Viewpoint: Blight of sunken boats in the Thames

Email Viewpoint letters tojamesp@baylismedia.co.ukor write to Viewpoint, Newspaper House, 48 Bell Street, Maidenhead, SL6 1HX.

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Boats left to wreck and ruin with no redress

The Thames at Maidenhead has a great past when it comes to recreational boating, with a well known scene at Boulters Lock in its hay day.

However, it now seems to be a dumping ground for unwanted boats.

当你从处女膜Br走idge toward Boulters Lock you pass the recent burnt out wreck opposite Skindles. At least it looks as if this might be dealt with.

We then pass the Thames Hotel where a bouy marks the position of a boat that sank there about two to three years ago.

Walking further along the river to Woodhurst Lodge there is a half submerged boat on its side held by the railings, followed by quite a large boat that sank a few weeks back that has now drifted away from the river bank at 90 degrees, marked by two warning navigational buoys.

This is followed by a large half submerged boat, that will fully sink once the river rises, again partly held up by the railings.

Lastly, we have a blue boat that sunk about three years ago near Boulters Lock with a warning notice only recently put up, which has been ignored.

Who is responsible for the removal of this river junk?

Is it the council or the Environment Agency, or both?

Surely fines should be applied to the owner for every day they are not removed.

失败,他们应该被移除和所有者charged for removal.

Construction companies and farmers (water companies excluded) are fined heavily by the Environment Agency if they pollute the land and even more so if they pollute the water course.

Most of these boats sunk with their engines attached including leaking fuel oils.

I suspect this will get worse as anyone wanting to get rid of an old boat will know just where to dump it.

杰米·宾汉

Maidenhead

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Braywick Park is not big enough for stadium

There has been much written over recent weeks about Maidenhead United Football Club being re-located onto Braywick Park.

Braywick Park is not the ideal location as it has mainly leisure uses for residents of Maidenhead.

It has previously been reported that Maidenhead United Football Club requires a stadium, larger than the current site, which will consume a huge amount of space within the park.

They have already agreed to purchase a piece of land in the northern part of the site for £460,000 in 2022 and are looking for a 999 year lease from the council.

Braywick Park is essentially a greenbelt site that is home to other leisure uses and has provided a new replacement leisure centre recently.

However, a new football stadium at this location will be too much development on the site.

We have also seen elsewhere, that if clubs later run into financial difficulties, the local area has to put up with a ‘white elephant’ building.

I spoke with Cllr Leo Walters recently in hospital and both of us feel that this scale of development will be too much for Braywick Park, and other locations should be considered.

Hopefully, the council will be mindful when they make this decision that they give serious consideration to the level of impact on the local community.

Cllr DEREK WILSON

Parish councillor for Bray

Cllr LEO WALTERS

Conservative ward councillor for Bray

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Embarrassed by poor upkeep of our town

Listening to this week’s news, the chief of M&S commented on Oxford Street.

I can only imagine his views on Maidenhead.

The streets, apart from the town centre, are a disgrace – bins overflowing, hedges and verges overgrown.

On Castle Hill, briars are growing out on to footpath and there is a danger of serious injury.

When hedges are eventually cut it is not done professionally and whoever is responsible for managing this needs replacing.

The grass has been cut in various areas, but again is not acceptable.

Grass is left on streets and when it rains is washed into drains, which then become blocked.

I have reported this to RBWM and our local councillor, but nothing is done.

I really don't know why we pay rates and I would support withholding payment until we get a competent management in place.

I love living in Maidenhead, but very embarrassed how it looks at present.

GERRY MURRAY

Castle Hill

Maidenhead

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Seeing through a lie or a self-serving stance

Those of us who find time to fight our corner by writing to local newspapers will tend to be either approaching state pension age or to have reached it, generally enjoying either retirement or semi retirement from paid work.

The term declining elderly describes the subsection of society whose remaining years on earth are statistically fewer (thus our numbers are in decline).

Finding that disparaging (Viewpoint, July 14) perhaps displays an inability to face facts, a characteristic of the shrinking number of Brexit supporters.

During that seven years of slow decline for the UK, we’ve witnessed a terrifying rise in geopolitical tensions as Vladimir Putin (a big fan of Brexit) has flexed Russian muscles while another authoritarian, Xi of China, watches and waits.

There is a Cookham resident who was a member of James Goldsmith’s Referendum Party.

She distributed the party’s leaflets in Cookham in the run up to the 1997 general election and has been a Eurosceptic for decades.

Naturally she voted Leave in the 2016 referendum.

After her euphoria at the UK leaving the EU in 2020, today she announced that rejoining is essential as the UK is no longer able to stand alone, either financially or geopolitically.

She realises that she has been lied to, by the likes of Goldsmith, Farage, Boris Johnson, Jacob Rees-Mogg, The Telegraph, her newspaper of choice, and so many other mendacious meddlers.

If this person, who will be 90 this year, can recognise how bad Brexit is for Britain, there is surely hope that the disastrous decision will be overturned in the not too distant future.

JAMES AIDAN

Sutton Road

Cookham