Letters
Do what I do with rubbish – deliver it back
Your readers might like to see how Wincanton’s KFC is contributing to the despoliation of our countryside. Photo taken on 1 February in an otherwise genteel seating area just off Shaftesbury Lane. There were also bottles and large amounts of paper. The crassly thoughtless consumers of the KFC products in this packaging must have discarded all the cardboard, plus bottles and some half-consumed contents, late at night on Sunday 31 January. When I stopped to clear up the mess on seeing it the next morning, my faith in human nature was restored by another passing motorist, a young employee of Morrisons who immediately offered to help in the clear up, and produced a Morrisons bag from his boot, into which – both wearing gloves – we stuffed the detritus. Well done indeed to him! Thinking of the no doubt griefstricken employees of Wincanton KFC, who were presumably wondering what might have happened to their valued branded packaging, I hastened to put them out of their misery on 2 February. I drove to their outlet and, having first shown the photo of the KFCdecorated roadside site to the employee behind the till, I left him the bulging plastic bag, halfspilling it onto his counter, while expressing the hope that he should “enjoy” it, in the accepted modern parlance. These fast food outlets (McDonald’s is about to open on the same site as KFC) should charge deposits on their food containers to encourage their 74
Cartoon by Lyndon Wall justsocaricatures.co.uk
return. And I encourage others to follow my example and take all identifiable litter back to the originators. Perhaps eventually, this might get through to the unthinking people who simply throw away litter all over our roadsides. Hugh Davies Cucklington n I was really pleased to read your article in the BVM on the garages along the A30. Recently whilst reminiscing I counted that there used to be eight filling stations in Sherborne and now only one, Young’s, which is slightly puzzling as there must be far more cars on the road today compared with the 1950s. To this day we still say let’s go and fill up at Jack Young’s. I remember my father calling at Deweys in Newland and Bill Dewey coming out to serve us and nearly always wearing his taxi ‘uniform’ including peaked cap. They also ran big black
taxis and a black Mariah as it was called. I’ve now started on pubs, not visiting, counting how many have gone. Many thanks again. Margaret Read Can anyone help Margaret identify pubs of Sherborne’s past? Email newsdesk@ blackmorevale.net n Dear BVM, congratulations on the launch of the e-edition of your magazine. For those of us who grew up in North Dorset, but now live in exile, it is an ideal way to keep in touch with local comings and goings (although of course nothing will ever compare to the experience of picking up a paper copy from your Stalbridge office on a Friday lunchtime and poring over the small ads in the Bird in Hand with a pint or two of guest ale). I am intrigued to know where all the dogs have gone. When I was a lad, growing up just outside
Stalbridge, the magazine was full of farm dogs for sale (a large proportion of which had been sired by the neighbouring sheep farmer’s collies). I remember that when my parents had dogs to dispose of (inevitably following a visit from the sheep farmer’s itinerant collies) they would always charge a fee – ten or twenty pounds – partly to recoup the expenses of providing the puppies with food and board, but mainly to try to ensure that buyers would take their responsibilities as dog owners seriously. Where are the ads for farm bred puppies and kittens? Have the rules and regulations changed? A lot has been written about the demand for pets during lockdown, but this trend predates the pandemic. You can spend silly money on a pure bred animal, or a trendy new hybrid (a labrapoo, say, or a cockerdor), but what has happened to all the humble, farm-bred mongrels and kittens? Keep up the good work! Best wishes, Ben Rew, Faversham, Kent NB: If you too are ‘in exile’ you can sign up to be posted a real live mag! Go to Blackmorevale.net/subscribe n Staff and volunteers at Citizens Advice Dorset hear stories every day of families whose lives have been turned upside down by this pandemic. Some had never needed support from the benefits system before, while others were already struggling to get by before covid struck. In total we’ve given over 2,500 people one-to-one advice on Universal Credit since the first lockdown in March. 64% people seeking our support on benefits used our services for the very first time. We know that the government’s £20-a-week boost to the Universal Credit at the start of the pandemic often made the
