'Talk to us about old pool site'

SIR - Good to see that Councillor Feeney has once again raised the profile of the long awaited decision on the site of the old swimming pool on Sansome Walk.

It is sad however that he did not think to consult the Arboretum Residents Association about his latest plans.

The best decisions are often those made in consultation with local residents, the people who know the area best and whose daily lives are affected by decisions made by politicians.

As an experienced councillor, Mr Feeney will be well aware that residents’ car parking which he promises in tandem with the car park suggestion is a County Council matter over which he has no control.

He will also no doubt be aware that the only vehicle access to the site is via Chestnut St and therefore if the area became a car park, the amount of traffic it would attract would be a daily blight on the lives of all those people who live on a narrow one way street.

The ARA has previously invited Cllr Feeney and other members of his party to their meetings in order to discuss their proposals but this has met with a less than positive response. However I am happy to extend that invitation once again.

Our AGM will be held on the 4th July, where the fate of the site, along with residents parking will, no doubt, be the main topics for discussion.

Mrs Jane Moorhouse

Chair of Arboretum Residents Association

'Know laws on cycling'

 SIR - An injury incident outside our office in Sansome Walk involving a cyclist and a car has caused me to write to Richard Udall suggesting

that the County Council would be better advised dealing with the main business of ensuring the safe use of the highway in the City than spending on vanity projects such as ‘Boris Bikes’ as recently reported in WN.

In this part of the City at least, there is clearly a problem with significant numbers  of cyclists (a) riding on the carriageway against the direction of traffic (b)  riding on pavements to avoid being in conflict with the direction of traffic. 

The former causes risks to road users (whether two or four wheels) the latter causes risks to pedestrians on what are, here, busy and narrow pavements.

This has been a cause of concern for some time. 

 It is quite clear that most of those cyclists (some of whom come from countries which may have different rules) have no awareness of their responsibilities in this respect.

An injury incident this morning outside our office door (ambulance and three police vehicles) could have been avoided had there been some signage/education and just a little enforcement rather than laissez-faire.

I am disheartened to discover that the reason there has been no enforcement against the unlawful riding of cycles the wrong way up one-way streets and on the narrow pavements in this part of Worcester is not lack of resources (three police vehicles arrived this morning to deal with the accident) but ignorance of the law.

An officer admitted to me this morning that he did not know whether cycling the ‘wrong way’ on the road or on a pavement was lawful or unlawful. 

 I understood established law deems a cycle is a ‘carraige’ which should be on the ‘carraigeway’ not the footway - unless of course there are signs to the contrary which there aren’t round here.

But if the Police don’t know that what chance do any of us have – pedestrians and motorists be warned!

Andrew Boughton

Worcester

'The end of nations?'

SIR - In 1938 a group of German bureaucrats began to develop their own ideas with a draft document on how Europe should be governed.  

They held a conference in Berlin on how they were going to rule Europe after the final victory.  The name of the meeting was Europaische WirtschaftsGemeinsschaft  (EWG), the European EconomicCommunity or EEC.  This was destined to become used as the first draft of the European Union in 1964.  

A document known as the Red House report  is a detailed account of a secret meeting where Nazi officials ordered an elite group of German industrialists to plan for Germany’s post-war recovery, to prepare for the Nazis  to return to power and work for a “strong German empire”.

 Supranationalism was born;  Germany and France were the drivers behind the European Coal and Steel Community  (ESCC), the precursor to the EU.

In 1957 six members of the ECSC signed the Treaty of Rome setting up the EEC.  It liberalised trade and established powerful supranational institutions such as the European Parliament and the Commission.

 The Red House Report is described as a bridge from a sunny present to a dark past. Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s propagandas chief  once said:  “In 50 years’  time nobody will think of nation states”.

Wendy Hands

Upton-upon-Severn

'Animal magic'

SIR - Seeing your picture of horses ploughing reminds me of when our grandson Sam, aged six, and I were watching a tractor ploughing the field next door.

I said to him ‘when I was your age, horses used to do the ploughing’. He looked puzzled for a while, then said, ‘how could a horse drive a tractor?’

Emerson Fryer

Bodenham