Viewpoint: Bid to lower Oakley Green speed limit falls on deaf ears

Time to take action on station parking issues

Many of your readers will be aware of the parking problems around Taplow Station.

The problem was foreseen and brought to the attention of the local authority when Crossrail was first announced back in 2016.

The final opening of the Elizabeth line and rapid housing growth in the Beaconsfield area precipitated the present chaos.

Prior to the outbreak of COVID, County had produced a comprehensive set of parking restrictions and charged for parking bays covering the whole of Taplow and Burnham, that would have dealt with these problems, if not ideally.

The plan lapsed with the outbreak of COVID.

We are aware that money is tight but are not asking for the re-introduction of this large-scale plan but for a much smaller area of the roads immediately around the station to ensure the free flow of traffic and safe driving conditions.

The current frequent occurrence of blockages in Station Road and confrontations in Approach Road affecting school buses and local traffic is unacceptable.

Our current representations to County through our ward councillors and the chairman of the Beeches Community Board have produced no effective response.

We are advised that a survey is required before any commitment can be made (although the earlier plan had no such survey) and we were referred to the Community Board to progress this.

However, the board has experience of spending many thousands of pounds on similar surveys in earlier years only for County to reject them, thus wasting all that money.

They are correctly unwilling to spend again without some assurance from County that the outcome will be positive.

This lack of response from County is in sharp contrast to TfL.

We met with them in October to discuss improvements to the station south side parking.

They responded promptly and have re-laid the entire area and marked it up and installed effective signage. However, this will be of limited benefit as long as commuters are free to cause problems by parking on Approach Road and Marsh Lane (Boundary Road next?) for free.

The situation can only worsen as rapid housing growth continues in greater Beaconsfield.

It should be addressed as an infrastructure requirement for the emerging Local Plan but there is no sign of this being included.

This issue has now reached crisis point.

We have an obligation to our residents to take further action on their behalf.

If we have no appropriate response from County within the next two weeks we will be forced to take further public action.

Professor ALAN SINCLAIR – Chairman, Taplow Parish Council

EVA LIPMAN – President, Hitcham and Taplow Society

NIGEL PHILLIPS – Chairman, Marlow and Maidenhead Passenger Association

Attempt to lower speed limit falls on deaf ears

I wrote to you some time ago and mentioned issues with the safety of the Oakley Green Road (B3024).

In 2019, the then leader of the borough council, Simon Dudley, committed to reducing the speed limit to 30mph on this road.

Oakley Green is a village with a B road running through it.

It is predominately a semi-rural area with narrow or no footways, and the road is used extensively by cyclists, horse riders and pedestrians walking dogs.

There is also a primary school where four-year-old children have to get out of cars while heavy traffic thunders past.

Since the large increase in house building in the Ascot and Winkfield area the road has become very busy and the community feels that 40mph is too fast for the safety of the local residents.

Despite constant discussions with a succession of highways councillors, this promise has not been kept.

Indeed, they have now stated that they have no intention of changing the speed limit on this road, now, or in the future.

They blame the police, but we know that the police do not make the laws – they just try, where they can, to enforce them.

As they claim not to have the manpower to enforce the current speed limit, it follows that any change would also not be enforced so their lack of support makes very little difference.

I find it hard to believe that the borough council are seriously committed to increasing safety on the roads when they steadfastly refuse to lower a speed limit where the residents feel very strongly that it is needed.

B R EMBERY

Oakley Green

Would EU residents want to come here?

D R Cooper opines that ‘more people inevitably means [sic] more environmental problems’ (Viewpoint, June 28), which seems an inevitability.

There is then a drift to a more familiar fantasy fascination, with the statement asserting that were the UK to rejoin the EU, 450million people would have the automatic right to settle here, implying that they all would, conveniently forgetting that most people would rather stay in their own country, and if they were to move, they'd choose a better country than a Britain broken by 14 years of appalling Tory mismanagement.

It is, though, an overly simplistic argument.

The European countries or dependencies which have a higher population density than the UK are Gibraltar, Malta, Vatican City, Guernsey and Jersey, the Netherlands and Belgium.

Despite, in many cases, more challenging climates or topography, they do not suffer the collapsing schools and potholes, or the dire services provided by the likes of Thames Water.

It has nothing to do with the people in a country; rather it's the way that country is managed (or not managed, in the case of the UK).

Most people who come to the UK as immigrants will want to work and add to the common wealth by paying tax and national insurance.

Upon spending time at Heatherwood hospital, D R Cooper would realise that the vast majority of nursing and clinical staff are from foreign countries.

Without them, this country would fall apart.

They are far more important to the UK than those who sit on the sideline doing nothing but sniping against the EU via Viewpoint.

JAMES AIDAN

Sutton Road

COOKHAM

Donation could change a family’s future

Imagine waking up and not being able to give your children breakfast before school.

Imagine them trying to learn on an empty stomach.

Imagine not having enough money to buy your kids a school uniform or the pens and books they need in order to have even a basic education.

This shouldn't be happening in the 21st century, but sadly, this depressing scenario is a reality for some families in disadvantaged communities in Ethiopia.

But we want to change that.

Over the last decade, my colleagues and I at Partners for Change Ethiopia have set up friendship links with four different schools in Ethiopia.

We have received a lot of local support from Holy Trinity School and Holy Trinity Church in Cookham and also from St Mary's School in Maidenhead and Holyport College.

The charity's approach to eradicating poverty and bringing about social change is simple - we empower parents and carers by offering them training and grants so that they can set up their own businesses.

At the same time, we also set up school breakfast clubs, so that no child goes to school hungry.

Our goal is to create sustainable, community-led change and that's why our projects are run by local people.

Would you like to help? Yes?!

Well, you can. Here's how...

We're currently trying to fund small business training and start-up capital for 10 mums and carers at Chole School in Ethiopia.

It costs £125 per parent to do this.

We realise this is a lot of money, but perhaps you could team up with friends or colleagues and make this happen?

Just think - it might change a family's future.

All you need to do is make a donation and then, email my colleague Rose (rose@pfcethiopia.org) and I (sarah_parfitt@mail.com) and we will let you know a bit more about the mum you have supported: donate.justgiving.com/charity/smcf/

Remember - the only difference between us and the parents at Chole School is opportunity.

Wherever we live in the world, as human beings we all have the same dreams for our children.

A big thank you in advance from the mums at Chole School - Aselefesh, Seble, Kelem, Genet, Selam, Zenebech, Asnaku, Ayelu, Mekides and Shume.

SARAH PARFITT

Trustee and ambassador for Partners for Change Ethiopia