Letters
St Mary’s purchase is an excellent decision Your correspondent Mr Jeremy Bloomfield (Letters, March 5) is very damning of Dorset Council’s rationale in acquiring St Mary’s School, Shaftesbury. I would urge Mr Bloomfield and others who harbour similar doubts about the council’s investment to think about their key aim of improving the provision of education within the county for young people with special educational needs. There is a fast growing number of children who for diverse reasons cannot cope in mainstream education. This is a major social challenge across the whole country. Our own council has acted very progressively in acquiring this superb school to offer a chance for young people with special needs to get as good a start in life as the privileged pupils who enjoyed St Mary’s in previous years. Why shouldn’t disadvantaged young people have the best? I think this is a terrific move by the council, and St Mary’s is a school of which all Dorset rate payers can be very proud. Stuart Jones Iwerne Minster n We are grateful to Simon Hoare MP for support after the very distressing experience of having found ourselves erroneously thinking we had sold our property, and therefore committing ourselves to an offer elsewhere, with our buyers then ‘pulling out’. This has left us with not only a tremendous amount of heartache and anxiety but also with the fact that we have let others down through no fault of our own. The buying and selling of houses here in England is fraught with peril – with which Simon Hoare agreed, stating “the system is not fit for purpose” where seemingly would-be buyers (and perhaps vendors too} can and often do 32
be English now...” John Longley Tisbury
Cartoon by Lyndon Wall justsocaricatures.co.uk
pull out on the flimsiest of pretexts without any thought to the expense or any compensation already paid out to solicitors etc. The estate agents are equally frustrated and upset on our behalf – they are doing their best under very difficult circumstances. We have lived all over the world and in other countries, an offer is legally binding and a deposit paid, whereafter if either party defaults, quite rightly the deposit is forfeited. We have been told everyone complains about the system, but nobody does anything about it. Well people, it is time to change this nefarious practice and have the law changed, which would benefit everyone concerned. Distressed of Shaftesbury. n I am afraid that I cannot help Dora in her search for information (NBV, March 5) but those of us who grew up in the area after the last war remember
the camp well. Our farmhouse in West Knoyle had a downstairs room known as the ‘prisoners’ room’ as two Germans were billeted there to work on the farm. Escape was the last thing on their minds. Gangs of prisoners were also taken to specific tasks in the neighbourhood They were content just to have a chance to leave the confines of the camp. There were also Poles and Lithuanians at the camp after the war. They were known as DPs, Displaced Persons unable to return home as the Iron Curtain had overrun their countries. These men worked mainly in the building trade and on the farms. Their contribution to the workforce was huge. On our farm we were fortunate to employ one. He remained with us until near retirement. My father offered for him to visit Lithuania when the country eventually opened up and I remember his reply to this day. “Thank your father, John, but I
n Andrew Murrison (March 5) clearly does not like energyfrom-waste – at least not on his patch. But he offers no alternative for disposing of nonrecyclable plastics. The options appear to be landfill or export to third-world countries, neither of which we would wish to encourage. The environment debate is bedevilled by those who engage in tunnel vision about one aspect while ignoring the potential conflict with other aspects. Of course, we should be concerned about CO2 emissions, but waste plastic is also one of the worst problems. Indeed we want incinerators to be run to high standards, but surely it is better to generate some return from disposing of waste rather than just burying it. Mike Keatinge Sherborne n Before anyone imposes more 20mph limits in Dorset, would someone please ensure the existing limits are enforced. Bath Road in Sturminster Newton has nine intersections, and there is no continuous stretch of pavement either side of the road between the High School and the town, so pedestrians have to cross the road at some point before they reach the traffic lights and pedestrian crossing. Numerous cars are parked in the road often obstructing the view of oncoming traffic from drivers coming out of any of the side roads or their own driveways.I would guess at least half the vehicles exceed the speed limit, some by quite a margin. Would whoever is responsible please either install a camera or arrange occasional police checks. Pip Taylor
