New Milton Advertiser 23rd Oct 2020

20 · Friday 23rd October 2020

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Letters

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can. This will allow very low volumes of air to pass through the house and reduce pol- lution. In a lot of cases they can be retro-fitted, even by a half-competent DIYer. 4) Last but not least there are air purifiers on the mar- ket that claim to have filters capable of destroying bacte- ria and viruses. These can be researched on line if they are of interest. Everything I have said can be confirmed on the internet should you wish to investigate further. John Walsh, Address supplied Help wildlife by creating habitat SIR – Like Pat Woolley (Let- ters, 18th September), I have noticed that there are not many song birds to be seen in the Forest. I am a self-taught gardener and not a trained conservation- ist, but I would say drought out on the Forest has been a big issue in the last two summers with practically no rain from March to August, when song birds would be trying to raise their young. People have commented on holly dying and seeing no woodlice. I have noticed the worms burrow six inches down on any part of my allotment which I have not watered, and no blackbird could drill through that much rock hard dry soil. It may be that raptors can pick off song birds as the graz- ing line creates an open Forest perfect for their sight line. But I would not change our unique Forest landscape or remove the goshawk. With climate change summer droughts are likely to continue, so I would encourage readers to create a habitat for song birds in their garden and water it. You could plant fruit trees and canes such as apple, pear, plum, cherry, tayberry, rasp- berry and blackberry. Readers could plant ‘bird-friendly’ hedges of wild rose, hawthorn, guelder rose, spindle, hazel and blackthorn which breed caterpillars and provide thorny retreats for sparrows to hide their fledglings. By planting roses and all manner of bulbs, shrubs and perennial herbs and flowers, and using no chemicals, you could attract bees and other pollinators all year. By covering fences and arches with clematis, honeysuckle and pyracantha you could create nesting sites for blackbirds and wrens, while housing sparrows and blue tits in nest boxes. By providing bird baths and a pond for your song birds you could also attract frogs and even grass snakes. Don’t forget to add manure in winter and give your garden a good soaking every week through the summer drought, and then your soil will be full of woodlice and all manner of creepy crawl- ies to feed your blackbirds. Andrea Janssens, Sway My lovely night in the cells SIR – Reading about the closure of the police station in Lymington I was reminded of my visit there as a teenager in the late 1950s. I was at that time living on the Isle of Wight and had visit- ed Hampshire to see a friend. On my return to catch the Yarmouth ferry I was sorry to find that I had missed the last one and I phoned my dad for his advice. He suggested I contact the police force, which I did. They were very helpful and said they could put me up for the night in a prison cell with the door open. I had a good night’s sleep and was woken in the morning with a nice cooked breakfast. I returned home on the first morning ferry and always re-

Reader’s photo

Shouting about the positives SIR – I note a spate of recent letters, often lockdown, Covid or Brexit-related. Sometimes

ber) with dismay and disbelief, particularly as it seems that it could be a fait accompli. I hope that I am wrong and that the supposed public con- sultation will once again put a stop to this bad idea. I look forward to hearing how wheelie bins will increase the amount of recycling from the councillors who are behind the proposal. Did any of them have this in their election manifes- tos? We are very satisfied with the current system of black and clear bags which are col- lected weekly along with the fortnightly garden waste and monthly bottle collections. Now we are going to be blessed with fortnightly col- lections and have to cope with three large bins plus a food caddy. Not everyone will be fit enough to manage these bins or have adequate storage space. Finally, who will pay for the bins and the modification of the vehicles? No prizes for answering that. Let’s hope that the proposal is binned once and for all. Ian Bowman, Holbury Rubbish scheme creates slums SIR – The news that we are to suffer the blight of the green refuse bins is frightening. Has nobody noticed the tragic result in areas where this has been implemented? Quite simply they have turned those arrears into slums. Many homes in the town and terraced areas are unable to accommodate them, so they stay in the street on narrow pavements. The news that the potential Liberal Democrat candidate for office is against forcing this policy persuades me for the first time in my life to desert the Conservative party er, mixed/female rugby is still quite new to me. I was amazed and encouraged at the fun they were sharing together. If this is the future of the game, bring it on! Positive or what? Mike Corbridge, Pennington the youngsters were enjoy- ing playing – girls and boys together, laughter and chat about the game as they walked off the pitch. The sports teacher said there were two girls playing at the beginning of the season and now the girls’ number has grown to 10. As an old rugby play-

