Published at 11:09, Thursday, 07 June 2012

SIR – Following on from Coun Norwood’s letter (The Whitehaven News, May 24) there is one further point to be made, which is that some of the attitudes displayed in the letters published the previous week are a perfect illustration of what can go wrong with a council where one political group – whichever one it is – has been in control for far too long.

I’m leaving out the names of the individuals who signed those letters to make the point that this argument should not be about personalities. I have no wish to attack them as human beings, and the issues with Copeland Council go far beyond any one individual. And talking in terms of personalities only adds to one of the endemic problems. All too often genuine concern about issues has been wrongly dismissed as personal abuse, but there have also been real examples of poisonous attacks on individuals. Too many councillors of both political parties were reported to the former Standards Board for England, now mercifully abolished, on grounds which have ranged from trivial through ludicrous to complete fantasy.

When a council has been found in a survey of its own residents (commissioned by the previous Labour government) to be the third least popular in the whole country, that indicates that you need to be more open to ideas and criticism. At one stage – at the start of the “choosing to change” programme – I dared to hope that there were faint signs of such a change in mindset emerging. Less so recently. The sort of “shoot the messenger” letters which have been appearing in your columns since the latest problems with the stadium proposals show no sign of it.

Asking questions to make sure decisions have been properly considered, issues brought out and the right procedures have been followed is part of the legitimate job of any opposition, be it on a council or in government. Describing someone who had asked specific and precise questions about an appointment process as making “a personal attack on my colleague” is not the best way to deal with the issue or a sign of an open attitude to accountability.

Almost all councils fall into one of three groups. If you ask an informed, honest and intelligent member of any political party which are the least effective councils run by his or her own party, they are likely to privately admit that it will be the ones where that party has been in power for decades.

Then there are the councils which change hands according to how people feel about the current government. These are usually better run than the first group, because there is some change and new blood. But although people have every right to vote however they wish, using your local vote to kick the national government means you lose an opportunity to make it count as a way of getting a better council.

The best-run councils are nearly always the ones where the local electorate votes predominantly on local issues. Where councillors know that the electorate will hold them accountable at local elections when the council makes a mess of things rather than voting on partisan lines or according to national issues.

What’s that, you say? A party politician encouraging people to vote using minds of their own rather than on party loyalty?

Simple answer. Anyone who doesn’t think they have any chance of winning the argument among voters who have open minds has no business standing for office.

If people want change on Copeland Council, then the answer is in their hands at the next local elections.

Chris WHITESIDE

Chairman, Cumbria Area Conservatives

SIR – I am writing to express our disappointment at the outcome of the planning meeting to decide on the application to erect an 80m-high wind turbine on land at Drigg Moorside Farm.

Although the planning committee unanimously voted against the erection of the wind turbine, it was a hollow victory as the applicant has put in an appeal.

We would have hoped that given the huge amount of opposition, not only by the nearby residents but also by the surrounding parishes, the Lake District National Park, the Friends of the Lake District and many other people, the applicant would have taken all of this into consideration and graciously accepted this decision, realising that this beautiful part of our countryside is not the place for such a massive and intrusive structure.

I would like to end by thanking all the people who have supported us so far and hope that they continue to do so until a decision is finally made.

S WHITE

Stubble Green, Drigg

SIR – Well there you have it. An opinion poll v Cumbrian parish councils’ ‘no’ vote.

The latter is called democracy and rightly represents the will of the people not to be volunteers. Why is this poll both meaningless and alarming? Take the figures and then ask a simple question of the MRWS Partnership. Overall only 20 per cent of those polled knew a lot or a fair amount about it. Not unreasonable to make the connection that the 33 per cent who said no to not taking part in a search for a nuclear waste dump might just contain all of the 20 per cent in the know!

The more we understand, the more we come to realise just what the implications for this county are. The MRWS website tells us: “The public opinion survey is essential to understanding public views on the MRWS process in a statistically representative way”.

Leaving aside the well used quote about “lies, damn lies and statistics” what is frighteningly obvious is the partnership has singularly failed to educate Cumbrian people as to what storing higher-activity waste in West Cumbria will mean, because according to the Mori poll 80 per cent of people know little or nothing at all about it.

Geology is the final barrier against future release of radioactivity into the environment and yet nowhere can I find the submissions made by Professors Smythe and Haszeldine on the MRWS website. This information is being “hidden” under a mountain of submissions numbered 1-1551. Why? Because the pro-nuclear dump MRWS partnership doesn’t want you to find them and educate yourself.

If the Partnership’s website had a page for geological submissions and people could easily find this important information and understand just how poor the geology of West Cumbria is as a final barrier for the containment of radioactive waste, they would then understand how higher-activity waste will heat the surrounding rock and push the ground upwards, creating yet more fractures and pathways for deadly radionuclides to be released into our environment.

The idea put to the MRWS partnership at the last Whitehaven meeting was that Professors Smythe and Haszeldine should explain their submissions as the partnership did not feel qualified to understand them. That was frowned upon. Both are professional prize-winning geologists and seek only to tell it like it is. Perhaps the partnership might ask them to explain their submissions in laymen’s terms? Frightening MRWS Cumbria isn’t it?

If a decision is made to move to Stage 4 of the siting process contrary to the overwhelming ‘no’ from the Cumbrian parishes, there is no body to appeal to except perhaps CALC and maybe eventually to court where, thankfully, the interests of common sense and natural justice are divorced from the interests of the government developers. Who has the role in this to listen and to act? Quis custodiet ipsos custodies? – Who guards the guards?

