POTTY Post really deserves a further outing after a ‘circular’ advertising letter I received a couple of weeks ago. It was BT who were making a broadband and HD TV offer, not to be refused. Get it installed to watch the spectacular Olympics, the letter encouraged me.

The letter arrived just about 12 hours after the Olympics closing ceremony ended. Well, that’s just a few tens of thousands of their advertising budget that might have been better targeted.

UNDOUBTEDLY, a community is partly composed of the many contrasting images of its members.

So, it’s appropriate to remember Phyllis Eatwell whose death was announced recently.

Although she seemed a rather private person, most people would have seen her regularly walking her dog down to the shops, or riding her bike, until well into old age. It is advised ‘ne’er cast a clout ‘til May is out’, but a more reliable indication here might have been when Phyllis abandoned fur-lined boots for the summer.

I always thought the impression she created was a re-assuring one of contented village life, a certain anti-dote to the hectic bustle that has largely overtaken us. Our respects to her family.

MARLOW Medical Group fosters a ‘Patient Reference Group’, a sort of monitoring and feed-back committee to act as a two-way information channel between the clinicians and the local public. I am pleased to have been invited to be a member.

The next meeting will be held on Thursday, September 27. It will discuss the recent merger of the Lane End and Marlow organisations and regaining the powers to manage the Marlow Community Hospital from September 1, as well as a number of staff changes.

On the wider front GP commissioning is drawing ever closer and patient input is needed to help shape the future of medical care in South Bucks.

Obviously I plan to attend the meeting on September 27 and will be pleased to convey any views from the valley. Please note, it is not the purpose of the group to address individual incidents or situations. The aim is to concentrate on general principles and facilities that are likely to affect groups or the community as a whole. Please phone me or email at the addresses shown with my photo at the head of the column.

Marlow Jazz Club’s next gig on Tuesday, September 4, at the Royal British Legion Hall promises some excitement with an All-Star Jam Session in the ‘Jazz At The Phil’ tradition. Stewart Henderson, trumpet, Peter Cook, saxes and John Coverdale, guitar will be backed by Ken McCarthy, piano, Steve Riddle, bass and Mike Jeffries on drums. All are well used to appearing together and should provide some great music, starting at 8.30pm with a £7 admission charge.

PROBABLY the greatest current mystery, after whatever happened to the summer, is “when are the repairs to Ragman’s Lane due to start?”.

Authoritatively, I can tell you; they are not. The county has now informed one of my readers that it was never BCC’s intention to carry out any work in the lane in the current programme of renovations.

The letter from Transport for Buckinghamshire claims that the warnings issued in a letter in February were a “Notice to Frontage as you would have been impacted by the road closure for the surfacing scheme for Marlow Bottom Road between Wycombe Road and Ragman’s Lane”.

It is difficult to understand why this particular resident was so advised since his road neither connects directly with Marlow Bottom, nor with Ragman’s Lane. Why did all other residents not receive such a ‘Notice of Frontage’ when their properties were two road junctions away from the works?

The letter went on “Ragman’s Lane itself is not on the surfacing programme this year, although that is not to say it won’t be included in future years”. Is BCC aware that it evidence would suggest that some local people may have been buying, at their own expense, supplies of tarmac to repair the most dangerous patches of Ragman’s Lane? Without this emergency patching, some small parts of the lane would no longer have a surface to renovate “in future years”.

Apart from the notice of frontage letter being profoundly misleading, the county needs to address the precision of its public announcements. Its February bulletin designates “Marlow Bottom Road/Ragman’s Lane, Marlow Bottom” to be subject to micro re-surfacing with a diversion route of “Wycombe Road & Vice versa”. Such a diversion is meaningless if the target was strictly only Marlow Bottom. An accompanying sketch map delineates precisely the areas affected.

It unmistakably marks the lane and Marlow Bottom in red.

The diversion A-signs were posted along the lane as well as Marlow Bottom, and a closed notice was positioned at the Blacksmiths Arms diverting traffic away from the lane to the main valley entrance.

(Paradoxically, a converse closure was simultaneously posted at the valley entrance routing traffic back to Ragman’s Lane, theoretically closing the valley completely.) All of this is incompatible with any intention not to repair the lane itself.

Please write, in lucid terms, to Emma Gaydon, Marketing and Communications Officer, Transport for Buckinghamshire, Buckinghamshire County Council, 9th Floor, County Hall, Walton Street, Aylesbury HP20 1UY.

REMEMBER, September 7, at the rather early start time of 7pm, in Bobmore Lane school, is the crucial meeting to inform and discuss the issues around a potential new hospital for the area.

SINCE it’s turned wetter and colder, I dread the onset of Spider Fortnight. Thank you to last year’s kind donor of copious conkers – seemed to work and I notice that commercial products to discourage spiders all claim a chestnut essence constituent.

Like Oliver, please sir, I want some more.