LETTERS TO THE EDITOR


Traffic was a nightmare Dear Sir-Iwas staggeredtoreadthatour elected borough representative Richard Ash described the traffic chaos of the weekend of June 11 and 12 as “not too bad”. Is Mr Ash unaware that traffic was com- pletely jammed from junction 7, past Nott- cutts, along New Cut Road, the whole length of theA20 to junction 8, and then on the M20, London bound for all three lanes of the mo- torway for several miles? As we walked around the village we could


see that the whole area was gridlocked.To de- scribe this chaos as “not too bad” demon- strates either an appalling ignorance of the facts, or a complete lack of empathy for those he is paid to represent. I amequally astonished that Mr Ash saw fit


to lay the blame on poor signage by theHigh- ways Agency in Dover. Surely, as our elected representative he should have been in full consultation with the Highways Agency be- fore, during, and after these events, ensuring that disruptionwas kept to a minimum. Is it perhaps too much to ask that our paid borough councillors do the job that they are elected to do? Stephen Gibson, Birling Avenue, Bearsted


Truly scandalous bus fares Dear Sir - On Saturday,my two children and I travelled from Bearsted to the bottom of the AshfordRoad near Maidstone, on the number 19 bus. The return cost of our 15-minute jour- neywas £7.80. The driver explained that this was an off-peak price and that the same jour- ney would cost more at peak times. What a joke. With petrol prices so high, it is still much cheaper to drive. It depresses me that those making the decisions in this country have ab- solutely no interest in encouraging people to use their cars less. Forget broader environmental issues, the amount of cars on the road just makes walk- ing anywhere a miserable experience. Is it just me? Wouldn’t life be more pleasant if there were fewer cars everywhere we go? Jenny Jones, Bearsted


I’m allowed to use helicopter Dear Sir - Further to the article in the parish council section of Downs Mail (July, East) I would like to confirm that as the owner of Church House I am permitted to use the grounds as a helicopter landing facility up to 28 days in any calendar year without any kind of planning permission. As a pilot I am permitted to land and take


off at any site as long as I amable to conform to Rule 5 of the Air Regulations 1996, which states I must have an adequate approach and take off lane, which I have with the fields to the south east of Church House. I do not feel there is an unreasonable nuisance as start up and shut down times are seven to eightmin- utes and I always check that there is not a service at the church. Imust admit to being surprised at the article


as I have received no complaints. I amhappy to give my licence number to anyone who wishes to contact me at Church House. Keith Yorke, Church House, Church Road, Otham


Asda needs longer parking Dear Sir - Like Karen (July, Town),my friend and I, along with our children, also parked at Asda Living and received a fine for overstay- ing our time. We were unaware of the charge as they did


not put a ticket on the windscreen of our ve- hicle. I called Asda and they were extremely helpful. They advised that we write a letter of


30 East


You can write to us at: Downs Mail, 2 Forge House, Bearsted Green Business Park, Bearsted, Maidstone, ME14 4DT or e-mail: info@downsmail.co.uk


appeal to Parking Eye, and explained that they were unable to control the car park situ- ation as it was not their property. We did appeal and Parking Eye retracted


the fine.We are unsure if this company con- trols all of the shops, ie: Hobbycraft,TKMaxx and Homebase. I feel that as Asda has a coffee shop and ex- cellent baby changing facilities along with such a wide selection of home and clothing goods, two hours is not a realistic time span for shopping.


Cheryle Lewis, by email


Dear Sir - With reference to the letter from Karen Carpenter in last month’s Downs Mail, Iwonder howmany people are aware that pri- vate companies cannot enforce parking fines for exceeding parking times. Although not exactly the same as Karen’s


case, a driver recently received a large 'fine' for parking too long in a privately owned car park.They sent to the company concerned an amount to cover the cost of the extra parking. This satisfied the ‘contract’ they had with


the company. In this case the parking was something like £6 for three hours. They over- stayed by one hour so sent £2 as payment for the extra time spent parked. The parking company threatened the driver


with court action and when told, “see you in court then”, they backed off as they knewthey didn't have a case. Perhaps having a receipt from Asda is the same and a strongly worded letter without a cheque for £60 will have the same effect. I believe that imposing a time limit for you


to do your shopping would be seen as a breach of contract by Asda with their cus- tomer. The high profile lawyer famous for getting people off speeding tickets is taking up cases like this and winning. I amsure he would be glad to advise anyone as he says he is “on the case”.


