Insult to injury

It seems ludicrous that money has been made available to create new bus routes, and upgrade existing ones - which can already accommodate low floor buses - with new vehicles when other routes are inaccessible to disabled people with walkers and wheelchairs, and parents with small children and buggies because the buses used have steps and folding doors. Nailsea Railway Station also denies access to this category of people through lack of ramps both sides.

It is adding insult to injury to put the onus on the taxpayers of North Somerset to decide which of their already sparse bus services should be cut. Some offer only an hourly service during the day and much less in the evenings and on Sundays and it has taken a private company to provide much needed buses from the Queens Road area of Nailsea to the railway station and other isolated areas.

Although some buses are often seen to have few passengers it must be recognised that those that go through Long Ashton have more as they approach Bristol since they no longer go along the bypass.

Whilst it is fully appreciated that cuts are the order of the day the elderly, many of whom are disabled, are of a generation which has lived through many years of hardship and deprivation in the past. They have free bus passes which some of them are unable to use while they see large sums of public money spent on things which do not appear to benefit the local taxpayer and others which prove to be a liability.

The question is, what use are free bus passes without buses?

Rita Booth

Pensioners’ Voice South West Regional Officer, Godwin Drive, Nailsea

Disrespectful

My son, Lewis Lang, died on October 2 last year, aged 16. His grave is next to Gaz Hedges’ at North Weston cemetery.

It has flowers, plants, personal items such as Liverpool FC memorabilia, windmills and, on special occasions, birthday and Christmas cards and decorations.

I think the graves at North Weston cemetery look wonderful with their colour, flowers and plants. Graveyards can be depressing and sad to visit, but North Weston’s is bright, homely, peaceful and comforting. It is heartless and disrespectful to the deceased and their families to remove their items.

People even comment how lovely the cemetery looks from the roadside.

Lewis’s grave has not been maintained since he was buried 10 months ago. There is still a mound of mud which should have been levelled. If I didn’t look after my son’s grave and make it look nice it would be full of weeds and look unloved.

If the families of the deceased want to personalise the graves they should be allowed to.

I will fight all the way beside Gaz’s mum, Rachael, to preserve ours sons’ graves.

Heidi Dale

Bailey Court, Portishead

Total disregard

ON TUESDAY, August 16, I walked around Portishead Nature Reserve with Neil Hutton, of the Avon Wildlife Trust, and a number of environmental health officers from North Somerset Council and was shown the great progress made there over the past months.

We started at Wharf Lane and, whilst walking along the lane one of the council officers stuck a warning notice on a post regarding dog fouling.

The following evening I returned for a walk with my family and a present had been left, beautifully wrapped in a poo bag, hung on a branch in the tree next to the aforementioned notice.

The whole lane had changed character as there was so much mess along it compared with Tuesday morning.

It had been suggested that one method of removing dog poo in this kind of hedged area is to ‘stick and flick’ it deep into the hedgerow where at least it will naturally biodegrade. Unfortunately the walkers along this lane appear to have total disregard of their responsibilities as a dog owner.

I have two dogs myself and every pocket and bag carries a supply. Wharf Lane even has a poo bin so there are no excuses, if you do pick up you can get rid of it.

I must admit I was even more incensed when I stepped back into the grassy middle area of the lane and applied a smelly load onto the bottom of my shoe.

Cllr Marilyn Koops

Redcliffe Bay, Portishead