Viewpoint: Golf course, Alexander Devine and sunken boats

Why golf course land was bought for us

The Advertiser (Big Picture, April 19) published a stunning photograph of Maidenhead Golf Course.

It showed the wonderful greenery and trees, crowned with a spectacular rainbow.

It reminds me of Cliveden Estate, which attracted over 550,000 visitors in 2023.

We could have our own mini-Cliveden in Maidenhead on the golf course site.

This would provide enormous health benefits and wellbeing for the 80,000 people who live in Maidenhead and its surrounds.

Developing this precious site would have the opposite effect.

Creating Maidenhead Great Park would provide the perfect antidote to the shocking overdevelopment that has already occurred in the town centre.

RBWM councillors and the developers should remember why Maidenhead Borough Council bought the golf course in 1953:

The council unanimously agreed to buy the golf course stating that ‘This was scheduled as an open space in the development plan and that public ownership was the best way of ensuring that it remained that way’.

This is a commitment that should be honoured.

GEORGE MIDGLEY

Walker Road

Maidenhead

A new hurdle put in the way of hospice

Having read the article (Maidenhead Advertiser, April 12) about Alexander Devine Children’s Hospice still waiting for vital government funding, I found it appalling that another layer of bureaucracy has been added to a process that, having so far been seamless and straightforward, has now become a fight with local authorities.

Over the past few years I’ve been a volunteer at Alexander Devine, privileged to help the amazing care and fundraising teams to support hundreds of children with life limiting and life threatening conditions and their families.

The hospice covers Berkshire and the surrounding areas and the work is carried out both at the hospice itself and with home visits.

I have witnessed palliative care administered by our wonderful care team and it’s about giving families, during the most dreadful time of their lives, a safe and loving place where to be with their loved ones, knowing that they are looked after and still able to make positive, lasting memories even during the most harrowing experience.

One of the perceptions is that Alexander Devine is solely about end of life but it couldn’t be further from the truth.

Although sadly that’s one of the roles, the hospice provides hundreds of hours of respite care so that families can have the break they need from being the main carers.

Having to look after a child with many complex needs is a labour of love but an exhausting task nevertheless, one of which our families fulfil 24/7 without ever complaining. Also, on top of the daily care, there’s the neverending battle to access the appropriate services in order to get the best for their children.

Alexander Devine provides an arm around their shoulder and practical support whenever is needed, during the illness and beyond.

Through medical care, counselling, hydrotherapy, music therapy, arts and crafts, supporting siblings, themed events, Alexander Devine makes the abnormal become normal, parents can be just mums and dads, sibling brothers and sisters, without the constant worry of being carers.

What is so frustratingly shortsighted from the government and local authorities is, if Alexander Devine and other similar great charities weren’t able to provide these types of services, due to lack of funding, that load would inevitably fall on the NHS which is already at breaking point.

From my part, knowing that I give my time so that our families can have quality time of their own, is what makes it all worthwhile. When I ask any of our mums and dads ‘How are you?’ and they reply without hesitation ‘Rested!’– well that’s enough for me.

SILVIA LITTLE

Heywood Avenue

Maidenhead

Digital banking cuts costs – and service

Barclays is determined to move its customer base onto digital platforms but does not staff them adequately – cost cutting with no regard for its customers.

GARETH HUGHES

Riverside

Maidenhead

Sunken boat problem keeps bobbing up

A mild rebuke for the ’Tiser to run a front page story (April 12) concerning another failed plan to remove sunken or derelict boats from our Riverside.

This is not news; the issue has been rumbling on for years.

Back in December 2023 I wrote in Viewpoint that some encouraging noises were coming from Cllr Coe regarding a scheme to remove offending boats.

However, he had already noted in an article in the November 24 edition that the scheme he was considering would be challenged by lack of funds.

We now know that a scheme to have contractors remove the boats is not going to happen as the council is near to bankruptcy – something they, and we, knew in December.

Once again this administration, like the Conservative-led councils before them, will do nothing about cleaning up the Riverside, supposedly a nationally recognised conservation area once considered the ‘Jewel in the Crown’ of Maidenhead.

What is even more frustrating is the continuing distraction of who owns what on the Riverside and trying to use that as a means of allocating responsibilities to remove sunken and derelict craft.

In truth this is irrelevant.

The boats will inevitably sink or break loose from moorings and then more than likely head down to Bray Lock, where the Environment Agency will have responsibility.

The environmental impacts of the sunken vessels has already occurred and is inescapable now.

Our council should be focusing not on what to do about sunken boats, but on preventing more neglected and derelict craft being moored on the Riverside and preventing further environmental impacts.

