Sir - After reading your article ‘Teen taunted after her joke letter to Santa’ on December 18 I was compelled to email in.
This girl seems to represent the selfishness of Christmas. Her vindictive letter, although a joke, spoils the fun of children genuinely writing to Santa.
Most children write these letters to experience the magic of Christmas, along with awaiting the surprise of what Santa may have brought them when they wake up. They would be grateful for it too.
Even though just a joke, she comes across as a very spoilt little girl who sees Christmas as just getting presents rather than what it truly means: friends and family, or for those who are Christian, a time to celebrate the birth of Jesus. A lot of children don’t get presents due to financial constraints.
Perhaps instead of the shallow, expensive things she’s asked for, maybe she should instead be given humble pie and a lesson in how to behave properly and step back to see how lucky she really is, especially since she has a mother who, it seems, cares about her deeply, something a lot of children would probably write for!
Verity Armstrong
Howes Drive, Marston Moretaine
Mother, daughter and former writer to Santa!
An unhappy reindeer
Sir - My name is Rudolph the red nose reindeer. I am usually a very happy bubbly little reindeer but thanks to a certain girl in last week’s Bedforshire on Sunday, I am not.
You can imagine my shock and horror to read she wanted to kill my owner and cook my family and dish them up for dinner to the homeless people, if she didn’t get her presents.
Now that really isn’t in the spirit of Christmas is it? I would just like to say I am so traumatised by this I have been signed off sick and cannot fly the sleigh for Santa, so imagine all those sad faces of good boys and girls on Christmas morning when they have no presents to open and I must say there are thousands upon thousands who still believe in the magic of Christmas.
I hope she will be put on the naughty list for a very long time which is time she should use to think about how hurtful she was with the things she said.
I would like to wish everyone a wonderful Christmas and a fantastic New Year.
Love to all, Rudolph Reindeer
You can’t complain
Sir - In today’s society where we constantly hear of stabbings, shootings and endless threats of violence how dare the mother and daughter on last Sunday’s front page complain about being hounded by all and sundry? To my mind they deserve all the hustle they get.
They should crawl under the nearest stone and keep quiet. Do not destroy youngsters’ Christmas dreams with such inflammatory talk.
Happy Christmas one and all.
Malcolm Barrett
Alicante, Spain
Don’t put safety at risk
Sir - As a teacher in a local school, I wish to raise my concerns on behalf of my colleagues, our pupils and their parents over a cut to proposed support from Bedford Borough Council for schools, that will be nothing more than an abdication of responsibility.
In Olympic year, at a time when the health of young people is apparently a priority, it is criminal that PE, sport and outdoor education is one subject that has been removed from the support that the LA has in place to support schools.
PE is a compulsory subject in schools, and is the most dangerous, using the most risky resources, such as trampolines and climbing walls.
We as teachers have always benefitted from the support of an expert working for the LA, who has been our safety net, making sure we have the most up-to-date guidance, the correct training, and annual equipment checks.
If he is not there, and the LA has basically suggested that it feels these things are not important, who will be there to pick up the pieces when things go wrong? By removing this support, the health and safety of children is being put at risk.
Bob Janssen,
St Andrews Road, Bedford
Why the need for signs?
Sir - Can anyone please tell me the logic behind installing road signs signifying ‘New Road Layout Ahead’ as shown in the photograph on page 3 of Bedfordshire on Sunday’s article on the Cardington development at Shortstown (December 18).
If you care to think about it, drivers who live near, or use the area, will be totally aware of the changes as they will see the roadworks being undertaken and so will know a new road layout will take place when the work is completed.
Those drivers who are totally new to the area (i.e. have not visited before) will not know what the layout was before the roadworks were undertaken so why do they need to be told it is a new layout? These signs are totally superfluous, cost money to make and erect and in my opinion serve no purpose whatsoever in improving road safety.
There is already too much road furniture to distract drivers’ attention without making the situation worse with the addition of such signs.
Roger Prettyman
Canterbury Close, Kempston
Time to get on bikes
Sir - Am I being paranoid but is the latest BoS article to mention cycling (December 18 - New road layout puts drivers in a quandary) obliquely referring to the money spent on cycle infrastructure but this time on on-road cycle lanes.
