Letters
Take a momentTo the Editor
As most of you are aware the village at the moment is somewhat divided on some local issues. We have people falling out over the cricket nets, the village shop and of course the licensing issues at The Cock and Rabbit, but I would ask everyone to take a moment and put things into perspective and ask ourselves, how badly off are we?
These issues are important to us and do affect our quality of life, but in the great scheme of things we are not badly treated. We live in a beautiful part of the country, maybe the world, most of us are healthy and can afford a pint in the pub or a loaf of bread in the shop, we don’t have to walk five miles for water or worry when the next bowl of rice will come.
At the time of writing this, Madeleine McCann has been missing for over a week, what her parents must be going through no-one can imagine; a plane crash in Cameroon has killed 115 people; 6 people dead on the M25 – I don’t have to continue.
The world is not a great place, so do we have to argue over people mowing their lawn at 8 o’clock in the morning, or moan about noise from a party or aircraft? At least we are here and can hear these things. I’m not a religious person (only on take off and landing), but I ask all of you to thank God, Buddah, Allah or whoever that we are here, we have good people around us, and let’s try to be nice to each other.
I have said things I shouldn’t have and must apologise for things said in the heat of the moment, but let’s remember that for us life is good, our neighbours are pleasant people, the cricket club, shop and pubs are assets to this village and at the end of the day we are very lucky.
So please take a moment before you complain or disagree.
Victoria Parola,
The Lee
Thanks for and from the shop
To the Editor
Just a note in praise of the shop. When I attended the Grand Opening, I mentioned, quite casually, that it would be good to have various forms of my favourite liquorice on sale – I mean pipes and wheels and sticks. Normally I have to travel to Chesham or Great Missenden for it and it is often unavailable.
I note with pleasure that our shop now stocks liquorice of exactly the right shape and texture. While I realise that the availability of liquorice in The Lee is unlikely to change the world, it is at least a good start. And if the response of the shop to customer requirements continues to be as speedy as this, then its future must be secure. Well done and thanks.
Mike Senior
The Lee
To the Editor
I would like to give my thanks to the village, walkers, cyclists and to everybody who is using the shop. It was, and continues to be, much appreciated.
We have got off to a good start. The voluntary staff have been superb but we do need more people to help. Without this help it will be very difficult to keep going and many people are doing too much. Please don’t be afraid. I sometimes have to tell our volunteers that they have been working 30 minutes over their time! Just come along, we will give you training and even if you can only come once in awhile, we will ensure that you have someone to work with.
We need to be able to deliver more newspapers and this we are unable to do without more newspaper deliverers. Please contact me if you are interested. It pays well at £3.00 for about 30 minutes work. Can I give my sincere thanks to Olly and Jack.
We now have many more items in stock. These include bread, milk (organic and non-organic), chilled meats, organic and free-range eggs, alcohol and tobacco. The bread, sticky buns and cakes from Drew’s are proving a great success.
We now have the new deep-freeze installed and we shall be stocking it in the near future. Please fill in the request slips that are in the shop. If I were to stock all your requests, I would need another Tesco’s! The more people who ask for an item the more likely it is that I can stock it. Please say what you want and I will do my best to get it.
Again, please may I thank the Shop Committee, the workers and, most importantly, you, the customers.
Geoff Swindells (Manager)
Shop@The Lee Parish Hall
Tel. 01494 837195
Thanks for a great partyTo the Editor
I would like to say three ‘thank yous’.
Thank you to great friends for secretly coming from far and near.
Thank you to Vicky and Franco for great hospitality.
Thank you to two great ‘children’ for giving me the best birthday ever.
Ann Ash
Lee Common
P.S. I had no idea that there was a photographer lurking!
What’s the point of other people?
To the Editor
Are any of your other readers as incensed as I am about the increasingly frequent practice of other people actually being alive? I am not talking about those people whom I do not see or hear – they may, after all, perform a useful function. What I am concerned about is those people who wilfully and deliberately exist, and go about their daily lives without any thought or consideration for me. How inexcusably selfish of them.
