Extraordinary

AS SOMEONE who considers himself a responsible dog owner, I do wonder at the thinking of those dog owners who have enough intelligence to pick up their dog’s mess, to then dispose of the bag in a quite extraordinary fashion.

I live in Hillside Road and I have found these bags thrown into people’s gardens, hung from bushes on the coastal path and if you care to look, many are actually dumped behind the bin provided for the postman to collect his excess mail from.

By bagging the waste you are preserving it for longer than if you left it to decompose naturally. At least, bin it.

We even have one dog walker who allows their dog to wander on an extendable lead all over other people’s gardens doing its business.

If this applies to you, please remember, it’s your children’s and your grandchildren’s world you are contaminating.

Take it home and dispose of it responsibly, if only for their sake.

ARTHUR TAYLOR

Hillside Road, Portishead

Such a shame

IT WAS sad to hear that the Cherry Orchard nursing home would be closing in the near future.

I recently saw them making a start on cutting down all the trees that are there.

They have about 25 to go!

Such a shame that they have to cut them all down. I have enjoyed watching the birds on them and squirrels jumping from one tree to another.

MONICA HOLLIER

Beaconsfield Road, Clevedon

Frustrating

THANK you for bringing attention to the frustrating situation of the phone lines that have been down since the end of August in Slade Road, Portishead.

I too, in Combe Avenue, have been affected by this incident and it has been a nightmare.

Trying to get positive information from BT’s overseas call centre has been time consuming, misleading and frustrating also expensive (using my mobile phone) trying to get the help I need.

As was stated in last week’s North Somerset Times, nobody seems to know what’s going on, which is a joke considering BT is a huge communications business.

Why don’t they let us know what’s happening?

They may have to send us a letter, not having phone or broadband, but then that’s what I have to do at the moment with my family in Australia.

There is definitely no substitute for Skype when keeping in touch with your grandchildren.

Come on BT get our phone lines up and running please, but in the meantime keep us informed of what’s going on.

CHRISTINE KENNEDY

Combe Avenue, Portishead

Toilet facilities

FROM what I can gather, there is an intention to reduce public toilet facilities in our area, and in fact there have already been seven conveniences closed to the public in recent past.

Many who have taken certain pre-planned walks in the past will no longer be able to include a ‘wee’ moment, and so will either be inclined to change their directions, or leave out the trips to enjoy the walks between places such as the Salthouse area Clevedon to Walton Bay.

There are several councillors who are mulling over this issue, and I implore them to get the district council’s responsible executive member to use wisdom over this worrying matter.

Perhaps concerned councillors who are mulling over this issue, and I implore them to get the district council’s responsible executive member to use wisdom over this worrying matter.

Perhaps concerned councillors may, hopefully leading up to such urgent representation on our behalf, ask the executive member (Cllr Bryant I believe) if he is satisfied with the quality of maintenance of public toilets in certain instances.

Often, the places here in Clevedon are a disgrace.

Hygiene is necessary, especially where people use the loos.

In fairness to those responsible for the daily maintenance, many users of facilities are to blame for the state of the toilets.

Some may ask what their own homes are like?

Austerity measures are going to bring us to our knees, screaming for mercy.

Readers perhaps should sharpen up their thinking right now and use imagination as to where our decent expectancies are being directed.

DERRICK LOVERING

Broadlands, Clevedon

Train link

‘CITY deal is key to rail Link’: This has to be a joke - who does the mathematics I ask myself?

“A deal between North Somerset Council and neighbouring authorities could bring the district better transport links, more jobs and respite from its budgetary woes.

“The Government scheme would see more powers devolved to councils based in and around Bristol, and could deliver 40,000 jobs and more than �1billion of investment to the area over the next 30 years.”

Who is going to be around in 30 years to benefit from this investment? Who can predict 30 years beyond?

One billion pounds of investment over the next 30 years, equates to some �33,000 per year - 40,000 jobs then they will be paid approximately �825 per year!

We need our train link from Portishead now, to assist the commuters to and from Bristol and Districts every day. Come on councillors, make a decision now and be a major player in the real world.

I do not doubt their integrity, just their timings and mathematics.

ROYSTON J COOK

Drakes Way, Portishead

Surrounded

PLASTIC, plastic, plastic everywhere. We are surrounded by soft and large hard plastic items which are not degradable.

We are endlessly told to recycle to ‘save the planet’.

So why are hundreds of tons of rigid plastic, continuously sent to landfill sites, where they will remain for hundreds of years?

At The Portishead Recycling Centre, the containers for non-recyclables are filled to capacity with broken hard plastic: garden furniture; water butts; buckets; dustpans; toilet seats; crates; containers; laundry baskets; pet carriers; plastic toys; drums; washing up bowls … the list is endless. All these are destined to landfill; although they should be diverted from landfill sites and turned into renewable energy or transformed into a range of new products such as pipes, buckets, car bumpers, interior fittings, etc.

Because of the cost involved in recycling it, the hard plastic is being dumped, rather than turned to good use.

Given the opportunity the North Somerset public would be eager and delighted to separate its rigid plastic items and place them in the appropriated container, in Portishead, Weston or others recycling centres in North Somerset.

Opened in August 2011, the Sort It! recycling centres in Montgotsfield, Stoke Gifford, Yate and Thornbury, operated by the waste company Sita UK for South Gloucestershire Council, had within a few months recycled 160 tons of rigid plastic instead of sending it all to landfill sites.

We can only congratulate South Gloucestershire Council for its marvellous effort to save the environment, but shouldn’t North Somerset Council follow its example and invest in a hard plastic container and the help of a recycling company like Sita UK?

It may cost a little now, but would make a huge environmental difference for our future Join the Recycling Revolution is advertised on the recycling lorries. Let’s do something about it.

T BURGESS

Valley Road, Portishead

Thank you

I WOULD like to express my thanks to the kindly person who took my young cat to Golden Valley Vets last Saturday evening.

She was found in Elm Road, although I was told she was dead on arrival and it was quick.

It is a relief to know where she went and we were able to collect her and bury her peacefully.

FIONA SAXBY

Yew Tree Gardens, Nailsea