Say ‘no’ to multi-storey nightmare

Jul 11 2007 by Kevin Core, Birkenhead News

RE:The articles in the Neston News about the re-development of Neston Town Centre.

One thing Neston does not need is a multi-story or underground car park which would be a urine-soaked drug centre as in other towns.

We once got trapped by the weight of traffic in an underground car park in Hereford.

It was under a major supermarket and the incoming traffic prevented outgoing traffic from leaving.

We vowed then that we will never enter another underground or multi-storey car park again.

At the moment the residents of Neston have a free car park which we know the Borough Council are annoyed about because the car parks in Ellesmere Port have to be paid for.

Having said that, if Ellesmere Port shopping centre is the best that the borough can come up with, God help Neston.

The consoling thing is it is only a short car ride to Chester or Heswall for people that have access to a car, but anyone who does not, if you go anywhere from Neston by bus you need to take a sleeping bag as you will be lucky to get back the same day.

Please leave Neston alone.

It is unique in a special way, any amount of spending on new shopping facilities will be a waste of money, because Neston has become a dormitory area for Merseyside.

The place is empty during the week.

Jobs that are in the town centre will disappear if the car parking is changed, ie having to be paid for.

If there is any money in the kitty, which of course there never is, Burton Road and Hinderton Road need resurfacing.

Every gold mining and archaeological team seem to come to Neston to practice hole digging.

There are patches connected to patches on some roads.

Burton road was dug up to sort out the drain, replaced ever so nicely and within a short time was dug up to do the same job again.

NAME AND ADDRESS SUPPLIED

Mystery of tunnel

I can remember when I was a boy in the early 1950s I lived in Leasowe, and one summer’s day, along with other friends from Murrayfield Drive, we went across the fields to Bidston Hill.

On arriving there we noticed a steel door on the side of the hill (the side facing Hoylake Road) and the door was open, a couple of us went in and to our surprise found huge tunnels going an awfully long way under Bidston Hill.

Off the tunnels inside were rooms with painted signs, and huge electric motors with blades of them, like extraction fans.

I can also remember a big, red cross sign on one of the rooms, probably the sign of a small hospital ward.

I think alas, I saw holes in the ceiling with steel ladders going upwards.

These tunnels were not small affairs, and I have often wondered just what they were, and what they were used for.

Can any of your readers throw any light on my 55 years of wondering?

TONY GASKELL

WEST KIRBY

Sack the culprit

REGARDING your report “Communication under scrutiny” (News July 4, page 2), Alec McFadden is being too harsh on David Green in demanding that he should consider his position and resign.

The responsibility for taking the appropriate disciplinary action on David Green surely rests with Stephen Maddox as chief executive.

Whether it be the mail clerk who failed to post the letter, the planning director who failed to ensure that proper procedures were followed, or some intermediary between those two, someone should lose their job over this disgraceful performance.

The chief executive should say to the planning director: “Someone must go.

“You can decide which of your people is most culpable and dismiss that person, or I will dismiss you.

“You choose.”

C J LORD

HESWALL

‘Take it yourself’

IS IT any wonder that fly tipping is on the up when people are faced with a totally inadequate waste disposal service?

In the past two weeks I have spoke to Streetscene on two waste disposal matters.

One of the conversations regarded advice about the disposal of some topsoil from the garden.

Appreciating that this cannot be put in any of the bins provided by Wirral Council, I was bemused to be told that there are no available avenues for removal/disposal by the council and arrangements would have to be made with private contractors should I be able to find one willing to do it.

The second call was to ask if ERIC could remove two interior doors, only to find that because they were half wood and half glass this would not be possible since it may damage machinery.

It was suggested that I should take them to the tip myself (impossible, I have a small car) or look in Yellow Pages in order to find a suitable company to remove them – once again at my own expense!

If I take the doors to the tip myself, how does this save the machinery from being damaged?

We are constantly being told to recycle – fine, I’m trying, but why am I paying increases in Council Tax when it appears that no one wants to know when problems occur.

Hoping that someone can shed some light on my dilemma.

J GREGORY, NOCTORUM

Give bins to flats

HAVE I got this right?

The reason why flat dwellers are not being given recycling bins is because, apparently, it will not be possible to identify and prosecute individuals if they put their plastic bottles in the incorrect bin?

Does Wirral Council prefer to lose hundreds of tonnes of re-usable waste each year because it can’t find a way of taking people to court?

For those of us who are flat dwellers and are also keen to recycle our waste, it seems strange in the extreme that we are being excluded from playing our part.

EMMA STONE,

NEW BRIGHTON

Archeological dig

IN REPLY to David Wooley’s letter “After the Romans,” in which he recognises the importance of Meols in the Dark Ages, we have to say we are in complete agreement with him.

The list of finds from the shore suggests a high level of activity from prehistoric to medieval, and this continuous unbroken use of the site is most unusual in Britain.

Meols must therefore have the potential to be one of the most important sites in the country.

The exact nature of how the site was used is at present little understood.

However, Wirral’s first Community Dig may hopefully make things a little clearer.

The Community Dig has been scheduled to start in September of this year .

This is to be directed by Dr Robert Philpott and funded by Wirral Council, and it will enable us to investigate potentially productive areas behind the embankment where traces of occupation may survive.

PETER FRANCE and JOHN EMMETT,

WIRRAL ARCHAEOLOGY

Refurbish shops

NESTON does not need another supermarket.

What it does need is some of the shops in the High Street being compulsorily refurbished.

I wonder how many of those who have drawn up the new plan actually live in Neston.

GEOFFREY BOSTON,

NESTON