MP and many


others campaigned against having a station for Maidstone, yet here we arewith so called high-speed services operating fromthe town. The service we have is high-speed trains on


slow speed rail for almost all of the journey, yet we could have had the high-speed station at Maidstone built on the high-speed line with all the benefits, including Eurostar. Now we are, as we were in the 19th cen-


tury, a branch line. Do we never learn from history? How about an initiative to link into the high-speed link near to Maidstone, or is that a lost chance?


It's strange to see that the current Maid-


stone MP was on the first 'high-speed' serv- ice to London yet her predecessor was an adamant opponent ofMaidstone having a sta- tion on the high-speed rail line. Roger Hurst, Kewlands, Vinters Park


Dilemma over dog mess Dear Sir. There really can be no excuse for such a dirty, disgusting act; Idon't mean the actual fouling, but the failure to clean it up once it has happened. Irefer to a letter in your May issue where


one disabled contributor made reference to an accusation by the driver of a passing car, of apparent cruelty to his dog for making it walk alongside his scooter. Ihave no such issue, but his comments re- garding him carrying "doggy bags" for others to use were of interest. Since around about the beginning of May I actually witnessed a dog (who was obedi- ently walking alongside him, if not slightly behind) foul the footpath, and because the owner was focusing on the control of hismo- bility scooter he was totally oblivious to the act.


Ioften see this gentleman and his dog pass


our house on their daily walk. The dog "did his business" while still walking and barely broke stride; something Isuspect that he has been doing for a long time. Iactually watched it happen - a moral dilemma Isuspect. Andrew Holt, Spot Lane, Bearsted


Thanks for handing in purse Dear Sir - Just wanted to say a very big thank you to the gentleman in Tesco at Grove Green who handed in my purse. I'd just popped in for a couple of items,


went to the self checkout and realised my purse had gone. Fortunately for me, this decent and honest


man had found it and handed it in to cus- tomer services. How lovely it is to see that there are still honest people out there. Thanks too to another gentleman at the


petrol station who helped me get my petrol cap off, a few minutes later - it wasn't my morning.


Ruth Frost, by email


to attend grammar schools seems set to grow now Govern- ment is encouraging enlarge- ment of the better, more popular schools. Hopefully this will be the first step in re-establishing these excellent schools in towns sadly deprived of them by polit- ical machinations over the last 40 years or so. The future of our country de-


pends so much on the quality of education and producing lead- ers in our communities and businesses. So many say much of our cur-


rent education is failing badly – with businesses in despair as they try to rectify shortcomings in young people’s core educa- tion subjects. Parents know grammar schools maintain their deserved reputation for high standards and work and press hard for ad- missions. It is highly competi- tive – but the best pupils make it. Most start at 11 – but Ialso like to see late and keen devel- opers get their chance at 13. These are the able brains that


Good news for our grammar schools 


THEnumber of children able MailMarks


DENNIS FOWLE - President Kent Campaigning Journalist of the Year 2001 email: dfowle2011@aol.com


can be challenged and devel- oped at the pace that suits them, and many will rise to provide our country with vital leader- ship in the future. In Maidstone we have won-


derful examples of the success of grammar schools, with four of the very best. Inmymany years in local journalism Ialways knew Iwas in a special and vital place when visiting some of these schools. The opponents are highly crit-


ical of a selection systemwhich they see classifying children as successes or failures at 11. There has to be selection – life is all about competition. But soci- ety’s task is to lift all schools so students can enter the increas- ingly challenging jobs market


with skills which meet their and employers’ needs. That’s where there are so many problems at present – and the Government nowseems set to face them. The days of dumbing down our edu- cation must be over.


A load of old rubbish Iam really excited !! We are


starting another recycling box in and around our home. It’s the thirteenth. This is what we have:





1. Wheelie bin for non recy- clables.


2. Wheelie bin for recyclables.


3. Wheelie bin for green garden waste.


4. Container indoors for recy- clables.


To contact Downs Mail just phone 01622 630330


5. Bin indoors for non-recy- clables.


6. Box for newspapers and card. 7. Box for bottles/glass.


8. Container inside for cooked, uncooked food waste.


9. Container outside for cooked, uncooked food waste.


10. Container inside for garden compost


11. Three big containers outside for garden compost. 12. Box for old clothes.


13. The thirteenth box will be for waxed cartons we can now take to Tesco, Tovil. Ontop of this,weoccasionally


have old spectacles, shoes, boots, batteries, electrical items, asbestos, rubble and metal we take to specialist areas. Inow feel reasonably well trained – and probably ready to take a degree course in recy- cling. Sadly, Istill make too many wrong decisions.


Just as wellwehave plenty of


space around our home. How do peoplemanagewhenspace is tight?


East 31


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