Again I refer to my December letter where I wrote: “There is a simpler solution which is proactive and not merely reactive. Mooring of these often derelict or neglected vessels is done by the boat owners tying up to the railings.

“The railings belong to RBWM – we as residents know this as repairs and maintenance is paid for by residents via our council tax.

“Signage along the Riverside attached to the railings stating ‘No Mooring to Railings – Penalty £__’ should deter most uncaring boat owners from mooring.

“The cost of signage will not be excessive and much cheaper than removing sunken vessels!

“If recalcitrant boat owners defy the notices then the council can pursue them through legal means. If the vessels are licensed by the Environment Agency tracing owners is possible and the owners can be pursued and fined.

“Unlicensed vessels can be seized and removed and if the owners object they can be charged for removal and storage. It could even raise revenue.”

Unfortunately the concept seems beyond the intellectual grasp of our council.

Why the council persist in fantasising about an expensive removal scheme they know they cannot afford and will not implement is beyond me.

Riverside residents elected Cllr Coe and Cllr Singh in 2023 to bring about change. We are still waiting.

M.G. (MICK) JARVIS

Chairman,
Boulters Riverside CIC

The old, the young and a sixpence memento

The annual charity Boundary Walk, organised most recently by the Rotary Club of Maidenhead Bridge, involves walkers travelling around the boundary of Maidenhead, marked by boundary stones put in back in 1934 to mark the newly enlarged perimeter of the town.

Evidently there did exist stones marking the original town boundary.

In 2024 we commemorate the 90th anniversary of these boundary stones, marked MB 1934, being put in place. Maidenhead Civic Society are helping Rotary with their plans to celebrate this event.

Before 1934, the boundary of Maidenhead was marked by the occasional Beating the Bounds ceremony which seemed to involve carrying the mace around the boundary, where nails were knocked into trees.

After the stones were put in 1934 those taking part in this ceremony still drove nails into trees or anything else handy but also bumped participants on the stones.

In 1963 this included the Mayor, Mayoress, councillors, uniformed officers, a photographer from the Advertiser and the occasional child, with many of the women and girls also being kissed!

Children who had accompanied the party were presented with a souvenir sixpence.

We do not propose bumping and kissing anyone, but we would like to give children participating in the 2024 boundary walk a sixpence, together with a certificate, as a memory of the event.

So far, the Civic Society has obtained 34 sixpences.

By October we would like to have 90 in total to commemorate the anniversary.

If anyone has these little coins, that predate the conversion in 1971 to the metric system, we’d be grateful if you would contact the Civic Society at info@maidenheadcivicsoc.org.uk

ANN DARRACOTT

Maidenhead Civic Society 

Enforcement powers on water are vital

Reading about the UK Drowning Prevention Week and the ‘toothless’ enforcement of polluters by the Environmental Agency in this week’s newspaper, you do start to wonder which you should be more scared of!

Add to this Thames Water pleading poverty after paying out tens of millions to shareholders and the fact that the best the council can do, on behalf of the 150,000 residents of the Royal Borough, is send a few letters asking them to try harder.

It is rather pathetic and being an
ex-councillor I fully appreciate the frustrations of our ward councillors.

EA are hopeless.

Perhaps a few million pounds could be generated if we had local enforcement and this could go into getting RBWM back on track with their flood defences, previously known as Channel One.

We need those responsible to stop sitting on their laurels and start making more of an effort to ensure the River Thames is clean enough to drink.

That all schoolchildren are taught how to swim and have an appreciation of water currents and potential undercurrents in manmade lakes. And whoever runs our water companies next – because we can’t continue with this farcical approach to everyone’s general health and safety – that they take on responsibility for both.

JON DAVEY

Windsor

The filthy gravy train of greedy water firms

I was shocked to learn that in 2023, sewage was dumped into rivers in Maidenhead for a total of 258 hours.

That’s a 4,000 per cent increase on 2022.

Such a sharp rise in Thames Water pumping their filthy sewage into Maidenhead’s rivers is disgusting.

Over the past three years, water companies across England have pumped sewage into our rivers and seas more than one million times. Water companies need to clean up their own mess and stop dumping sewage in our water.

Whilst our local waterways are turned into open sewers, the water firm bosses hand themselves insulting pay-outs and shareholders are not required to hand back a penny in dividends.

These salaries and perks have reached eye-watering levels, yet the Government refuses to act.

The water industry has become a
gravy train where sewage and money flows freely.

I am calling for strict measures including to stop the scandal of our toxic rivers and polluted waterways, including:

• Replacing Ofwat with a tougher regulator.
• A ban on bonuses for water company bosses whose firms have dumped sewage into waterways.
• A tax on £2.2 billion water company annual profits to be invested into fixing the problems.

And the declaration of a national environmental emergency.

