Your Letters about Favor Parker

Unsuitable traffic on unsuitable roads; Favor Parkers must do more for the area

Dear Ray,

I am writing because I am rather concerned about the letter written by Mr. Graham Forster. There are several issues; which are quite rightly mentioned in the letter: however Mr. Forster seems to be missing the point in a few areas.

Firstly, Mr. Forster castigates 'Concerned Villager' for only having bought three copies of the Pump in six years. I agree it is not a great number, but surely a local villager (sorry, 'townie') does not need to buy the Pump in order to be informed on local issues, and just because they do not get every issue of the Pump, that means they don't care about the village? Secondly, Mr. Forster states that the inconvenience caused by Favor Parker has been worth it. How can you attribute a worth to inconvenience? Surely he means that moving to Stoke Ferry was worth it despite the inconvenience?

With reference to the by-pass, I thought the whole idea of a by-pass was so that heavy traffic does not clog up a local community, and eases the flow in congested areas. I am sure that the council did not intentionally waste money building the by- pass just so Favor Parker, Geoff Allen and Whiteaway could continue to drive their vehicles through the unsuitable roads of Stoke Ferry itself.

I must admit that I had to laugh at the suggestion in Mr. Forster's next paragraph. The whole idea of community tax is that a certain amount is designated for the maintenance of public highways (this includes bus shelters, bollards, railings etc). Therefore, you are already paying for its upkeep (albeit indirectly) Mr. Forster. Maybe a better idea would be to get the companies responsible for the gradual decline of the railings to fund the repainting.

I am a local businessman, and I am quite aware of the benefits that Favor Parker bring to the community: however they will continue to be out of favor (sic) whilst their trucks continue to steam through the centre of Stoke Ferry on roads that were never designed for vehicles of that size.

Yours sincerely

Simon Bracey

Dear Editor,

I am pleased to read that two fellow villagers have taken the time to respond to my letter in January's Village Pump. However, they appear to ignore its content, which purely tried to highlight the need to conserve the village, especially the properties that are listed in the Councils recently published Conservation Document, which did in fact ask for our views. Unfortunately their welcome responses would appear to be more intent on finding out if I was born in Stoke Ferry or indeed if I still go out to work myself!

In my previous letter, I did not ask that Favor Parker moves from the village, nor did I ask that people lose their employment. However, I do want restricted lorry access to the village in order that further damage does not take place to the village infrastructure. This would be achievable if our local, larger businesses, put back more into the community and the Council/Parish Council acted with regard to weight restrictions at either end of the village. Note in my previous letter comments regarding recent works to the bridge. The level of traffic from Parkers would then be restricted to the Furlong, in both directions; not ideal I know but it would inconvenience less of the village.

The only other issue I would raise is the need for maintenance to the village roads and pavements together with the pollution problem from the factory. My view is that parkers must show more of a duty of care to the village, not just follow the minimum guidelines in law. Parkers know that where the factory is situated is not ideal for them or for the village and, as such, should do all they can to minimise the impact on the village; not just regarding traffic but also regarding the pollution, dust, noise and the general aesthetic appearance of the High Street area.

So, to conclude, I'm not asking parkers to move or lose jobs. Perhaps if they maintained the factory better and did more for the area they pollute you would probably find that more people are employed.

Peter Williams

Dear Ray,

We all remember the winds on Saturday 9th March, and during the previous week or two, but they were particularly severe on that day, coming from a roughly westerly direction. The weather had been mainly dry for several days and we found that we were inundated with a fine gritty sort of dust, reddy-brown in colour. From our house we could see that others were getting it worse than we were, the dust was blowing along like sand in a desert storm having the appearance almost of dark smoke.

I do not know where this dust came from, judging by the direction it could well have been coming from the sugar factory, but I thought that those living in the lee of Favor Parker might have blamed them and I felt it only fair to point out that, on this occasion at least, it was not their fault.

Ron Watts