Why must minority spoil our lovely park?

WHAT on earth is the matter with people these days – it seems that if things are smart, clean and attractive they have to be spoilt by the minority.

I refer to our lovely Green Flag Hare Hill Park which is being used by a minority of dog walkers as a huge toilet on a regular basis.

Surely it is not too much to ask for those people to clean up after their pooches - even bins are provided.

There was a function in the park, well attended by the community, including lots of children, but to be confronted by such a disgusting mess is not on.

Additionally, there is another minority who appear to get kicks out of setting fire to our distinctive bandstand with their mindless actions, again spoiling things for others.

If short of something constructive to do, there are plenty of tasks within the area which can be done for the benefit of all. Coun Ann Stott, JP Conservative Member Littleborough Lakeside

UNAWARE OF CAMPAIGNING

PAT Sanchez (Your Views, 9 July 2016) asks telling questions about how much campaigning for a remain vote was done by the small handful of Rochdale councillors who recently joined Blairite-led attempts to undermine the democratically elected leader of the Labour Party.

She also speculates as to whether they may have other motivations for their sudden departure from the clearly expressed wishes of so many Labour members and supporters, beyond Councillor Allen Brett’s claim that they do not think that Jeremy Corbyn ‘campaigned hard enough to remain in the EU.’

Musing on this, I suspect that I am not alone in being unaware of any significant campaigning for a remain vote by Councillor Brett and certain that I saw no such campaigning by Councillor John Hartley in my own ward of Littleborough Lakeside.

However, I do recall observing both these councillors supporting and being supported by Rochdale MP, Simon Danczuk who announced, ‘I’d do all I could to oust Corbyn from leadership’ (see Rochdale Observer, August 15 2015), even before Jeremy Corbyn was elected party leader by an unprecedented and overwhelming majority.

In this context, I think we should be asking Councillors Brett and Hartley some further questions.

For example, why it is that at a time when we have learned their friend Mr Danczuk had, on January 3 2016, made a £500 expenses claim for ‘crisis management’ after he was suspended over the ‘sexting’ scandal, they choose to put their efforts into attacking the leader of the Labour Party rather than into criticising their local MP?

I suggest that they would be much better advised to urge Mr Danczuk to make way for a new MP instead of signing such silly letters.

Or, at least they could follow the example of the overwhelming majority of Labour councillors in Rochdale and elsewhere, and avoid involvement in plots orchestrated by Blairite MPs, desperate to divert attention from the Chilcot report and from Jeremy Corbyn’s calls for Blair and his collaborators to be brought to account for their disastrous invasion of Iraq and the destruction and deaths that followed. Philip Gilligan Dean Head

I GOT VOTE OUT FOR 12 HOURS

I FEEL that I must give some facts to Pat Sanchez regarding my part in the remain campaign over Europe.

As well as delivering thousands of leaflets in both Milnrow and Newhey, and Milkstone and Deeplish, when delivering I took the opportunity to take up case work.

On election day, I was out with my fellow ward councillors getting the vote out for nearly 12 hours.

The result was that 2,329 voted remain and only 1,598 voted out, with seven spoilt.

As for a Blairite Coup; I have no idea what she means.

I will continue to work for my constituents on issues they raise and bring forward practical policies like implanting an improvement on the Local Tax Support Scheme which will help the poorest members of our community. Coun Allen Brett Labour member for Milkstone and Deeplish

RESTRICTED DRINK CHOICE

I BECAME a non-alcohol drinker nearly six months ago now and my wife has joined me in this decision.

We both enjoy going out for a meal but feel very restricted as far as non-alcoholic drinks that we can have with our meal.

It is the usual collection of drinks, orange, lemonade, coke, lime and soda etc. You would think in this day and age that pub/restaurant owners would have a little more imagination with their choice of non-alcoholic drinks for drivers and non-drinkers.

For instance a nice substitute for white wine is Elderflower, which is tasty and very refreshing and can be purchased as plain or sparking. Come on restaurant/pub owners get a little bit of imagination. Please don’t say it won’t sell. It won’t sell unless you promote you sell it either by the glass or the bottle. Brian McDonald Milnrow

URGE MPS TO AXE TRIDENT

WELL, the inevitable has happened. The Tories are in trouble, so what’s the reaction?

Unify them round a good old warmongering issue. In the past it’s been the Falklands. This time it’s Britain’s weapon of mass destruction, Trident, with a vote called for July 18.

Only they don’t like us calling it a WMD. That has unfortunate connotations - such as genocide. But what else can you call a weapon that can kill millions and would provoke the launch of thousands more?

Of course, to call a weapon genocidal brings back bitter, painful memories of a previous attempt at genocide during the Second World War.

That time the WMD of choice was the gas chambers, now it’s Trident.

You cannot use a nuclear weapon selectively, it cannot distinguish between civilians and military, between hospitals and barracks, between ambulances and tanks. All would be obliterated.

So why is it all right to call for Trident to be retained because it provides work for people?

Is it decent, honourable work? To the question ‘What do you do at work daddy?’ how comfortable are workers telling their children ‘Well, I try to make our weapons kill even more people than they used to’?

We should not be protecting the jobs of people who work on Trident. We could create far more jobs in worthwhile industries that the UK actually needs for a fraction of its price. However much the supporters of Trident claim it’s just the UK’s ‘independent nuclear deterrent’ many people in this country are not deceived. It’s an offensive, first use weapon. It’s not even independent. The missiles are leased from the US. The subs have to go to the US for maintenance. The UK could not conceivably use Trident without US permission.

Despite this, we get the privilege of paying the bills.

I urge every reader to call on their MP to vote against spending a penny on the barbarous and hideously expensive Trident and to call it what it is; an illegal weapon of mass destruction. Pat Sanchez High Peak