Viewpoint: Deplorable to close Barclays branch

Barclays leaves town, so I am leaving them

As an individual, I have banked with Barclays for many years and I regard the removal of this local facility as deplorable.

Barclays claim to be consulting customers, both individuals and businesses but, after the decision has been made to close their Maidenhead branch!

The letter I received informing me of the closure came from a Customer Care Director.

As Barclays clearly don’t care about their customers why are they employing Customer Care Directors?

Barclays further claim they will remain members of the community – really!?

As an individual I will be responding by moving my accounts to another bank.

Barclays claim that they will be consulting businesses yet they have not consulted the representative organisation for businesses in Maidenhead, namely Maidenhead and District Chamber of Commerce.

How do I know? I am the chairman.

As chairman of Maidenhead and District Chamber of Commerce I raised the matter at a recent board meeting.

The response was of regret and disappointment at the Barclays closure combined with the earlier closure of the Halifax, and the effect it will have on our members’ customers, particularly the most vulnerable.

Our members’ businesses are committed to Maidenhead and their customers, are the banks?

JOHN CHETTER

Maidenhead

Less impact from mini zoo than nearby estate

I was somewhat astonished to read in the Maidenhead Advertiser (March 29), 'Council rejects mini zoo plans'.

An application by Wildway Wildlife Ltd to change the use of a site at Lower Mount Farm, Long Lane, Cookham to a mini zoo and wildlife centre has been refused by the Royal Borough citing reasons as mainly (quote from Maidenhead Advertiser) the proposed development would be inappropriate on greenbelt land, would result in loss of openness to greenbelt land and harm greenbelt land; the erection of buildings, fencing and hard surfacing are all alien to the surrounding farmland, and would be at odds with the character and appearance of the area; the level of noise and activity at the site would significantly increase; unacceptable harm to neighbouring amenities, increased traffic and the safety for vehicles to enter and exit the site and cause harm to surrounding highways etc. etc. etc.

This same borough council are due to consider a planning application for a housing development on a site in very close proximity to the mini zoo, in fact it's only a stone's throw away. The developers, Bellway, have revised some aspects of their original application for further public consultation.

Cookham residents and residents of several neighbouring villages have already raised strong objections to the housing development based on all those points listed above for the rejection of the mini zoo.

When considering the revised application, will the borough council adopt the same view that this housing development on greenbelt and farmland will have a huge impact on village roads, main through-roads, village amenities, increased pollution, wildlife and the environment and therefore refuse this application as they did with the mini zoo, which would hardly be a blot on the landscape compared to the monstrosity of a massive housing development?

We will wait and see whether this borough council will act with a degree of consistency.

ANGELA SMITH

Southwood Gardens

Cookham

Braywick – common sense has prevailed

The football club’s decision not to pursue the ill-thought-out move to Braywick is the right decision and at last common sense has prevailed.

Saving open green space and a number of rugby pitches that would be lost, denying children the opportunity to enjoy a much-loved sport, would have been disastrous.

RBWM you held up a popular decision, well done.

The last lot were kicked out for ruining this town. A big thank you to the Lib Dems.

MARK MELBOURNE

Furze Platt

My taxi driver hit the nail on Maidenhead

Easter Monday dawned with bright sunshine in Maidenhead, and despite the gloomy weather forecast predicting the day would be a washout it was far from that and rain did not descend until mid afternoon.

So where were all the food stalls, coffee vendors and retailers in the High Street?

Nowhere to be seen – instead of a bustling thriving market place it was dead.

The taxi driver that took me to The Boathouse at Boulters Lock for a super breakfast overlooking a bloated Thames said to me: we call it Maidens Dead!

How true.

MERVYN BUSTON

East Road

Maidenhead

Swifter action needed, not ways of reporting

I see the council is trying to make it easier for us to report things.

In my opinion the service we receive from the council is a complete joke.

Let’s take highways.

Yes, OK, the maintenance of the highways is contracted out with unsatisfactory results.

Let’s take the stretch of the A308 from Braywick roundabout along to the Oakley Court Hotel.

