Councillor in need of a reality check

I HAVE no intention of using the Gazette newspaper as the battle ground for a letter war with councillor Gardner, or anyone else, but I must respond to councillor Gardner’s untrue and unwarranted attack which featured in your May 25 edition (Letters, ‘Take a positive look at Hayes Town’).

I refute categorically that I suffer from ‘obvious total negativity’ or that I am in need of a ‘reality check’.

The only part of councillor Gardner’s letter that is factual, accurate and real is her reference to the fact that ‘time and people change’.

Unfortunately for those of us who live in the real non politically motivated world, the changes in Hayes over the past 12/13 years have not been encouraging.

Labour, of whom councillor Gardner is a member, have overseen this deterioration as all of Hayes’ councillors are members of the Labour party.

With regard to councillor Gardner making reference to ‘crime statistics’, she knows as well as most that it is becoming ever more difficult to establish and recognise what the authorities class as a crime, and that police statistics have been questioned often in the media regarding their accuracy.

Groups of young people ‘hanging around’ does constitute a crime according to the Oxford Compact Dictionary and its companion publication Compact Thesaurus.

I suspect that both of those fine publications are better placed to comment on the semantics of the English language than councillor Gardner?

As for these gangs just having a laugh, I suggest that councillor Gardner herself is in need of a reality check, which I am sure any of their victims will be happy to provide her with the problems that are blighting Hayes cannot be resolved unless they are first recognised as existing.

I am aware that change ‘does not happen overnight’ neither did the decay?

I cannot comment on the remainder of councillor Gardner’s letter as it makes reference to issues that are ongoing.

However I note that she makes no reference to my comments regarding street begging, street drinking, the gentrification of Hayes, in particular the vandalised/ damaged pavements.

This is interesting and I would advise that councillor Gardner remove her rose tinted glasses when walking about Hayes, else she may trip over one or more of these hazards.

BERNARD FAGAN Avondale Drive Hayes