We can help with waste issues SIR – Some things happily nev- er change with local matters: refuse collection is back on the front page. However, this year has radically changed the public’s perception and analysis of gov- ernment authority numbers. New Forest District Council needs to catch up. Of course, we want to in- crease the rate of recycling. But every six months a documenta- ry pops up on TV showing the UK recycling on a waste tip in Asia with the locals suffering pollution and toxic waste. Currently in NFDC 34% is recycled, you say. What units? By weight or volume? What are the numbers? What exactly is recycled and to where and by who? Are you asking us to pay more, to send more of our plas- tic to Thailand via a private company with no end-point guarantees? Look, waste is a technical, logistical and environmental problem, not political. And I bet the community has got the skills and knowledge to help. I worked overseas for 25 years and have seen outstanding composting and waste man- agement systems. Before you impose bins or any other new system, write a four-page white paper with all the current data, costs and practices, plus your limitations and obligations. Invite us to help (we are pretty smart in the New Forest) and you will have community buy-in. And for goodness sake, put in the waste bin forever muddy and meaningless numbers Peter Padfield, Holmsley Throw out the wheelie bin plan SIR – I read the article con- cerning the introduction of wheelie bins (A&T, 16th Octo- group was mixed. I stopped and said to the teacher how it is good to shout out and share more positive stories. The New Forest District Council Lymington leisure centre, adjacent to Priest- lands School, has reopened with gusto, meaning after many months I, with others, are back to healthy circuit training. This is a positive in itself. However, the real positive is seeing an after-school touch rugby game as I walked home. I realised that the young

Peter Padfield captured Hurst Spit from the air on a flight from Jersey to Southampton. Please send your photos to ne ws@adt.press

survive further than the next generation. Cycling in particu- lar, whether as a pastime or a sole means of transport, is a healthy, pollution free way of getting around. The council deserve praise for increasing the cycling facil- ities in Brockenhurst, and this should not stop after the Covid crisis but now has to continue on an ongoing basis, Rick Kimber, New Milton Morons trashing national park SIR – We were disappointed and angry to discover a trail of plastic bottles and rubbish on our walk this afternoon. We will go back with black sacks to clear it up, but we wanted to show your readers how some morons are trashing our beautiful national park. This is close to where we found four people camping during the summer with an open fire! How can people be per- suaded to have more respect for this fragile environment and the flora and fauna that depend on it? Name and address supplied Why the fuss on anonymity? SIR – In your Letters page there’s been some recent carping about the request from some of your correspondents to have anonymity. Why all the fuss? Surely the purpose of writing to the news- paper is to get a point across rather than having your name in print. Philip Merivale, Keyhaven Thanks for help clearing mess SIR – We would like to say a big thank you to Cllr Jill Cleary and Cllr Fran Carpenter. We have had seven weeks of stress, frustration and uncaring from Hampshire County Coun- cil’s highways department. On 19th August we had a very large branch from an oak tree on the pavement up against our fence fall off the tree and across our drive. We were told it would be removed within two weeks, after it was cut up and left blocking the pavement to the edge of the road. Many emails (because HCC highways are not answering their phones) and seven weeks later it was removed. But we were left with a terrible mess on the pavement, which we cleared up and put in the gutter. It seems the high- ways work force are unable to do any sort of manual work. If the grabber lorry does not pick it up then they just leave it! Through it all both council- lors have been caring, support- ing and answered our emails every time on the same day, working on our behalf trying to get HCC highways to remove the fallen branches.

tion for cyclists, many of whom previously chained their bikes up against the benches so they could use the shops and cafes in the village. Now there is ample provision of racks, it is always possible to find a bench to sit on. Why is it that car drivers object to anyone else getting improved facilities? What about the metal monsters? SIR – So Alan Powell believes that the cycle racks outside Tesco are “downright ugly” and are “an inconvenience” in Brockenhurst (Letters, 16th October). He doesn’t think that the rest of the street filled up with large metal monsters convert- ing vast amounts of fossil fuels into toxic emissions is destroy- ing the “pretty New Forest village”? When are some local people (hopefully a minority) going to wake up to the fact that we have a climate emergency (even though New Forest Dis- trict Council seem in denial)? You only have to watch Da- vid Attenborough’s excellent Extinction: The Facts to realise the predicament that the world is in due to the vast consump- tion of our natural resources by mankind. We have to support and encourage all forms of sus- tainable transport if we are to Clive Milone, Brockenhurst

when candidates seek my support.