JOSHUA REYNOLDS

Maidenhead Liberal Democrats Parliamentary candidate

Lib Dem councillor for Furze Platt

It’s just a phrase we’re going through

What is this on Page 19 of last week’s issue ‘Contract inspected after complaints’?

It leapt out to me in the first paragraph: ‘one of its major contractors is up to snuff.’

I am 79 (almost) and I took A-level English language and literature but I have never come across this phrase before.

I thought it was a misprint – in the Advertiser – surely not?

But on checking it is in the Oxford English Dictionary and Merriam-Webster and was first used in 1810 in a play by John Poole in a humorous version of Hamlet! Then it is not exactly new.

I know that the phrase ‘bring you up to speed’ has been around for some time and was heard recently on Sky News, thankfully not yet on the BBC!

I wonder if readers have any more examples of these slightly unusual and obscure phrases that crop up and are occasionally used from time to time in newspaper columns or elsewhere?

MERVYN BUSTON

East Road

Maidenhead

Inspired to join police and build confidence

This month, I had the immense privilege of commencing in the role as your Chief Constable for Thames Valley Police.

I take this honour incredibly seriously and I am fully committed to working and engaging with you, the public, to ensure Thames Valley Police protects our communities.

As the person responsible for keeping you safe, I feel it’s important that you should know a little bit about me.

I’ve been in policing for 27 years and Thames Valley Police since 2016, most recently as Deputy Chief Constable.

I was inspired to join the police when I volunteered at The Gatehouse, a homeless charity in Oxford. Police were called to incidents at the charity.

The police officers I met on those occasions inspired me to join the service and I felt excited about the job that they did and the difference they made.

I wanted to use their inspiration to give something back to my own community, so in 1995 I joined the police.

As your Chief Constable, I want to share my priorities with you. They are: supporting victims, fighting crime, and building trust and confidence amongst our communities.

Supporting Victims

As an emergency service our response will depend on the seriousness of the incident, and vulnerability of those involved, enabling us to prioritise the nearly two million reports that come into the force every year. We will strive to provide the best possible response and victims will always be at the centre of our service.

Fighting Crime

We will continue to focus on preventing and disrupting crime. However, when crimes do occur, we will pursue those responsible, with an emphasis on neighbourhood crime, tackling knife crime, acquisitive crime and violence against women and girls.

Building Trust and Confidence

I know that trust in policing both nationally and internationally is low. Everyone in policing needs to take responsibility to build and maintain trust and confidence.

I take this responsibility extremely seriously, and although this will undoubtedly take time, we will work tirelessly to build trust through treating everyone with fairness and respect. It will be through having greater visibility within our communities, increased transparency and engagement with all of our communities that we can begin to make strides towards this.

Finally, I want to thank all our communities for your continued support.

JASON HOGG

Chief Constable

Thames Valley Police

From bad to verse – thinking makes it so

On Monday, the Prime Minister declared that the ‘Parliamentary Ping-Pong’ over the Safety of Rwanda Bill would end that day – no matter how long both Houses of Parliament had to sit to complete it.
 

“Safety Re-defined”

Did the Tories in the Commons get it right?

Did the Peers in the Lords get it wrong?

Did the Tories tell the Lords, ‘If you Ping,

Then all the world will see that we Pong!’?
 

The MP said the sky is green

And furthermore, the grass is blue.

His Lordship said, ‘All dogs are cats’.

The Law says it: It must be true!
 

So, let Rwanda’s crops all fail;

Come rioters and army coup.

Still, we’ll KNOW Rwanda’s safe:

The Law says so – it must be true!

JAY FLYNN

Moneyrow Green

Holyport

In answer to those with no religious faith

My answer to M D Geary (Viewpoint, April 19) is to quote from Psalms 14: and verse 1 ‘The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God...’

JON REEKIE

Oldacres

Maidenhead

Bible not sole source of Jesus’s teaching

M D Geary (Viewpoint, April 19) attributes incorrectly my previous week’s comments, regarding our consciousness being eternal, as being sourced from the Bible, when I had clearly stated that they sourced from prophetic revelation.

It probably did not help that the editor had removed the source reference.

The Bible on the other hand threatens eternal damnation with the churches making out that they are the necessary intermediary between humankind and God.

Prophetic revelation says otherwise, that we require no intermediary institution, that we ourselves are the temple and every lost sheep will find its way home.

The core content of Christ’s teachings remain The Commandments and The Sermon On The Mount, be it the Bible or prophetic revelation.

The Bible also quotes Jesus to the effect that ‘I have more yet to tell you ...’ whereas the churches would have us believe that Jesus was the last prophet.

The Bible is not the sole source of Christ’s teachings.

KEITH HALL

Highfield Lane

Maidenhead