Viewpoint: Housing decisions and padel tennis plans

Email Viewpoint letters tojamesp@baylismedia.co.ukor write to Viewpoint, Newspaper House, 48 Bell Street, Maidenhead, SL61HX.

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Destruction charges on despite political change

I am dismayed to read that the controversial Borough Local Plan AL13 has been given the go ahead for development despite councillors still having multiple questions concerning missing ecological information, as well as sewerage not being able to cope, traffic difficulties in Kimbers Lane with its single access/entrance and a dead end and the lack of a setting study that could help preserve prehistoric finds in the area and avoid heritage loss.

What concerns me is that the council was made aware of the way the little wood in Kimbers Lane, home to a variety of protected species, was hastily over the course of less than a week, completely destroyed by heavy machinery.

It was done without consent to make way for development yet there has been no mention of this.

Adrian Waite admitted he found it tiresome to delay the vote until councillors had their questions answered and a vote to defer came to a tie.

It was then up to the chair Joshua Reynolds Lib Dem Furze Platt who decided against deferring the vote.

This is very disappointing considering the years we have lived through a majority Conservative council who have done just as they pleased with Maidenhead, passing developments which have caused such a loss of wildlife habitats.

I am totally disillusioned that a Lib Dem has given the go ahead to develop this sensitive, ecologically fragile site. We expected a change from the Lib Dems.

I suppose it is no surprise though, after all it was the Conservative/Lib Dem coalition that voted in the cruel and disastrous Badger Cull.

It seems there is little difference between the Conservatives and the Lib Dems.

BARBARA BROWN

Lyndhurst Avenue

Cookham Rise

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Padel tennis club vs Magpies’ application

I will watch with interest the decision on the Padel Tennis application to convert the former SportsAble centre to a tennis centre.

Your article in the Advertiser says that with the planning application they will need external tennis courts.

If this application is approved, then I ask what is the difference between that and the application for Maidenhead United's application to construct a football pitch on greenbelt land? Land which is rightly devoted to sports facilities.

Will the rugby club object to that also?

I am glad to see that the football club is taking things further following the appalling treatment they have received from RBWM by ‘ratting’ on a contract that they had with the former administration.

In the past there was a principle that ‘my word is my bond’. What has happened to principles these days?

JON REEKIE

Oldacres

Maidenhead

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Positive actions speak louder than words

Readers may remember that two weeks ago you published a letter from me about an extraordinary meeting to be held last Friday at Holyport War Memorial Hall to discuss the opportunity for Holyport Fair to return to the Green next year.

This public meeting was held following an outcry earlier in the year both on social media and in this paper over the trustees’ decision to hold the 2023 event in the grounds of Holyport War Memorial Hall.

I realise it was a Friday night but with the passion and anger that was expressed earlier this year I expected a good turnout.

However, only 19 people attended and of those 10 were trustees or their partners. Not one of the very vocal residents who complained this year were present.

However, the good news is that one person, who has all the necessary skills, has agreed to be the coordinator.

This is the key role in planning the event and carrying out all the necessary work behind the scenes to make next year’s Holyport Fair a resounding success and most importantly (I hope) on the Green.

这将是好的,如果非常直言不讳的评论家们不会w queue up to help in the run up and most importantly on the day itself. I will leave the coordinator time to do the initial planning before we announce who it is.

Remember Holyport Fair, like every other event in the borough, only exists because of the residents who do all the hard work behind the scenes.

大卫抓住

Trustee, Holyport War Memorial Hall

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Maybe truth lacks the drama of devastation

David Howells suggests that readers should stop sending in letters about the EU and focus on local issues (Viewpoint, October 20).

Fair enough, save that his proposed armistice is one sided: it is only ‘tedious’ letters from ‘Brexit cheerleaders’ that get his goat, not rambling screeds from others who wish to rejoin the EU.

Mr Howells goes on to make the rather weird claim that the UK has decided to ‘declare a trade war on itself’.

For UK producers their biggest market is the UK home market, 63 per cent of GDP, and there is no trade war.

Nor are we in a trade war with the EU, which takes about 15 per cent of our production, ignoring some distortions, or with the other countries around the world which take about 22 per cent.

We have a special trade deal with the EU which adds very little to our economy, compared to having no special trade deal and defaulting to the basic terms of the World Trade Organisation.

While we have no special trade deal with the USA but still manage to export about seven per cent of our national output to them, and a special trade deal would be of trivial value to both sides.

The core point to understand is that global trade has been so extensively liberalised that the previous advantages of a customs union like the Common Market have been greatly diminished.

Back in 1947 when negotiations started for the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade the average tariff around the world was about 22 per cent, but now it is down to only a few per cent.

Furthermore we also know that according to the EU itself the ‘frictionless’ trade allowed by the EU Single Market is worth only an additional two per cent of GDP across the member states.

All very tedious, I agree; and how much easier it is to conjure up false images of economic devastation.

Dr D R COOPER

Belmont Park Avenue

Maidenhead

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Aid needed quickly to two natural disasters

Last month we woke to news of a powerful earthquake hitting the Atlas Mountains in Morocco. A few days later, Storm Daniel caused widespread flooding across northeast Libya.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced from their homes.

At the international disaster relief charity, ShelterBox, we are supporting people affected by each of these disasters.

We are distributing aid to around 20 mountain communities. Alongside our partner Association Le Grand Atlas, Rotary in Morocco, and volunteers from local villages, we’re distributing tents, thermal blankets, solar lights, and kitchen sets to communities at high altitudes whose homes have been damaged or reduced to rubble.

In Libya, entire neighbourhoods have been swept away by torrents of water. Thousands of people are without the basics needed to survive like shelter and clean water.

Access to Libya for foreign nationals is challenging so we’ve partnered with ACTED to get aid to people who need it as quickly as we can. We’re providing a grant to our partner for winter clothing, thermal blankets, and heaters.

This aid may seem modest, but it can make a huge difference.

Our responses in Morocco and Libya wouldn’t be possible without our supporters, whose donations help us be ready for the next disaster.

ALICE JEFFERSON

Head of Emergency Responses

ShelterBox