LETTERS: 'Huge sadness as we have to shut down High Wycombe Lions Club'

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Please note, any letters sent to the Bucks Free Press office are only being picked up periodically during lockdown as staff are working from home.

Sad closure of Lions Club
As President of High Wycombe Lions Club it is with great sadness that I have to announce the imminent closure of High Wycombe Lions Club.

The Club has served the local community for almost 50 years, having been set up by a group of local businessmen in 1972.

In that time the people of Wycombe have generously supported us, enabling us to raise thousands of pounds to help those in need.

You have given unstintingly to the Santa Christmas collections we have organised, to our supermarket collections and to our Easter Egg Raffles; you have participated in our pub quizzes, attended the many concerts and other events we have put on over the years.

We’ve been proud to donate the proceeds of these to a huge range of charities which serve our area.

Our members have provided direct help to local charities and organisations in support of their fundraising and community service projects.

These include the Wycombe Talking Newspaper, XP Support Group, Marlow Regatta, The Chiltern Shakespeare Company, South Bucks Community Hospice, and many others.

We wish all of them and their supporters continued good health and success in their valuable work.

We have provided many needy individuals and families with food parcels at Christmas and we’ve often been on hand to help those in distress or suffering hard times. We regret we will no longer be able to do this.

Unfortunately Covid-19 with its associated Health and Safety concerns, and the increasing age of our members, has made it impossible to continue to run the Lions Club.

We have started the dissolution process but, as part of it, we have made donations to several local charities and distributed other assets to organisations that can hopefully make good use of them to help those in need in Wycombe.

We will, in any case, leave one substantial legacy. A new, fully equipped Community First Responders vehicle, purchased with money raised by High Wycombe Lions in 2019, has been delivered and is already operating in the town.

The vehicle is regularly out on patrol and so has a very quick response time to 999 calls. t’s equipped to deal with many types of emergency.

As we all know a rapid response can be the difference between life and death. The vehicle is badged with our Lions logo and we are delighted that it will be seen around the town for some years to come.

Thank you to everyone who has helped us: whether you gave us money; supported our events; allowed us to use your premises; provided, fixed, stored, or repaired our equipment; volunteered alongside us; or helped us in any other way.

We’re proud of what High Wycombe Lions Club has achieved and we’re truly grateful to you for enabling us to do it.

Soon, our members will no longer belong to a Lions Club, but we all hope to continue helping and serving our local community in other ways, just as we have done for such a long time as members of High Wycombe Lions Club.
Steve Baskerville, High Wycombe Lions Club

There's no reason for anyone to be sleeping rough
Readers may have been concerned at last week’s article headed “No winter night shelter for rough sleepers this year”.

Please be assured that no one needs to be sleeping on the street either now or next winter!

Shortly after we at Wycombe Homeless Connection placed our shelter guests in B&Bs in March, the government asked all dormitory-style homeless shelters to close across the country.

This advice is expected to be still in force through next winter.

As a result, few homeless people in the UK have died of Covid; in the US, where they kept using this style of shelter, hundreds did.

Instead, from April, the government began funding local authorities to place all rough sleepers in temporary accommodation.

This was a success, and it’s our understanding that the council plans to continue it through next winter.

In the meantime, WHC has worked closely with our own local authority helping to place people into the council-funded accommodation.

We’re currently supporting over 40 of those people with food, emotional and practical support.

And along with other agencies we are helping them find more permanent homes.

Overall, we have been busier than ever.

We hope this sheds a more positive light on what has been done and what continues to be done for people experiencing rough sleeping locally.

WHC works not just with rough sleepers, but with anyone facing homelessness, and we are working harder to prevent homelessness by challenging unfair evictions.

We expect to face a rise in homelessness due to the economic and social cost of the pandemic.

With the hit to our normal fundraising activities, we will continue to appreciate any support!