We are very fortunate to have such caring, councillors to work for all our benefit in New Milton. All this with very little monetary reward. Thank you also to New Milton Town Council, who managed to do HCC highways’ job for them, clearing away the gutter which HCC highways left behind. Wendy and Pete Cobbett, New Milton Drawing the line onmanslaughter SIR – Your correspondent Mr Maiden (Letters, 9th Octo- ber), referring to the killing of PC Andrew Harper, calls for “aggravated” manslaughter to become an indictable offence. In the UK, manslaughter is homicide without premed- itation. Causes can range from inadvertence to criminal negligence. Can “aggravated” man- slaughter be satisfactorily defined? If so, where would the line be drawn and to what purpose? As I understand, sentencing for manslaughter is pursuant to judicial discretion. H. Fletcher, Address supplied Fight Covid with open windows SIR – Once again we have a certain section of our society who are either just too stupid or just don’t care as to the damage they are doing not only to our economy, but to their families and others as well, all just by flouting the Covid-19 regulations. We are now told that a large portion of the infections are passed on within an enclosed environment, so transmission is rife. This is nothing new, we just chose to ignore it. It may come as a surprise to many that the pollution level indoors of the average dwelling is between two and five times greater than that of the great outdoors. This is because we are obsessed with sealing our dwellings up as tightly as possi- ble, allowing any pollutant, including viruses etc to just fly around until they find some- where to land. Believe it or not we actually spend up to 90% of our lives indoors so one can see where the problem lies. Ventilation is not the magic muffin, but it can go a long way to easing the situation in the home. Having spent almost 25 years in the world of ventila- tion, this is my simple advice: 1) Open your windows as of- ten as you can to air the house. 2) Too drastic? Use the night-vent position on the handles of your windows. This allows air to pass at a lower volume between the window sash and the frame. 3) Use the trickle vents on your windows if you have them. It has been a requirement in the new-build regulations for some two decades now, but too few people use them. Leave them open permanently if you

Jennifer Cutmore, Lymington

Ahead of the curve on racks SIR – Two of your recent correspondents have claimed to speak for Brockenhurst villagers when they call for the removal of the recently-in- stalled bike racks (Letters, 9th and 16th October). I am a motorist as well as a daily user of the racks and amongst my quite large friend- ship group, absolutely nobody is against the racks. I accept that they are not especially beautiful, but nei- ther are car parking spaces. At a time of massively increasing bicycle use and declining car journeys, it is fully justified to reduce the ugly car parking spaces by one or two to provide more options for cyclists. Well done to HCC, NFDC and the parish council. It’s good to see you ahead of the curve. Previously, one had to use the small private rack in Tesco car park, which leaves one with the feeling that one should shop in that store. Now one can use one of the truly public racks, it’s okay to use whichever shop you want. How would your correspond- ents feel if Tesco car parking spaces were all that were available? At the weekend, Brocken- hurst is a very popular destina-

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Calmore

Cadnam

FORDINGBRIDGE

TOTTON

SOUTHAMPTON

Ashurst

Marchwood

New Forest National Park

HYTHE

LYNDHURST

RINGWOOD

member my first and last visit to Lymington police station.

FAWLEY

BEAULIEU

BURLEY

BROCKENHURST

Calshot

Peter Rigby, Lymington

BOLDRE

BRANSGORE

Bournemouth Airport

LYMINGTON

NEW MILTON

Christian Comment WHEN we reach the end of 2020 and have the obligatory “review of the year”, I am sure that the word “unprecedent- ed” will be highlighted as the operations; all of which have now been dramatically al- tered.

HIGHCLIFFE

BARTON-ON-SEA

CHRISTCHURCH

MILFORD-ON-SEA

BOURNEMOUTH

Hengistbury Head

just ourselves. Words such as “salvation”, “redemption” and “sanctifi- cation” may not currently be within most people’s usage or understanding. But for the Christian they are essential and, like the terms and words associated with our current crisis prove, the more we use and explain them the more they will come back into use. For Christians, let us not be ashamed of our faith or of our vocabulary. Let us continually offer a message of God’s hope, compassion and love for these coming days. The Rev. Phillip Dixon Methodist minister for Highcliffe and Bransgore

Jesus tells a story of a man who is planning a business endeavour. The man is very detailed in his plans for his self-enrichment. God speaks to him and says: “You are working in vain. This very night your life will be required of you and who will benefit from your work?” Now, this is not to say that planning is wrong or that business for profit is wrong; that is not what is being said here. What I think it does mean is that we cannot take anything for granted and that we should consider more than

most used, also terms such as “social distancing”, “Covid secure” and “lockdown ” have become very common within our everyday language. Significant events such as this pandemic can have such a seismic effect our lives. I am sure there is not one person who has not been affected, some far more than others. As 2020 began, plans would have been, or were being, made for marriage, business endeavours, university, treat- ment for cancer or surgical