New Cardington has been planned to be a walkable and cycle friendly neighbourhood and should be a very pleasant place to live when it is completed in a few years time.
I am surprised that people in Shortstown and the new development are worried about complying with the Highway Code Rule 140 (do not drive or park in a cycle lane marked by a broken white line unless it is unavoidable).
Many people in the rest of the borough certainly do not seem to bother with it as they also don’t with Rule 238 (parking on double yellow lines) and Rules 124/125 (exceeding the speed limit), the latter particularly in residential areas.
However in spite of all the obstacles thrown at cyclists, riding a bike for all its known benefits is definitely on the increase in Bedford with rises of eight per cent per year seen over the last four years. With 2012 being the year of the London Olympics where all eyes will be on the GB (Great Britain) Cycling Team what a better time for those who are able to cycle to make the following New Year Resolution: ‘I MUST buy a new bike and start cycling (if necessary after some training) or get that bike out of the shed/garage and (after servicing) start cycling again or cycle more often’.
Cycling Campaign for North Bedfordshire
PJ Blakeman
Dove Road, Bedford
Not a great present
Sir - It is usual for you to report on the inadequacies and ineptitude of health and safety officers, however, on your front page last week, you introduced us to the insensitivity and incompetence of human resource officers.
When such people were called personnel officers, I am sure that they would not have been so inept as to announce to 80 police staff, immediately before Christmas, that half of them would be made redundant after the festivities.
Eighty people, 80 families have been given a miserable Christmas, 40 families unnecessarily. How crass. A two-week wait would not have been a problem but would have improved many people’s Christmas.
The Bedfordshire Police human resource officers responsible, should be made redundant, for their callous and inconsiderate behaviour.
Graham Wright
Castle Road, Bedford
Back to Victorian times
Sir - I was surprised to read of K Sargeant’s disappointment at Bedford’s Victorian Christmas fair not providing the ‘sights, sounds and smells’ of Victorian Christmas, as billed (BoS Letters December 18).
I visited town that weekend and felt that I did indeed witness a genuine representation of the Victorian era, complete with scenes of social deprivation to outrage moral decency, violence and human misery fuelled by the demon alcohol and gutters rife with sewage and disease. That’s the last time I go down to the High Street when the pubs are chucking out.
Jon Askew
Cleeve Abbey, Bedford
Let’s attract shoppers
Sir - Does any town really need Mary Portas to tell them what is needed? There are no two towns alike.
Maybe Bedford should look back at the shops we had 50 years ago.
With so many Tesco and so much out of town shopping there is not much to do, unless you can attract some of these back to town.
Bedford needs to stop spreading out like a spider’s web. We need to bring the poor old bus station up to date, without closing the area, this would also need the surrounding shops to be freshened up. End the town at Greyfriars and go no further down Midland Road. Attract independent greengrocers, fishmongers, and butchers.
While empty shops look dirty and past inexpensive repair nobody is going to want them. Any new business would be encouraged to the town with sweeteners like the first six months half rent or free. There are traders out there, but you have to be the town with the largest carrot to get them. I love Bedford, and the river is an item of beauty to bring in the many visitors which we need. The main problem is if we bring them in where do they park?
Gloria Jakes
Stainmore Road, Bedford
Next leads the way
Sir - Congratulations to Next on a stunning window display in their new location in Bedford. It would not look out of place in Oxford Street! Remembrance of times past when our town was truly beautiful.
Pity then that on Monday afternoon, less than 100 yards away, stood three miserable old market stalls, their depressed traders tempting no-one to buy the tat displayed. We really do have to wake up to what we want and start to use a ‘tasteful’ yardstick if we wish to raise the standard of our dear town.
And that must commence with the hideous gargoyles which appear to land on the rooftops of Debenhams and Bon Marche every Christmas.
Lay them to rest this January and ask the Art College if they would like a commission to design a winter scene which would delight the eye (a Nativity scene would be too much to hope for, I dare say.) I can’t keep wearing the sunglasses and peaked cap every time I traverse Silver Street in December.
T Fisher
Harpenden Close, Bedford