You can see a video with full details about the current situation on our website and social media.
Mark Dykes, Trustee at Wycombe Homeless Connection

How you can protect the environment
‘If’ (with apologies to Rudyard Kipling)

If you can use the sun to power your home,

If you can use your rainwater to flush your loo,

If you can insulate your home to higher standards,

If you can buy your energy from renewable sources,

If you can grow you own organic food,

If you can buy Fairtrade, organic, or free range, foods,

If you can compost all your non-meat waste food,

and then eliminate your desire for meat,

If you can take the train and buses to journey’s end,

If you can cycle rather than drive a car,

If you can take staycations instead of going abroad,

If you can rent, or buy, an electric bike and/or electric car,

If you can resist buying non-necessities,

If you can limit the size of your family,

If you can repair instead of buying new,

If you can stop depositing disposable nappies

into landfill, and then wash the ones that can be reused,

Yours is the Earth, and everything in it. And, which is more,

you will be a True Environmentalist my son/daughter!
John Laker, Marlow Energy Group, Marlow

Stupidity of road project
Your article ‘Major road overhaul after lockdown eases’ is clearly based on information fed by Buckinghamshire Council and does not reflect the stupidity of at least one of the proposals, the one linking Chalfont St Peter with Gerrards Cross.

The scheme has been drawn up by someone who does not know the area, has neither researched existing cycleways it will duplicate, that are falling into disrepair due to lack of maintenance by South Bucks District Council, nor has any demand been established, nor has any thought been given to the traffic disruption, increase in risk of accident and increase in pollution the road closures will cause.

The scheme is being imposed upon an unsuspecting community with some residents being informed of the closures only weeks before they are to be implemented, but many, including St Mary’s School parents receiving no information from the Council.

Gerrards Cross Town Councillors voiced their opposition to the proposal based on the chaos it will cause.

Letters to Martin Tett asking that the scheme be reviewed are answered with ignorance and arrogance.

BFP should publicise the proposal as Buckinghamshire Council have failed to do this and investigate the proposal to show it to be ill-conceived and challenge the council over the misuse of public funds and ask them to demonstrate value for money.
Matthew Locke, Gerrards Cross

‘EU comments are hardly fair’
The European Court of Auditors is independent and most EU spending is done with the member countries.

That's why it was hardly fair of Tony Grange to accuse the European Union of "marking its own homework" (BFP letters page, July 31).

The credibility of the European Court of Auditors depends upon its independence. It is separate to the other institutions, bodies and agencies of the European Union.

The Court works with national audit bodies, and with the EU's anti-fraud office, OLAF.

Only about 20 per cent of EU budget spending goes directly to beneficiaries. This is called direct funding. Up to 80 per cent of EU budget spending is managed in a shared way with the member countries.

This is explained in the Financial Transparency System run by the European Commission (ec.europa.eu/budget/fts).

More details can be found in the EU budget 2018 financial report.

For example, EU farm funding is given to farms by national agencies, such as the UK's Rural Payments Agency. That is why the Court works with national audit bodies.
Phil Jones, member of the European Movement UK, Bourne End

Help in fight against Covid-19
I have been accepted onto the coronavirus plasma donation scheme and just completed my fourth donation.

Doctors are currently trialling infusing plasma into Covid patients on ventilators to see if antibodies from donors help patients recover.

I want to help advertise this scheme and get other people to sign up - anyone who has had symptoms more than 28 days ago can be tested to donate.

I had coronavirus back in March but it was before testing was widely available.

I am able to donate every two weeks and I’m aiming to beat the current record of six donations. You can continue to donate until your antibody levels fall below threshold, so I am hopefully they will continue to contact me with good news.

The closest donation clinic for Wycombe is at the John Radcliffe, Oxford, but pop up clinics have recently opened around London, including one at Westfield, Stratford.

As a needle-phobe, I was anxious ahead of my first appointment, but the staff are so welcoming and the process manageable - it is relaxing to lie down in a chair and get fed chocolate biscuits!

I now look forward to my bi-weekly visits.
Lizzi Wallace, address withheld

Can you help find my friend?
I live in Canada and lost contact with Diedre Walker in 2019. Her phone is no longer available. Deidre was married to Stan Walker (deceased), of Shepherds Way, Chesham.

If anyone knows where or what happened to Deidre, could a friend or relative please contact me via email on jaki@telus.net
Jaki Brown, Canada