David G.Woodcock, Willington Street


Wrong on grammar schools Dear Sir – Your defence of the selective sys- tem in education (“Good news for our gram- mar schools” – July 2011) is seriously flawed. You blithely assume that the 11+ exam was


(or is) an efficient way of sorting out those with academic promise from those deemed to be without. In reality, the system was much more arbi-


trary in its workings. The Oxford sociologist A.H. Halsey once stated that there was an error rate of 25%, that is to say, one child in four went (or still goes) to the wrong school. Dreadful and I would have thought, indefen- sible.


When you say that you are strongly in favour of “re-establishing these excellent schools in towns sadly deprived of them by political machinations over the last 40 years or so”, what you are really calling for is the reintroduction of secondary modern schools, with their poorer facilities and lower status, since thiswas where the vast majority of chil- dren always went. Why can’t you be more honest about the matter? Given the choice between a compre- hensive and a secondary modern, most par- ents would opt for the former since their children will have greater opportunities there. The comprehensive school no doubt has its problems but remains, as Churchill said of democracy, the worst system there is apart from all the others. In stating, “life is all about competition”,


you are taking a depressingly low, Social Dar- winist view of reality.Aren’tmen andwomen also social beings capable of cooperating with


each other, much as animals do in herds? I am not convinced that we all require the


“vital leadership” to be offered by the (often) smug products of an inequitable systemmod- elled on theminor public schools. K.G. Banks, Bower Lane, Maidstone


Questions for Mr Lansley Dear Sir -We have had expert advice on the NHS from many sources. Whydowenot ask the staffwho operate the service, the nurses on the wards whether they have too many managers and not the number of qualified, dedicated nurses to undertake the basic ward duties empathetically? Why do we not ask junior hospital doctors


their views? Why do we not ask individual consultants,


GPs, midwives, district nurses, carers and many other essential ancillary personnelwho keep the quality of the NHS as high as it is? Is this why Andrew Lansley got the whole


thingwrong, made a complete mess of all the hard work that MASH had done? Is this why we have highly paid chief exec-


utive officers compensated for failing here and we see one on TV saying " I am sorry " when elderly folk have died due to neglect in one of his hospitals? I did not hear either of themsay they would


return a year’s salary to hospital funds to com- pensate for their oversights although that would still leave them with rather more than the average wage over a two year period! John Ireland, High Street, Lenham


No oncology consultation Dear Sir - I learned with considerable disquiet that patients will no longer have care and treatment in a specific oncology ward and bed, should they experience adverse or severe reactions while undergoing a course of chemotherapy atMaidstone Hospital. Such patients’ immune systems to com- monplace infections are severely compro- mised and can be life threatening. To lessen these risks, patients have been segregated into dedicated oncology wards. Achemotherapy patient’s condition can de- teriorate very quickly. Transfer to high de- pendency at best, intensive care unit, or “blue light” transfer to London being the worst case scenario. As a patient, I experienced such trauma. It seems Maidstone Hospital has “done


away” at a stroke with oncology beds without consultation with oncology consultants. Pa- tients with compromised immune systems must now be placed among patients in gen- eral wards, or wherever a bed can be found. If they are nursed in open wards they are


likely to pick up any infection and are not being cared for be specially trained staff. Management at the hospital appear to be ob-


sessed with targets. I understand that if a chemotherapy patient


had an adverse reaction at home, once in A&E, they would now be admitted to a gen- eral bed, again with potentially severe conse- quences and managed by staff who do not understand their specific problems. A serious legal case of maladministration


may arise if the patient’s life was affected by hospital infection. This is a financial expense which Maid-


stone Hospital hardly needs in these cash- strapped times. I have had the best of treatments and care


under the NHS and a “second life” which I may not have had. With this in mind, I and many others, would not want this disgraceful piece of administration at Maidstone Hospi- tal to go unchallenged. EdwardMcD Dain, Larkfield


Have you got news for us? Phone our News Desk on 01622 734735


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48