High Street Thieves

Reference your headline High Street Thieves in the May issue Sidcup & Bexley Chronicle.

On April 18th my full shopping bag was stolen from the back of my mobility scooter while I was in the charity shop on Sidcup High Street. I have always been careful with regards to my purse but never thought someone would steal my shopping.

Maybe they thought my purse was in there, hard luck it was in my pocket.

I remember the time when you could leave your door unlocked, or you could leave your key on a string through the letterbox, those days are long gone I’m sorry to say.

Margaret Davies - Sidcup

A promise is a promise Ken!

Can we hold Ken Livingstone to the new pledge he made in the London Elects booklet (p. 21) on the Mayor of London and London Assembly Elections to ‘provide bus free travel for under-18s’. This is a great turnaround from his ‘free bus travel’ line and one that most of us over-18s believe to be a much better idea. Bus free travel. Think of the benefits: It would encourage children to walk and therefore combat obesity; it will teach the youth of today that, contrary to what society or their parents might tell them, the world does not owe them a living (after all, we all paid in our time); it would mean that the elderly could travel on the bus without living in fear of aggressive teenagers; and it would save bus companies a fortune in the costs of eliminating graffiti and repairing the effects of vandalism. I, for one, applaud Ken’s change of heart and, as he’s put his signature to it, can we take him at his word?

Chantal Latchford - Sidcup

Adult Education 

I was interested to read the letter from Richard Easterbrook in the May edition of the Chronicle regarding the fees for over-60’s at the Adult Education Centre in Sidcup. 

Last September I, and others, enrolled for the Tuesday afternoon Watercolour painting class - a course I had participated in the year before and had highly enjoyed. I was delighted to find that - probably for the first time in my life - I was eligible for a discount on account of my having a disability (normally I’ve had to pay top whack for everything). About four weeks into the course we were informed that our schedule of classes was going to be shortened by FIVE weeks and there would be NO REFUND! The exact same class which was held on a Tuesday evening and was more heavily subscribed was running its normal 28 week length. The reasoning of the College representative was that this was entirely reasonable because we were all payers of concessionary fees! 

Needless to say my fellow students and myself felt that we had been treated very poorly. Imagine going into Morrison’s or Tesco’s and buying half a dozen eggs and then half way to your car someone comes after you and removes a couple of eggs and says “No, sorry, you haven’t paid enough for them!” 

I understand that funding issues may well be very complicated and difficult but on this occasion we felt that the College had broken its contract with us, the students. I do not seek concessionary fees solely because I may be over 60 nor because I am disabled. Tell me what the cost is and I will decide whether or not I can afford it; but, if you run a class and take my money for it, don’t move the goalposts half way through the game.

Gail Ford - Sidcup 

Adult Education Fees

I am disgusted that there will no longer be any concessionary fees for older people attending Adult Education classes. Even the concessionary fee had been increasing each year and almost pricing itself out of my reach. Now I will definitely will not be able to afford to take part in a class that helped keep my brain alert and where I enjoyed meeting other people of a similar age.

Those with a good private pension can probably absorb the extra cost and those on benefits get help. I am one in the in-between group. I only get my State pension of £55-llp a week. As my husband gets a very small private pension we just miss qualifying for assistance.

Today’s elderly people grew up during WW2 where a lot of our education took place in air raid shelters or as evacuees separated from families. We were deprived of our fathers, who were fighting the enemy abroad/ We existed on very limited rations and two ounces of sweets was a luxury.

It’s time more was done for the elderly. What about abolishing fees altogether for Adult education. It makes sense to encourage the elderly to get out. As well as keeping minds active, meeting others, finding new interests it keeps people away from the doctors. Stuck at home they only have time to worry about everything.

Mrs Veronica Smith, - Sidcup

• As we suggested in our original article all the indications are that legislation was really aimed at aged people in employment. We think someone has mis-interpreted the meaning and read it to suit themselves! Ed

Reported Crime

Can anyone please tell me what is ‘Reported Crime’? Our estate, Rutland Gate, in Belvedere has yet again been hit by yobs destroying fence chains and fence posts and in another incident on the same night a neighbour’s car had its exhaust sawn off. This happened over the Bank holiday weekend and when I tried to report this to Bexley police call centre I was politely told that as I wasn’t the ‘direct’ victim then they couldn’t take my crime report! I thought criminal damage was a crime? But alas as I don’t own the estate I live on I can’t be considered a ‘victim’! I must report this to the housing association that owns the property. But I’m a leaseholder, I told the call centre, and I have to pay for any damage but this doesn’t constitute me being a victim! I mentioned that my neighbour would be reporting her car damage separately but again I was politely told that as I wasn’t the victim I couldn’t report this, I asked, but what about crimes committed on the same night within 20 yards or so of each other wouldn’t that presume an association? “No” I was told, the police call centre don’t have the capability to take two crimes of ‘proximity’ (his word not mine), as they must be a single crime reported by the ‘victim’. 

