Sins of the flesh

Sins of the flesh

SIR – Helen Wills’ letter (Herts Advertiser, July 15) is the latest of many complaining about flies in bins and the resulting hoards of maggots. At this time of year the stink from bins full of decaying flesh will certainly turn anyone’s stomach but it is all completely unnecessary.

Read the refuse-collection information in full and you will see that there is no need to keep food waste hanging about for two weeks so that flies can infest it and breed. When it is green-bin week, food waste should be wrapped in newspaper and put in your green bin. You can therefore dispose of it weekly, not fortnightly in the black bin as nearly everybody seems to believe – hence the dreadful stench everywhere.

I’d like to add that, being a vegan household, we have no meat waste and our food waste is zero anyway as I cook what we can eat, use what leftovers there are and put the peelings in our compost bin. Our rubbish output is so little that we don’t even have a wheelie bin (such an unattractive object)!

Please then, the meat-eaters of this city, get yourselves sorted! Then all us sensitive-nosed veggie types will be able to stroll the streets without being sickened by what is, basically, the stench of rotting corpse!

LORRAINE TONKIN,

Ladies Grove,

St Albans.

Verging on the ridiculous

SIR – In recent years there have been increased problems when visiting Verulamium Park which I feel St Albans district council need to address.

Firstly I, like others in your newspaper, do not condone the parking of vehicles on the grass verges along Bluehouse Hill. This is unacceptable, if not illegal. However, I do have sympathy for motorists who may have travelled long distances or even local folk wishing to visit the museum, Cathedral or attend functions and activities etc., who find there is insufficient car parking facilities.

This has been an ongoing problem for as long as I can recall. To double the size of the existing car park would not encroach that much on the park itself. There is a flat area between the existing car park and the rear of the Inn on the Park which could be used with little detriment to the main park if it was properly surfaced.

The cost incurred would soon be recouped when visitors pay to use this. Whereas by parking on the grass verges, they pay nothing, get in free and if this habit is allowed to continue the grass verges will become unsightly due to damage not only the kerbs but to the grass verges themselves, thus incurring further cost in rectifying this.

St Albans City is popular with not only local folk and schools alike but also visitors from many counties who make special trips to visit this historical landmark.

Also, apart from the fact that there was already a water supply to the original paddling pool, I don’t understand why the council built that dreadful water splash, situating it adjacent to the public footpath thus inflicting the constant squealing of children, deafening all those who venture for a peaceful stroll around the park and lakes. There are no changing facilities nor toilets available nearby. The nearest toilets being in the car park which means wet children paddle through the Inn on the Park restaurant close by to use their facilities which I feel is unacceptable.

The Inn on the Park restaurant was always a welcome break. To relax in this quiet restaurant for morning coffee, lunch or afternoon tea was a welcome respite. Instead it is now more often than not full up with mothers, their buggies and offspring who appear to regularly meet up, taking over the place, and sadly at times it becomes more like a cr�che.

NAME AND ADDRESS SUPPLIED

Alloting the blame

Sir – Re: Westfield Allotment sell off.

The sole reason consistently put forward by Harpenden Town Council for closing this site has been that ‘there was no demand placed upon the land for allotment need’.

However, since April 2010, the council has received nearly 20 applications from local residents for allotments on the Westfield site. Indeed, at a recently held meeting to discuss the matter the council was asked whether they could confirm that there is now a clear demand for allotments in the Westfield area. In reply, the Town Clerk agreed that this was the case.

Hooray! So abandonment of sell off? Pressure taken off local residents? Re-opening of site for happy veggie growers? Restoration of historic Common?

Sadly, no. In an astonishing ‘Hello Mr. Pot, meet Mr. Kettle’ moment, bemused residents were informed that though the council does not really want to see even more houses built in Harpenden, and local communities upset, they have to push on with the sale of the land to developers to avoid being ‘leaned on’ and ‘pressurised’ by St Albans District Council!

Excuse me ?

Seriously, I feel as if I am losing my sense of reality. Must be this new irony-rich diet.

