LETTERS: 'Now terrible Local Plan is withdrawn, it's time to get it right'

To send your own letter, email bfpletters@london.newsquest.co.uk.

Please note, any letters sent to the Bucks Free Press office are only being picked up periodically as all staff are still working from home as per government advice.

Lessons must be learnt

Following Buckinghamshire Council’s decision to withdraw the terrible Chiltern and South Bucks Plan, they now need to come up with a new Local Plan, this time for the whole of the county.

We in the Buckinghamshire branch of CPRE (The Countryside Charity), think this gives the new council a great opportunity to get it right this time.

But we recognise it won’t be easy. All the pressures of population growth, proposed government legislation, national infrastructure projects and, of course, climate change are not only still there but getting greater all the time.

To address all these challenges, we believe the Council needs to think “out of the box”.

So CPRE Buckinghamshire is calling on the council to take on board how the world has changed in the last few years. How people work, how they go shopping, consume fossil fuels and how they live has changed considerably.

People now “get” climate change and, due to the pandemic, realise the value of the countryside more than ever.

So the age-old traditional Local Plan approach of covering green fields with thousands of houses cannot continue.

Previously developed land, known as “brownfield” has to be made better use of (CPRE has released a new report which shows that we already have enough brownfield land to accommodate 1.3 million new homes).

Lessons need to be learned from other countries and other parts of the UK.

We need to build up and down, as well as out. Yes, we need more homes, but not at the expense of our beautiful countryside.

Neil Salisbury, trustee and head of planning at CPRE Buckinghamshire

‘Voters, take note of MPs’ actions’

I hope Bucks voters have noted that both Steve Baker, Wycombe’s MP, and Cheryl Gillan, Chesham and Amersham, both voted to block the proposal in the Commons last week to provide truly needy children extended free meals during the current crisis.

Steve Baker deserves the greatest shame as he has repeatedly said he is a devout Christian. Yet he does not help children at risk of going to bed hungry.

As if the UK has not got enough problems, South Bucks deserves decent MPs we can rely on to do decent things on our behalf.

It beggars belief they take such shabby action. Well done to the BFP for featuring their awful actions.

Name and address withheld

What incredible community spirit

Having attended the flu injection in very inclement weather at Marlow Riverside last weekend my wife and I must give full marks to the medical staff for their speedy and courteous attention. They were obviously cold and wet yet gave excellent friendly service to the ever-lengthening queue of cars. Nor must we forget the many helpful stewards that got us in the correct queue to the tented area provided by Marlow Rugby Union Football Club.

The latter also helped at the surgery when needed. That’s what is called the community spirit. Thank you all.

Mike and Sheila Hyde, via email

Response to a reader’s EU letter

Roger Dixon (BFP letters, October 9) did indeed give £300,000 to the Conservative and Unionist Party in 2018.

He failed to mention that the chemicals equipment company he said he set up is now German owned and benefits from the European Union.

Mr Dixon gave the Conservatives £200,000 on 4/4/2018 and £100,000 on 20/3/2018, plus the Wycombe branch £2,500 on 6/3/2010. Figures from the Electoral Commission.

He said he started Semi Gas Systems Ltd, of the Warwick Science Park in Coventry. Now called Spectron Gas Control Systems Ltd (Companies House number 05976951), it is part of the German company Messer Group GmbH of Frankfurt.

On their website, spectron.de lists their European Union certificates. For example, there is a declaration of European Conformity for Cylinder Pressure Regulators “meeting the requirements of the European Directive 93/42 on medical devices”.

The company complies with the EU’s Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH). A consistent scheme across Europe cuts bureaucracy and improves safety.

This is linked to the work of the European Chemicals Agency in Helsinki.

Mr Dixon’s old company benefits from:

- the single market;

- free movement of people, goods, services and capital (money);

- the customs union;

- fair competition rules;

- protection of intellectual property such as trademarks;

- protection of businesses and individuals against unfair discrimination

on ground of nationality;

- having the right to contact any of the EU’s institutions, agencies or

supporting bodies and receive a reply;

- being able to take a case to the Court of Justice of the European Union, if it is in an area covered by that court.

Phil Jones, member of the European Movement UK, Bourne End

I refused to be demonised

I do not trust that the UK’s settled status scheme (EUSS) for EU citizens, who’ve made their home in the UK, would be enough to protect our rights and make me feel at home again.

To impose this application on us, I felt, was an attack to my identity. Outrageous too to have to tick the compulsory box allowing the Home Office to share my details with private companies inside the UK and abroad.

I was not going to become a migrant with no voice, quietly staying in my place without making waves, submitting to what is expected of me, watching my EU27 friends at the country’s service for its convenience, no longer treated equally... a bare commodity. I refused to be demonised and ostracised, facing discrimination for jobs, renting, voting rights, bank account and NHS care, when we had moved there within our treaty rights and have done nothing wrong.

The contempt, the suspicion or discomfort from people around me that would always follow me, being “the other” - non-Brit with an accent - putting up with the “F… off home” from ignorant Brexiters, is not a way to carry on my life there.