A good example, if one were needed, is the press manipulation concerning the poll figures. The official announcement of the results were made in Whitehaven on May 22 and yet somehow the Murdoch press had the story printed in The Sunday Times on May 13 (Cumbrian Residents Support Nuclear Dump). No mention of the overwhelming ‘no’ from the parish councils. MRWS PR spin doctors, answers on a postcard please addressed to the Leveson Inquiry!

Tens of people have now signed the e-petition on Cumbria County Council’s website calling for a countywide referendum on what is perhaps the most important decision facing this county since humankind inhabited it.

Are we really going to trust the future of this county to an opinion poll over the will of the people? Register and petition for a referendum on the Cumbria County Council’s website (bit.ly/NeafvK). Perhaps when enough have signed we can force a referendum on this issue and let them know we in Cumbria are mined to place our trust in democracy rather than opinion.

Colin WALES

Sedbergh

SIR – You ran a cover story (The Whitehaven News, May 24) about a woman who had just brought home an Italian greyhound from Spain.

As a dog lover, I know it’s hard to resist when we read and see some terrible cases of cruelty and neglect but the woman in question already has eight dogs.

Also I think it’s rather sad that people feel the need to rescue animals from abroad when there are literally thousands of dogs (and other animals) waiting to be rehomed here in England, not to mention Scotland, Ireland and Wales!

She said it could cost thousands as he’d lost a paw but she was determined to do it. I’m sure her heart is in the right place but having just learned of a couple who brought a hound from Japan and have now placed it in rescue, it makes me wonder why?

Besides which, what about quarantine, pet passports, inoculations etc (rabies has just been found in England after many years).

Please help and support our local communities because there are already too many mistreated, abused and neglected dogs waiting to be rehomed on our own doorstep.

Arthur MILLIE

Longcroft, Egremont

SIR – Last week I underwent a minor procedure at the Ophthalmology Department of West Cumberland Hospital.

In these days of much adverse criticism of the NHS – only a fraction of which it perhaps deserves – it is a pleasure to report that I received polite, friendly, efficient and courteous attention from everyone I encountered during my short stay. The staff were a credit to the NHS.

My thanks to all involved.

Brian PARNABY

Ullock

SIR – I was saddened when I returned from holiday to read in The News about the passing of Eric Ball.

I had kept in touch with Eric but recently lost track of where he had moved to.

Eric was a quiet man who, for many many years, did an enormous amount of work supporting various charity shows.

He had a great bass baritone voice and took the lead in many musicals for the theatre group, with the late Bill Gidley as producer.

One show in articular, The Song of Norway, showed his voice off at its best singing with soprano Pauline Southward.

He was also prominent in all the clubs of the time singing with the late Betty Whitehead.

He and Betty were on the Whitehaven team for the TV Show Top Town. They were beaten in the Final.

Eric will long be remembered by many of the older generation for the charity work he did and the song he was always associated with, If I were a Rich Man.

Eric Ball, a really nice guy who gave a lot of pleasure to people with his singing over so many years.

D SPEDDING

Birks Road, Cleator Moor

SIR – Week ending May 20 I was at the new Egremont library having some photocopying done. A lady, full of her own importance came in, and before she spoke I could feel the bad tempered vibes she was emitting.

I don’t know her post in the school hierarchy, possibly a housekeeper/secretary. She wanted to know whose car was on the road/path to the school entrance. I immediately confessed and was spoken to as if I was a recalcitrant child, being told that I should not park there.

I explained that I was disabled and unable to walk from the school’s disabled park-up, some way away.

By now I admit I was a little annoyed and suggested that a couple of disabled park-up places could easily be made right outside the library. She replied in a haughty manner: “That will never happen.”

I would like to know why the library is at West Lakes Academy.

The highest percentage of library users are in their 60-70s, like me, and many are lame or worse.

If it’s a public library it must be accessible to all ages; if it isn’t, can we please move back to the town hall, where folk could usually get parked and stagger up the steps to a chair and a warm welcome.

While I’m complaining, despite being disabled with various ailments, I’ve never needed a key to the disabled toilets. Now I do; one of my body’s failures is the water works. Why can’t all library users have the access to the toilet if needed?

I would suggest that the percentage of disabled, driving school children would be nil, while the disabled drivers using the library could well exceed 50 per cent.

Did nobody give any thought to the position of the public library, as it doesn’t look like it.

Finally a bouquet to the regular library ladies. They are brilliant and have managed to move to “the new spot” with their usual charm and patience.

In case they come back with danger to children etc, I never move my car if anyone’s about.

Yours sincerely, but not decrepit yet!

Mrs Mavis GASKELL

Main Street, Egremont

SIR – I was hoping one of your readers might be able to help me with information on the following:

The death of John Penniment, who was buried on May 28, 1812, at St James, Cornwall, Jamaica, and his reasons for being there. John was the son of James Penniment, Master Mariner of Whitehaven.

The death at sea of James Penniment on November 1, 1808, aged 36 years, also the son of James Penniment, Master Mariner of Whitehaven.

The stranding of the ship Briggs near Kirkwald [Kirkwall], in the Orkneys, on October 20, 1791. Captain Penniment (possibly James or Isaac) was the master. The ship was returning from St Petersburg

I do hope one of your readers will be able to help. My email address is pphall10@bigpond.net.au

Pauline HALL

Mt Lawley, Western Australia

Published by http://www.whitehavennews.co.uk