Carol Hedges

51 Coldharbour Lane, Harpenden

Message from Kilimanjaro

SIR – Thank you so very much for including in your paper of July 15 an article about my school in Mawenzi and our desperate need for help to teach sciences and maths.

My school which is in Moshi in northern Tanzania and about 30 minutes from Kilamanjaro airport is in a wonderful part of Tanzania. It looks out over Mount Kilimanjaro itself and is about two hours from the game parks. But despite this fantastic location we just cannot obtain enough teachers to teach sciences. Those who are skilled go into business where they can earn so much more than the Governments pays teachers.

My school looks after 1,600 young people from 13 to 20, both boys and girls. We are able to get teachers for the arts but have very few to teach maths and sciences – that means that many capable young people are not able to fulfil their potential.

I do hope that readers of your wonderful paper can see the potential and personal satisfaction they can get from volunteering to help my students. The volunteer may be a retired teacher or scientist or possibly a graduate who cannot find a satisfactory job in the present economic climate. What a wonderful addition it will be for their CV to be able to say how they have helped to fulfil the lives of hundreds of young Tanzanians.

If your readers want more information they can contact me in Tanzania preferably by text message or via Chris or Marion Oxley at Lesmar@btconnect.com

Thanks again.

Marcia Mshana

Head Teacher, Mawenzi S.S, PO Box 478, Moshi, Kilamanjaro, Tanzania, tel: +255784 453344

Fair comment

SIR – A Cambridge graduate is jailed for three and half years for stealing �40,000 worth of horticultural books (Daily Telegraph, July 21, 2010). Robert Dales, the driver of a car which caused an accident in which a girl died was sentenced to eight months ONLY in a young offenders institute (Herts Advertiser, July 22). So a young girl’s life is worth less than the theft of books?

I am not a relative of the bereaved family but I ask myself where is the justice in this sentencing.

NAME AND ADDRESS

SUPPLIED.

SIR – Incredulous, in my opinion, is just one description of the appallingly woeful misjudgment by Her Honour Judge Catterson in the case of the unremorseful boy racer motorist who so savagley took the life of a dearly cherished young girl by his selfish, arrogant and irresponsible driving whilst on bail for an almost identical offence (fortunately for him, not fatal) some short time previously.

He can count himself extremely fortunate to come up before a judge whose judgement is so seriously out of touch with the realities of life that in next to no time (after a miniscule four-year ban) he will be free to carry on where he left off.

But what I find completely incomprehensible and a serious dereliction of duty is in the comment of Judge Catterson that she would “impose the shortest sentence in her power” on what she believed to be “a very young twenty year old”. Had she imposed a sentence appropriate to the crime, such as a sustantial term of imprisonment and a life-time driving ban then she might well have helped this “vulnerable young man” to come of age somewhat more quickly.

She might make one further contribution to society – that is to consider her position as a judge and perhaps agree with many of your readers that the judiciary might be better served without any further contribution she might make.

Philip Webster

Townsend Drive, St Albans

Dogged support

SIR – I would like to respond to S. Graham’s letter (Herts Advertiser, July 23). Fetes and fairs, dog shows and horse shows in the city centre, around Verulamium Lake, are not alive and well.

We tried to get to the dog show at Highfield Park last year and couldn’t get there because the one taxi that took dogs that day stopped work at midday to take his dog to the show. I could not take my mother, who is in a wheelchair, and my dog on a bus because it is physically impossible and the bus does not go near Highfield Park. Also we cannot go down the Alban Way because pushing a wheelchair is not easy.

We need our inner city parks used for dog shows, both professional and companion, horse shows, fairs and fetes because paying for taxis to go to these shows costs the earth. We cannot afford to go on the outskirts of town for this reason.

I am not saying there are no Christmas markets – there are – what I am saying is there are no Christmas fetes. People like myself think St Albans is dead. I have heard people say this and it has been said by different people to me.

MISS M. G. FOSTER,

Dalton Street, St Albans.