I have decided that to emphasise my point I shall now ask a series of rhetorical questions, shan’t I? Because I feel rhetorical questions add gravitas to my point, which isn’t parochial, narrow minded or absurd in the least, is it? Who are these people? What are they for? Does anyone know where they come from, or where they’re going to? Do they have to exist so frequently – only yesterday I encountered at least two people – within fifteen minutes of each other! How extraordinary.
Last Sunday one of my neighbours had the temerity to use one of those electrical mowing machines. And following that his young daughters were playing in his garden, resulting in all sorts of noise pollution. What did the parents think they were doing, allowing their children to play outside in the knowledge that their garden was close to mine. What right have these people to inflict their existence on me? Shouldn’t I be compensated?
People other than myself being alive and having an impact on my otherwise perfect world strikes me as a singularly selfish and probably useless pastime. I expect some people are deliberately being alive in order to show off to their children or grandparents. Just playing at consciousness for an hour or two on a Bank Holiday.
Thank the stars that I don’t live ‘down the hill’, where I would probably have to encounter these ‘others’ on a regular basis, and couldn’t rely on the specious idea that simply by writing letters to a local Newsletter I might feel my bizarre outlook could gain credibility.
Elizabeth Hardy
Lee Common
P.S. I fully expect my next letter to begin “Why, oh why, oh why…”
Notes from Kingswood
To the Editor
While hanging out my washing a few days ago, I heard a faint ‘mewing’ and realised it was not a cat, but a pair of buzzards gracefully circling overhead. Red kites we have had, but these are relatively new.
I carried on musing on the vast numbers of birds I have enjoyed hearing and seeing in the fifty-odd years since we came here.
Spotted flycatchers nested in our front porch that first year and used the electric wire as their perch. They swooped on their prey about 4ft from our bedroom window!
I also remember seeing a nuthatch coming down and a tree-creeper going up the same tree trunk – also while I hung up the washing!
This year the wrens and robins seem exceptionally loud and clear – I am reminded of seeing eight wrens emerge from a tit-box just outside the back door one cold winter’s morning. Woodpeckers are often about, and one started tapping as I left the washing line – and then it walked round the corner, tapping a cricket ball on his new bat to season it! Nest-making and the start of the cricket season go together.
Joyce Swain
Swan Bottom
The Old Swan planning application - two views of the issueTo the Editor
I expect most your readers know by now that we have applied to the Chiltern District Council for the change of use, to a private single dwelling, for The Old Swan. We did this after a lot of soul searching. I have owned the pub for 27 years and turned it from a local drinking venue into a popular restaurant renowned for good quality food. Katie and I have had to work 7 days a week (one day closed which is spent on maintenance and paper work) to do this. I can count the few holidays and days off I have had on my hands. Over three years ago we came to the decision, through ill health and our ages, that it was time to retire – never realising that a rural free house would be so hard to sell!
Three commercial agents later, with no scent of an offer, we have had to think differently and as a last resort requested this change of use. This decision hasn’t been taken lightly and we still hope that a knight in shining armour will come up the hill and offer to buy the pub. I cannot work for ever, my body is collapsing – not a pretty sight – working such long hours on my feet is taking its toll.
We are not doing this to make more money, as suggested by a local, but to give us a way to retire. If no-one wants to buy The Old Swan as a pub, what do you do? Work until I drop!
Some of the objections have been from people that never set foot in the pub. The building will still be here and we know the CDC would not let the structure and its land change. We have tried for over twenty years to build in the garden with no luck, so we know there would be no further development on the land as hinted at. Our loyal and regular customers, which we are very lucky to have, realise why we need to retire and understand how this has been a hard decision. It is now up to the planning committee and we are in their hands.
Sean Michaelson-Yeates
The Old Swan, Swan Bottom
To the Editor
The following is a copy of a letter I have sent to the planning authority.
"I oppose the application to change the use of the above from a pub to a dwelling.
I live next to the Old Swan. Communities need amenities such as pubs, as they are a vital component in providing meeting places, social centres and a link with the history of the area. The Old Swan is located on an old drovers’ route for example. Without them, villages and hamlets simply become dormitories for towns and cities, losing their individual character. "
I want this facility to be available to the community in the future, as well as in the present.
Jon Swain
Swan Bottom