Letters: Take care when parking on Bonfire Night

Thorpe Arnold Cricket Club and Twinlakes Park are both having their Bonfire and Fireworks Night tonight (5th November).

May I therefore respectfully ask that all those who usually park on Melton Spinney Road, in order to attempt to watch the Cricket Club fireworks for free, park elsewhere this year.

Each year thanks to these people, Melton Spinney Road is reduced to one lane for through traffic which always causes problems. With Twinlakes having their event on the same night this year, there is going to be some serious traffic congestion on Melton Spinney Road with a tail back down Thorpe Road due to the high volume of traffic travelling to Twinlakes Park attempting to negotiate all the parked cars at the bottom end of the road near Thorpe Park.

Please be considerate to other people and park your cars elsewhere.

A resident on Melton Spinney Road

Knowing what to look out for

Many of your readers with diabetes may be unaware that diabetes could put their feet and limbs at risk if not cared for correctly.

Around 130 diabetes-related amputations take place every week in this country alone, mainly as a result of foot ulcers. Astonishingly, 80 per cent of these are avoidable with proper foot care.

People with diabetes should have their feet checked at least once a year and should also be taught how to look after their feet themselves. In many cases, this is not being provided in the NHS.

At the InDependent Diabetes Trust, we want to try to reduce the risks of amputations in people with diabetes, so we have published a new booklet called Diabetes – Looking After Your Feet.

This is designed to help people to look after their feet by knowing what to look for and when to seek treatment to keep their feet healthy and avoid ulcers.

If foot ulcers are left untreated, they can eventually lead to an amputation, which drastically changes a person’s quality of life.

If people have more information to help them through our booklet, we hope that this will help to drive down the spiralling number of amputations.

Our booklets are free and can be obtained by calling 01604 622837 or e-mailing [email protected]

Jenny Hirst

InDependent Diabetes Trust

Library isn’t a suitable location

As readers may now be aware, the council has been trying to force through a decision to build an extension on to the library to house the Visions Children’s Centre.

The Children’s Centre is currently situated at Catmose College, but has to move due to the space being required for the growth of the college.

Everybody agrees that the work that the Visions Children’s Centre does is vital to our community and that a suitable location must be found, however the way our Tory led council has gone about this process seems to be undemocratic and lacking in any public consultation.

Firstly, the idea of building a large extension on to the library and siting the Children’s Centre there, seems illogical.

There are no parking facilities, no dropping off points and the only access to the building requires crossing busy roads.

Secondly and perhaps of even greater concern is how badly the process has been mismanaged!

There has been no consultation with the public, which has led to uproar amongst local residents.

The proposed new location for the Children’s Centre wasn’t even discussed by elected councillors, other than the six Tory councillors who make up the Cabinet.

A paper was taken to Cabinet in September which proposed the library as a venue. This was approved by Cabinet.

However, one would expect a decision as significant as this to be considered by the relevant scrutiny panels prior to Cabinet.

But neither the Places Scrutiny Panel or the Children’s Panel took this paper.

It was only after the Cabinet decision had been made, that the public more generally became aware of the proposal.

Luckily democracy isn’t completely dead in Rutland and the decision still had to go before the Rutland’s Development Control Committee (Planning), which on October 25, refused planning permission for the building of an extension to the Oakham Library to house the Children’s Centre.

At the full council meeting on November 14 (7pm start) the council will sit as a Development Control Committee to reconsider the previous decision and (no doubt using the Tory Whip) the proposal will be passed.

Rather than wasting time and money forcing this decision through, the council should be consulting with the public and trying to identify a suitable site for the Children’s Centre.

Ed Reynolds

Liberal Democrat Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Rutland and Melton

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