Too many EU citizens falls through the cracks. I was not going to crawl and beg to stay. I was pushed to Brexodus instead, escaping this despicable hostile environment, the division, the xenophobia, the discrimination, this intolerable “us vs them” that has been installed in full blown since the fraudulent referendum.

The first 30 years there, I was fully integrated, part of the society, and I really thought I would spend the rest of my life in the UK, a country that I loved and culture which I embraced. The two+ years that followed were suffocating and unbearable. These far-right Tories in government pushing for Brexit, and all Brexiters, have destroyed my sense of belonging; they’ve robbed me of my friends, frightened and overwhelmed who kept their distance with growing unease; they’ve robbed me of my beautiful home no longer feeling at home; they’ve robbed me of my secured life no longer feeling safe; they’ve tarnished the British values we shared and soiled me in the making. They’ve stolen all that from me. I’ve left everything I had built for, for over 3 decades... including my British husband who wanted to stay behind. I had to leave; it was physical. I would not comply under duress anyway, knowing that our status will be forever uncertain and tightly controlled by the Home Office. I am utterly disgusted by a system who belittle EU citizens. Too many people are still in oblivion. I had to leave; there is no price for freedom and security. #BrexodusNoRegret.

Sadly, after spending all my adult life there, the UK was not my cup of tea anymore. The damage is too great. The division and the general apathy are too heavy to bear. The betrayal is too deep, the trust is gone. Hundreds of thousands of us had to move on.

I don’t have to justify my existence. I wasn’t going to line up to their standard of a discriminatory system. I was pushed to flee Brexitland, not because of Brexiters’ insults and becoming an “unworthy migrant” since the cheated referendum, but because after 32 years living there, the UK government had turned this country in a place not good enough for me.

Laure Ollivier-Minns (French, UK resident September 1986 until September 2018), via email

Light and shadow among the letters

I read both the letters pages last week (BFP, October 23) and the statement about farming standards by MP Greg Smith. One sought to shed light - the other, shadow.

Lawrence Linehan wrote an enlightening letter - “MP’s Letter Virtue Signalling?” – where he shone a light onto some truths about our politicians’ statements regarding the social care sector. Some time ago politicians would have had to (and did famously) admit they are often ‘economical with the truth’. I would suggest the evidence is that we have evolved to the point where that notion is now seen as quaint.

I then turned over to read Letters From Westminster. Under the heading ‘British farming standards will not drop after Brexit’, I read MP Greg Smith’s attempt to reassure us that his government will maintain our current standards of food safety. He wanted to put us all straight on the debate in the media about the negotiation of trade deals and the fact that he and his fellow MPs voted down a motion to ensure those trade deals do not allow lower standard food in through the back door.

He moved the reader’s attention to the transfer of EU law into UK law under Brexit and said, “the very same ban we have on hormone treated beef and chlorine washed chicken today, remains 100 per cent in place”. The media debate is over how easily ministers negotiating with the mighty US farming lobby could simply change this element of EU / UK Law and allow chlorination and hormone treated products as imports. Remember, US officials have made it clear that the ability to sell such products to the UK is a red-line issue for them.

What Mr Smith MP doesn’t put us straight on is how easily the government can change the current rules. To quote the NFU, “...it is also clear that these restrictions can be removed easily through secondary legislation, without Parliament debating or voting on the consequences of doing so.” (Emphasis mine)

That’s what the ‘media debate’ was about; the fact that parliament should have it’s say – after all, Brexit was about ‘parliamentary sovereignty’.

So Mr Smith is simply asking you to believe that you should trust Messrs Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Dominic Cummings et al, to ‘do the right thing’. I bet they don’t even trust each other that much!

Mike Duckett, Downley

Thank you to generous public

The South Bucks & Thames Branch of the RNLI held a street collection in High Wycombe on Saturday 3 October 2020, raising a total of £357.36.

We would be grateful if you could publish details of this event and result, and convey the sincere thanks of the committee to all of our collectors, the general public for their generosity, and to Buckinghamshire Council for allowing us to collect for this worthy charity.

Rose Start, secretary of the RNLI South Bucks & Thames Branch

NSPCC advice for Halloween

Throughout the pandemic, the NSPCC and Childline have remained on the frontline for children when they need us most. We can’t do that without your help, and we know our supporters are always looking for new ways to raise funds for us.

Since Halloween is coming up, we’ve thought up a couple of ways you and your families could help us this half term.

For example, a pumpkin carving contest with friends and neighbours is a good chance to get creative - you could ask for a small donation to the NSPCC to enter, and display each of the competitors where passers-by can see them. If you’re doing it virtually, you can host the competition over video chat instead, and share your pumpkin pictures on social media.

Alternatively, you can organise a Halloween-themed quiz night or baking competition for friends and family. You could ask for a small donation to take part – just £4 pays for one of our counsellors to answer a contact from a young person in need.

And if you’re feeling much braver than that, you could ask people to sponsor you to dye your hair green or perhaps face a public sliming in return for donations to support children and young people across the country.

We’d be delighted if you were able to support us this half term, especially if you’re having some Halloween fun at the same time – but however you choose to fundraise this year, please remember to follow the latest government guidelines on social distancing.

Good luck, and happy Halloween!

Kim Hughes, NSPCC