• It is doubtful if the council can legally step in to take over the Centre. They are just landlords and will be treated as a creditor along with everyone else. Now the air is clearing it would  seem logical to have owned ones own building; The Centre could well have afforded to fund this in place of the annual £70,000 rent the council were charging! Ed

Bexleyheath Youth v Manchester United Youth 1954.

In 8 months time it will be 50 years since the Manchester United plane crashed at Munich.

Over the last year or so I have been researching youth team matches played by Manchester United in the 6 years leading up to the crash. I now need details for only a handful of games.

On the 13th March 1954 I understand that Manchester United played a youth team game at Bexleyheath. I know nothing more about the game.

If any of your readers can tell me about this game or went to it or played in it and have match reports and an original copy of any match programme etc. then I would like to hear from them.

All letters will be answered and original documents returned.

Many thanks for your help.

John BARCROFT - 14, Beresford Rd. STRETFORD, Manchester M32 OPY

Destruction of Trees in Foots Cray Meadows

I heartily agree with the Editor (May edition) on the devastation caused by the felling of so many major trees to expose the outline and grounds of the Vansittart Mansion.

We opposed the plans pointing out that the single most important feature of the Meadows is the trees both for wildlife and human health, forming as they do a vital green lung in an increasingly urbanised area.  It should be made clear that our objection was not to normal woodland management (such as is carried out in North Cray Woods) but to the felling of bands of trees to commemorate this historical theme.    This clearance of woodland had been described by the Council as ‘a small number of trees that need removal’, and indeed a small number is what we were shown when a site meeting was arranged last Autumn for the Agenda 21 Environmental Focus Group (accompanied by a Sidcup Councillor)  who then gave their support.

Anyone who cares to take a walk in this area will be appalled at the number  not just of poplars, but of major mature trees which have been felled.  The loss of our green lung has been massive and far greater than Council plans indicated or that we had even imagined.  We would surmise that no less than 50 major trees have been removed (we have photographs of 45 of these) in addition to approximately 75 Poplars  many of them multi-stemmed.  Of the major large trees (with one exception) only four showed signs of incipient rot and even these were no worse than most of the trees in Foots Cray Meadows and would have lasted another 20 years. This environmentally damaging exercise was executed at the most sensitive time  the vernal cycle of the Meadows’ seasons with nesting birds and all the diversity of wildlife to which a single tree is host.  This project contradicts every environmental canon and is a betrayal of our trust.

And what a terrible waste of our money.

John Harrington (North Cray Residents Association)

• Several other readers have remarked about the wanton destruction which was estimated to have cost £50,000 of our hard earned tax.

Drainage in Highview

I’m afraid Mary Griggs (Letters - five year leak - June 2007) didn’t relate all the facts.

I received a letter dated 22 August 2006, headed - Highview Road - Drainage Improvements ‘The work is programmed to commence on 29 August and it is anticipated these essential (my underlining) will take four days to complete, subject to suitable weather’. There followed 2 names and phone numbers including the area technician.

On the day of the commencement, my wife and  I left the block of flats (opposite Chudleigh) about 10 o’clock and was surprised to see 2 large lorries, various equipment and a large number of personnel.

My thoughts were - obviously the Council is taking the job seriously and intends completing the job in less time than that proposed.  On returning about 4 hours later, the road was completely clear except for a notice saying that parking was in abeyance while the work was carried out.  On the 27 Nov 2006 I received another letter - the heading as the previous one, but with a new senior technician and his phone number.  The new date for starting the work was Monday 4 December 2006, with the work extending into Granville Road.  On this day, as before, we left about 10 o’clock and the only sign of activity was 3 men with shovels.  On returning about 4 hours later, the road was completely clear, but even from a distance the gully could be seen to be approximately 25 mm above the surrounding area.

So after two attempts with an area technician in one case and a senior area technician in the other case, a complete mess of the job was obtained.  But my concern mainly is who paid for the first aborted attempt, with its expensive amount of equipment, and who paid for the second attempt, both of which completely failed to do the job which was intended.  I am sure Council Tax Payers will be interested too.

E. Dishart.  Sidcup.

• I doubt if you will ever know.  At least  the ‘Council are listening’ but are they reading?  Ed.

No television for us!

We are encouraged to go digital and I’m a pensioner on benefit.

I’m 84 years old and recently my granddaughter bought me a present of a digibox but the reception was so poor we decided on a Freeview dish at £150!

There are already two dishes on the front of our block of flats and although we are at the back and hardly overlooked we have been told we need planning permission.

We were told the cost would be £135 plus an extra £25 for eight copies of ordinance survey maps. We had to identify our flats on the maps and tell Sky where the dish would have to be situated. They would need paying.

Where will it all end? And how can pensioners like us afford it?  So no digi for us. We wondered how many other readers like us who will not be able to afford to have a television after 2112.

V. Scher, Sidcup

Care Partrners Trust