Polite train youngsters were privilege to meet
I WAS travelling back from Manchester on the last train out to Marple after attending a function.
As a middle aged female, I hate travelling alone especially late at night so I sat in the furthest empty carriage on my own.
Just before we set off a group of approx 10 young lads around 17 yrs of age got on and my heart sank when they all piled in next to me. You read so many awful things, I wasn’t expecting an easy journey, however .... they were the nicest, most polite group of boys I’ve been privileged to meet, they said they’d been to a rap concert in town.
I think they might have sensed I felt threatened and they all chatted to me for the whole journey. Most of them got off at Bredbury and one in Romiley. I don’t know any names, I should have asked.
One of the boys said he was an apprentice for an electrical firm in Romiley. I just want their parents to know what lovely lads they’ve raised. I have a 14-year-old and I’d like to think he’d conduct himself in the same way. They were an absolute credit! Julia Macklin via Facebook
NEW RELIEF ROAD IS KEY
I AM sick of hearing moaning minnies grumbling about the new relief road.
I want to live in an economically vibrant region that will generate jobs and wealth for local residents, a region that lives in the 21st Century not in some imagined golden era from rose-tinted times past.
Long overdue large infrastructure improvements such as the new relief road are key to local economic development.
Properly joined-up thinking would have also seen the High Lane/Disley bypass and Hazel Grove to Portwood (M60) link on the agenda but better to have part of the package than nothing at all. Name and address supplied
POLICE DOWN, CRIME IS UP
I’M sure I’m not the only one to write to you concerning the appalling increase in crime since June 2017, as reported in the media recently.
However, I feel that despite continuous government excuses, it is simply a direct result of the drastic reduction in police personnel and police funding.
It has now become undeniable that the ‘reorganisation’ of policing has, in fact, actually directly resulted in the empowerment and reorganisation of opportunistic and organised crime.
Increases in council tax only seem to result in an illogical decrease in council services. Or so it seems to most of us. Our money is continually being directed into funding minority popularist schemes such as cycle tracks, dedicated bus routes, smart motorways etc., in preference to the more basic requirements of our less vociferous citizen majority.
We now, more than ever, need to address the requirements of our ordinary citizens to have their basic entitlement to protection from crime and violence regarded as a prioritised right, by simply redirecting funding to increasing the number of our bobbies.
The recent improvements in crime prevention and detection technology are very encouraging, but these will not work if there is an insufficient police force available to use them to the full. R M Greaves, Heaton Moor