I’m the ‘Chair of our resident’s association and I have had to call Bexleyheath police many times over the last five years to report ASB and low level crime on our estate but it seems everything has changed. What happened to neighbourhood watch, what happened to the messages we get to help the police? It’s all well and good Prime Minister Brown and Jacqui Smith the Home Secretary boasting that reported crime is down, now I can see why? They have changed the system of reporting crime; but for their understanding a crime is a crime, is a crime; whatever way you want to report it. Maybe the next change will be is to move the police call centre to India, then maybe they can report absolutely no crime at all!

Is it any wonder the Labour party took such a hammering at the local elections? Or perhaps this fact hasn’t been reported to ‘Alias’ Smith & Brown? They obviously live in such a rarefied world they haven’t a clue what’s happening at ground level. It’s about time they started to look at doing something positive about real crime instead of spending so much time manipulating the system for lower figures to make them look good. You can fool some of the people some of the time É but Mr Brown you have at last been sussed by the majority, something many of us already know, you’re simply not up to it!

Roll on the General Election!

Jim Parsons

Chair, Rutland Gate Resident’s Association

Belvedere

• Luckily the new Mayor of London is also the Chairman of the Police Authority and one expects this is the sort of information he needs. Ed

Bumpy car parks! 

I think you may find that speed bumps are placed in car parks due to the fact that they are often used by youths at night as race tracks causing danger to the public and property. This is a problem Nation-wide. There were big problems in Crayford at the Sainsbury’s car park and also at the Crayord trading park and the same measures were used there. 

W. Johnson - Bexley

Protecting Post Offices The future of London’s Post Offices is a matter of great concern to the new Mayor, Boris Johnson, who will be continuing with the judicial review challenge to the consultation on the Post Office closure programme. A preliminary decision on this challenge is expected from the High Court shortly.

As we all know, London has already experienced disproportionately high levels of post office closures in recent years compared with other areas of the country. The Post Office has not provided convincing evidence that further closures in London are necessary on economic grounds. Community-based enterprises like local Post Offices provide vital services for Londoners, especially older Londoners and families, and they should be protected. Post Offices are crucial in supporting local retail and where a Post Office closes, small businesses and the local community suffer.

The Mayor will also continue to welcome and support initiatives by local councils and others to help keep post offices running. I have written to the Managing Director of the Post Office to assure him that the GLA will be pleased to discuss further how we can input most effectively into the development of new and improved Post Office services, whilst not ignoring the fact that the consultation process on closures was too short and that the Mayor is making a legal challenge to this effect.

Ian Clement 

Deputy Mayor - Government Relations

Overall planning

In the last year I have received a large number of notices concerning individual planning applications. Taken singly, many of these are acceptable, but when they are seen as part of an overall whole, there are many matters of concern.

Are we over-providing residential accommodation with serious consequences to:

* Traffic movement

* Parking

* Provision of services, eg: water and sewerage,

  electricity and gas

* Waste disposal

* Health and care provision

Are there enough shops available in the High Street?

* Are basic costs for small traders too high?

* Is competition from the supermarkets and chain stores (often illegally flouting planning permission conditions) causing unnecessary distress to small traders?

Have the consequences to public safety been given sufficient attention?

Many of these overall considerations might be regarded as irrelevant in single cases involving no more than say six flats in a single building, but if they are ignored, then corporately we may be heading for disaster. The Council should debate these issues and consider modification to planning permission procedures to give greater consideration to concerns of the public about the overall picture.

P. Scopes, Sidcup.

Labour rob poor

Following the debacle that was the ending of the 10p tax rate, the Prime Minister announced that the losers would be compensated through, among other things, the Pension Credit system.

Is this the same Pension Credit system that the Government will cut by 75% in October 2008? At the moment all new Pension Credit awards are backdated for up to 12 months. From October all backdated awards will be restricted to just three months. As most claims are for £25 per week, this effectively means that some of the poorest pensioners in Britain will be robbed of around £975 in the first year of their claim.

Once again New Labour robs the poor to pay the rich.

Roy Hollister BA - Horton Kirby.