Fenland Citizen letters – June 3, 2020
Is viable just another word for profit?
Re: Homes get go ahead despite flood fears in May 20’s Fenland Citizen.
I’ve read too much of a certain magazine. In fact I stopped buying it because it is so depressing to continually read of councils and developers and businessmen and conflicts of interest and money being the motive and nothing ever being done about it.
When I read this article by Sarah Cliss I could not but be reminded of what I had read repeatedly in Private Eye.
A scheme is put before the council as mostly an affordable housing scheme. Then it suddenly appears that the scheme has to be rowed back as affordable housing will make the scheme unviable, i.e. not a big enough shedload of money for the developer.
The scheme then commits to making a contribution to the local community by, for example, building infrastructure.
It then transpires that this in turn becomes unaffordable and the contribution is slashed to a silly amount of a few thousand and affordable housing goes out of the window – and the council concerned keeps on agreeing to all of this.
The scheme reported upon in this article is getting the go ahead despite the land being a flood area.
Will the development build the properties in such a way that flooding will do minimal damage (the Tesco store in Cromwell Road seems to have been built this way)?
Probably not as it would make the scheme even less viable (‘viable’ is a euphemism for ‘profitable’).
I fully expect to read in the not too distant future another article in the Citizen describing how this scheme has been revised yet again.
David Silver
Wisbech
Plans for town look so great
I think the plans to develop March look great. The trees and pedestrian area will dramatically improve the atmosphere.
Developing the area by the river is a good idea too. I refer to the news in Fenland Citizen on May 20.
I believe parking should be carefully considered, especially if the current central parking in the middle of Broad Street is removed. It is has been difficult to find a parking space when the fun fair comes to town and takes up the car park behind Iceland.
If the town is to be regenerated and more people encouraged to visit March, the main mode of transport into the town centre is likely to be cars so I think there will need to be more parking space available.
Anthony Mashman
via email
This vanity project will not save town trade
Gentrifying March town centre instead of greedy landlords reducing their rents to entice new business to revive it.
This vanity project to give someone something to do and take credit for will not save the town centre’s retail viability.
This is just a made up idea just to grab £11.3million.
When the non stability of the river embankment is ascertained it will stop the new steps ever happening. Or cost an extra £3.2million overspend on pile driving etc.
Where will the Victorian/Georgian toilets be relocated too? City Road carpark next to the electric substation?
Where will the bus stop shelter go for smoking of weed and cans of lager?
Where will the stanchion point be relocated too for the boat owners?
Has Fenland District Council purchased all those riverside gardens fronting the river?
And will the Watermens’ Club give up their slipway ?
Apparently payments will be made to local shop landlords to slap wood filler in their rotten shop fronts and give them a lick of paint, instead of investment and maintaining their properties properly.
This whole transformation fantasy with no actual financial costings will end up costing £20million.
The reality is that the river frontage will never happen.
Red tarmac will denote the pedestrianised town centre and it will be controlled by entry and parking restriction signage.
No new traders will occupy the newly painted shops as the rents are still too high.
If the council has carried out a feasibility and costing study to justify its bid to win this £11.3million grant then its should be published as public knowledge, unless it’s too commercially confidential to respond to a subject data request.
I look forward to the open day at the library when the council will give us the opportunity to scrutinise its maps, models and plans and ask on the spot questions about this project face to face.
M Burton
Chatteris
If you’re worried, join a trade union
TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady has launched a report, ‘A Better Recovery’, which calls for a National Recovery Council comprised of unions, the Government, and employers at national, regional, and sectoral levels.
At the same time, faced with problems relating to workplace health and safety, thousands of workers have turned to the trade unions for advice, assistance, and general support.
The National Education Union reports that its membership grew by 7,500 over one weekend because of the coronavirus crisis.
The TUC’s online joining page has seen union membership enquiries rise by 300%. Unions like GMB, Unison and Unite are also witnessing a rapid rise in membership.
Many of the proposals in the TUC’s report will be welcomed by workers; a ban on zero-hour contracts and bogus self-employment, and automatic membership of occupational pension schemes, for example.
The Tories may be nodding in the direction of the trade unions today, but for years they have waged outright war on trade union rights.
The TUC proposals come just at the time that a leaked Treasury document was discussing how to make workers pay for the crisis.
Instead of looking to joint work with big business, the TUC should draw up a list of demands on jobs, wages, conditions of service, scrapping the anti-union laws, and restoring public sector funding. In the meantime, workers worried about their health and safety should join a trade union.
John Smithee
Wisbech
If you’re unsure, don’t send them
I don’t have children, so I am not writing this for myself, but, clarity and facts are what I like to deal with, so if I can make it easier for others, I will.
Some parents would have started sending their children back to school this week, and all – hopefully – has gone well.
But some could have sent theirs back and been horrified at what they may have seen in terms of social distancing, and the others have refused to comply with the Government’s SAGE advice and have not sent theirs back at all, and are nervously waiting to see what happens next.
First off, if a parent does not want their child to return just yet, the parent CANNOT be fined. Likewise, if a school deems the risk to be too roulette-like, they cannot be forced to open their gates at this moment in time, regardless what their local authorities tell them.
Let’s be straight, with two being two too many, two children under 15 have sadly died in the UK from coronavirus, and even factoring the inflammatory ‘Kawasaki’ syndrome cases amongst children, they are still seven times more likely to die from an aggressive influenza outbreak, than from COVID-19, according to a study by Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter of the University of Cambridge, in which he estimates the chances of a young child dying from coronavirus is one in 5.3 million.
However, Professor Spiegelhalter could be wrong, because as of the time of writing this there had 269,000 confirmed cases, and two deaths of under 15s, so surely, at this moment the chance is one in 135,000?
But the parents’ concern isn’t so much with their children being infected and dying, it’s more the risk that their asymptomatic child brings the disease home, and spreads it amongst family and friends, especially the grandparents, aunts and uncles, even their own parent that they may not have seen for weeks.
Their families spread coronavirus to their friends and colleagues, and it could lead to a second spike. It must be a worrying time to be a parent wrestling with such a decision.
Personally, I don’t think it will lead to a second spike this summer, but, the problem will be, if COVID-19 is still lingering around when the weather turns cold later on in the year.
Because if it is, there will be the second spike, and and the NHS will be overwhelmed.
A few weeks ago, some said that Boris Johnson’s hopes in the next election – in four years – would be dashed because of his failure to lockdown earlier, then they said his defence of Dominic Cummings would lead to defeat next time around. But, no, the only thing that will count by then will be history. And, how well Boris led us to freedom after World War C.
We have to carry on taking the teeniest steps towards salvation, but must not be hurried by political wrangling. If you’re unsure, don’t send them to school, you will not be fined or punished, and you may even save lives!
Ashley Smith
March
Verses in praise of our carers
The life we lived
The life we lived
But two months ago
Is totally different to the
One we now know
From north to south
East to west
Our angels in NHS
Are doing their best
The angels’ sisters
Are also there
In the form of
Care workers everywhere
On Thursday at 8
We clap and cheer
For all their good work
Throughout the year
We all know the creator
Of heaven and earth
Also we celebrate
The time of his birth
So stay at home
Reflect on our past
Creation
Instead make it last
David Norris
Walsoken