There is a length of trench at the junction with Priors Road that is in an unsatisfactory condition and has been for some considerable time.

The reinstatement has sunk by probably about 20mm.

Why is this allowed to happen?

Does nobody carry out actual inspections these days?

Whoever dug that trench needs to be brought back and bring the reinstatement back up to an acceptable standard.

After all, this in an ‘A’ class road and is used as diversion route in the M4 is blocked for some reason.

Then we move along to the stretch between the Fifield turning and the Oakley Court Hotel.

Here we have a trench whose reinstatement is very unsatisfactory.

It is extremely bumpy to drive on.

Again, why is a contractor allowed to get away with providing an unsatisfactory reinstatement?

Whoever the contractor was need to be brought back and made to bring the reinstatement up to satisfactory condition.

Why email the council?

Yes, OK, it’s auto-acknowledge, but that’s as far as it gets. No reply.

Maybe that’s why only about 30 per cent of the electorate can be bothered to vote in council elections.

E SHEPHERD

Longmead

Windsor

It was the Tories who approved Tempo plans

I was delighted to see that the gateway site of the Tempo office development opposite the station is now fully let.

Fantastic ‘blue chip’ international tenants in Johnson and Johnson and Black and Decker.

What a vote of confidence in our town!

Let us not forget, that everything that is happening now with such pieces of great news is the product of years of Conservative administration hard work.

The Tempo development gained planning consent in 2021 under a Conservative administration.

The completion of One Maidenhead (the old Landing site of five acres) gained planning consent years ago under a Conservative administration.

No amount of grinning photos from the current council administration can mask the fact that these are Conservative achievements through working with our private sector partners.

What we do want to see almost a year after the 2023 local government elections, is an end to the prevarication and delays to the Nicholson Quarter redevelopment.

We want to see fantastic new shops in Maidenhead not more and more closing.

We want a town centre car park replacement for the Broadway Car Park to support the town and our local businesses.

I am seeing zero progress on that.

Please get on with it rather than trying to take credit for the achievements of others.

Perhaps they just aren’t up to it?

Finally, as we approach the general election there is one absolute truth.

A vote for anyone but a Conservative Parliamentary candidate is a vote for a Labour government.

It is a vote for much higher council tax locally, higher private school fees and less focus on the regeneration of our town.

Only a Conservative member of Parliament locally can protect Maidenhead from a national Labour general election majority.

SIMON DUDLEY

Former Riverside councillor and Leader of the Royal Borough

I want law and order, but not by stealth

Your article ‘Royal Borough: public spaces protection measures extended’ accurately related the discussion at cabinet on March 27.

However, it failed to remark upon another example of what is becoming a worrying trend.

These two Public Space Protection orders (there are four in total) were introduced by full council on April 27, 2021.

The report that recommended their adoption was a thorough 25-page document, full to the brim with evidence to support the officer’s conclusion.

Forty of the 41 councillors attended.

There was a vigorous hour-long debate during which 11 of them spoke.

The pros and cons were thoroughly dissected and at the conclusion there was a named vote.

The tally was 36 for, 1 against (me) and 3 abstentions.

Contrast that with their renewal (for another three years) by cabinet.

There was a nine-page report, short on facts and long on opinion followed by a one-way discussion that lasted less than ten minutes.

Even that meagre duration included contributions from two members of the public and a non-voting councillor.

Only two voting members said anything, and it was passed on the nod.

Bad as that is for openness, transparency, and accountability it is nothing compared to the method by which the other two PSPOs were adopted.

Cabinet delegated that decision to one officer and one councillor!

Now let’s be clear. I want dog owners and cyclists to act responsibly.

I would prefer the users of our public spaces to be sober and I believe it is reckless to have an unsupervised barbecue in a park.

However, I also believe that if we are going to give unnamed agents of the council the power to issue a fixed penalty notice then we should discuss that in the open and record who said what and how everyone voted.

If we continue down this path of ever more regulation by stealth then we may as well not bother with councillors and instead let the officers run the show unsupervised with a nameless and shameless cabinet to act as their rubber stamp, which is very much what this feels like.

