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Impressed at repairs

10:00am Friday 17th May 2013

MAY I say thank you to the county council and their contractors for the wonderful job they have made of the approach road to the Harlow Centre in Old Marston, Oxford. Not only have they filled in the potholes, they have resurfaced almost the entire length of this single lane road. I, and I dare say many others, informed them of the state of the road earlier in the year. The entire surface was uneven due to the constant patching over many years and there were three potholes which were getting so big that when it rained one could almost have a bath in them. The delay was probably due to who should pay for it. Although the county owns the road, the guy I spoke to told me that it didn’t come under highways and that the centre, like all schools, should pay for their repairs to approach roads out of their own budgets. Anyway, it’s been done and what a great job.

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Learn Bullfinch lessons

10:00am Friday 17th May 2013

WITH regard to the current publicity concerning the tragic grooming of vulnerable young girls in Oxford, I should like to make the following comments. Firstly, as witnessed by the catalogue of high-profile cases, the abuse of vulnerable children and young people is not limited to any one community or culture. Secondly, until the cutting back on funding for social provision is stemmed, those most vulnerable will continue to go to the wall. Thirdly, until the Government begins to really listen to, and care for, in the most holistic sense of the word, the young people, male and female, who are the most damaged and challenging members of our society, nothing will change. The situation is an ongoing one, where too little is done on a daily and long-term basis to meaningfully engage with those in institutionalised care. These children and young people have, over the years, been stigmatised, cynically sent to out-of-county placements and blamed for their all-too-often understandable behavioural problems. Root and branch this has to change, if we are to learn anything. The first step could be for the carers of these young people, rather than being told to ring the police when a crisis occurs, which instantly criminalises the disturbed teenager, to instead be referred to a newly-created intervention team, who would, as happens in the Scandinavian model, intervene and support without criminalising. This is the time for public debate and a time for finding long-term, positive solutions.

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MPs and expenses

10:00am Friday 17th May 2013

ISN’T it a hard and cruel world when our MPs want a pay rise and increased expenses? In common with a lot of readers, I wish I could get a pint for £2.61p and had a subsidised canteen.

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Why single oit police?

10:00am Friday 17th May 2013

It astounded me how Scotland Yard and the National Police Commissioner could say such things as anyone who kills a police officer should never get out of jail. I agree wholeheartedly that that is the dream and the ideal, but my point refers specifically to why it should only be subjected to killers of police. Surely a security guard who works at a shop and therefore safeguards people, who is held up at gunpoint and gets shot dead is equal to a policeman or woman. And how about a restaurant manager trying to serve the people, virtually on bended knee, a decent meal, who gets shot because a person comes in to hold up the restaurant? Either say all murderers should be locked up until they die...or save money and put them down. We do it to animals. When a dog bites someone it is often put down, so why must we taxpayers pay for people who have taken life and yet spend their lives in seclusion and even luxury that we pay in to?

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Standards are sliping

10:00am Friday 17th May 2013

xford’s politicians’ standards has dissolved democracy and is leaving a lasting, lamentable legacy for our children. There appears to be no backbone in councillors who believe it is acceptable for wealthy developers to deliver battery chicken-style accommodation plans.

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Rose-tinted spectacles

10:00am Friday 17th May 2013

IT NEVER ceases to amaze me when Premiership managers come on to the TV to back a player after committing a bad foul, giving away a penalty, or whatever offence may have been spotted by the referee. One of the most notorious cases was the Wigan player Callum McManaman’s recent notorious and horrendous tackle. Now we see a Stoke City player quite correctly sent off for two cautionable offences, but the manager Tony ‘the moaner’ Pulis would have none of it. It was the referee who “ruined the game for us”, not his player for making two poor challenges and consequently showing poor judgment. Then we have Harry Redknapp, oh how we all love Harry, but he couldn’t see why his defender, busy trying to exchange shirts in the penalty area, gave away a spot-kick. A “poor decision, really harsh”, he said. The defender should have tried swapping shirts after the game, no penalty can be awarded then! At least the above examples were shown by the ‘expert’ pundits and all supported excellent refereeing decisions. Don’t these characters realise what complete fools they look to anyone watching, except the particular supporters of the teams involved, of course. Rose-tinted spectacles and all that. TIM W. SIRET Millmoor Crescent Eynsham

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Promise to the people

10:00am Friday 17th May 2013

WE the undersigned Conservative candidates would like to thank those who voted for us in the county council election.

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Live up to pledge

4:20pm Thursday 16th May 2013

CONGRATULATIONS to Melinda Tilley for having her cabinet brief extended (Meet the New County Cabinet, May 15).

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A relocated police tzar would be ‘good value’

10:00am Thursday 16th May 2013

SO, Anthony Stansfeld thinks that, at £85,000 per annum plus expenses, he’s “extremely good value for money”. “If I could hire myself I would charge a lot more”, he says.

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Concerns over village

10:00am Thursday 16th May 2013

IN REGARDS to Alan Spence’s letter (Viewpoints, May 10), having been born in the village of Old Marston many moons ago, I can remember when we were under control of the Bullingdon Rural District Council before it later became South Oxfordshire DC.

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Whitewashes in the NHS

10:00am Thursday 16th May 2013

THERE are hundreds of cases of surgical negligence in this country each year regarding interventions involving the wrong organ – or even person – foreign objects remaining inside patients, feeding tubes being inserted into lungs, and the like.

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On the spot

10:00am Thursday 16th May 2013

How council spokesman, Marcus Mabberley, can say: ‘The county council remains committed to ensuring that Bury Knowle Library, Headington, is as accessible as possible to all users’, when it is not, is beyond understanding.

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