JOHN BALDWIN

Boyn Hill

Time to pause for thought about VAR

It would be very interesting to see how the football Premier League table would look like today if every match had ended on 95 minutes or less, and minus VAR, the way it used to be.

The amount of additional time added on these days is absolutely ridiculous.

It’s not that uncommon to see eight minutes or more in the first half and 13+ in the second, equating to a further ‘quarter’ of a match in many games.

VAR of course is the culprit causing this problem, the referee having to trot over to the monitor in order to decide if a player’s boot lace is offside, or the ball has brushed another’s arm and therefore requires a lengthy decision-making process taking place to award a goal or a penalty or not.

We all know in the majority of cases these tiny margins would have no bearing on whether a goal was scored or not as well.

All the while the players are having to stand around cooling down and therefore more prone to injuries and the crowd and TV audiences becoming frustrated.

Football obviously is a game played between human beings and clinical AI decisions have no place in the sport.

Let’s return to good old-fashioned human judgement refereeing and the good old-fashioned arguing with them, which after all still takes place, VAR or not!

TONY BECK

Frogmill Spinney

Hurley

Tense offences should be taken into account

Mervyn Buston has opened a potential nest of vipers with the apostrophe (Viewpoint, April 5).

All is not lost, however, because Lynn Truss has come to the rescue with her humorous book called Eats, Shoots & Leaves that includes all the other punctuation marks.

On the question of the apostrophe perhaps readers might like to chuckle at this one.

Read what is there and then remove the apostrophe.

“These things on the stairs are my sister’s.”

Another element of Mervyn Buston’s letter was brought and bought the present tense of which is bring and buy.

Perhaps when the Bring and Buy Sale is over it is the Brought and Bought Sale.

In the interest of the furtherance of the knowledge and understanding of correct English may I offer another bone of contention where the appropriate preposition is often not used correctly.

Similar to, different from, compared with are correct.

DIANE HAYES

Hearne Drive

Holyport

Sunshine and bunnies for ‘Easter’  scene

As I write, I sit upstairs in Maidenhead’s central library.

Downstairs, there is a large wall display near the children’s library.

The legend in the top right-hand corner says, ‘Happy Easter’.

The scene depicted shows a bright sun shining in the top left-hand corner, with a blue sky and green countryside.

In the fields, rabbits hop about the place and sheep stand with bright yellow flowers nearby.

Across the bottom of the scene are many colourful eggs.

What does ‘Easter’ mean?

J FLYNN

Moneyrow Green

Holyport

Triple quark mystery, as is the Holy Trinity

M D Geary (Viewpoint April 5), dismisses the Topics column article by vicar Jon Drake on the Easter message of eternal life and then implies that even the life of Jesus is a myth.

To deny that Jesus even existed is a comment that has to be challenged and I leave it to others to challenge it historically.

I choose to follow the teachings of Christ through prophetic revelations.

Mr Geary takes the standpoint of science, that physical matter is the primary material of creation and consciousness only exists in carbon forms. From this it follows that we have no soul and our consciousness ceases on our physical death.

Yet science shows us that material vibrating at higher frequencies (short wavelengths) is invisible to our dense low frequency world of physical matter (long wavelengths).

This is why the worlds of dark matter and dark energy (approximately 95 per cent of the mass of creation) remain invisible to us.

With our best efforts at CERN we cannot interrogate these higher frequency particle worlds, we can only follow the paths their particles make.

Science’s standard model of sub-atomic particles mirrors the structure of creation revealed by Christ, it is even wrapped around a God particle, the Higgs boson.

Whereas the standard model shows three generations of quark families, Christ describes three worlds, the divine world and two fallen worlds.

In accordance with science’s belief that physical matter is the primary stuff of creation, our world is termed Generation 1 in the standard model, even though it is the lowest energy, lowest frequency quark generation and cannot exist on its own.

Science has yet no explanation of why there are triplicate quark generations.

To return to the Easter message, Christ tells us that we are made in the image of our creator and so we are eternal consciousness.

KEITH HALL

Highfield Lane

Maidenhead