Reminiscing

Last updated 19:43, Thursday, 26 June 2008

WHAT price good neighbours?FOR many years now I have seen how much our towns have changed. Although they call it progress I sometimes wonder if it is.I AM writing on behalf of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution to express their gratitude to all the patrons of Tesco, New Bridge Street, Workington, who very generously donated to the collection held on their premises on May 23 and 24.MAY I draw your readers’ attention to the proposed development at the Melbreak Hotel, Winscales, Workington which has been deferred due to local objections but is due for re-consideration in July.SINCE the last modernisation of Washington Street the people of Seaton have waited for the replacement of their bus shelter. IN RESPONSE to Carruthers of Great Clifton and his request for more poetry, here is one I wrote...

Am I really the only person in Cockermouth who is fed up with the state of the old abandoned Shell filling station on Low Road?

This business was closed in February 2007 and has stood abandoned and derelict since them - almost 18 months.

The local community was told that this convenient and thriving business was closed because the neighbouring Aldi store was going to expand.

So what is the problem?

This site is a complete and utter disgrace and stands like an eyesore on one of the main routes into town.

How ironic that, almost opposite this shambles, stand road signs to inform visitors to the town of the attractions on offer.

How embarrassing it is for local residents that visitors and friends have to pass this mess every time they visit?

They comment regularly as to what on earth is going to happen to this wreck and why don’t Aldi and the local councils get their act together and get it tidied up!

If ordinary local folk left the front of their houses and gardens to get into such a state, the council would no doubt be down on them like a ton of bricks.

What of Aldi?

They are not good neighbours to have. Otherwise, they would have at least been considerate enough to leave the site tidy and safe if there was a delay in development work.

So, Aldi and Allerdale, what is going to be done and when will it be done?

MIKE TELFORD

Low Road Close

Cockermouth

I was born on the Quayside of Workington, where everyone knew each other and if someone needed help, there was always a neighbour at hand.

Across the railway line was the Marsh side, another tight knit community where the same rules applied. Although there was rivalry with each other, it was a friendly rivalry.

And believe me, if a Marsh or Quay lad was ever in trouble from someone from another place this was where the community spirit came in and we would then fight side by side.

It’s so sad that this community spirit is now something of the past, but why have we let it get this way?

Today we don’t have the councillors who listen to the views of the people who elect them. We now have outsiders running our affairs, people who don’t give a damn about community spirit and whose only interest is profit.

They put a time bomb clock in the new precinct in Workington and then spent more money erection a flying saucer. Don’t walk under it, or you may hear those famous words “Beam us up Scotty.”

This money could have been put to better use, because before long if the rates for the shops are not lowered then there won’t be any shops left to go to.

In Cockermouth, where I now live, the outsiders are starting to take away part of the town’s character.

Although I’m all for progress, I sometimes wonder. Although Market Place looks nice, I’m sure a lot of the townspeople would have liked £1.7 million put to use on something different.

As for the new seats, they would not be out of place, at the teddy bears’ picnic, the Mad Hatter’s tea party, or even on Teletubbies.

Never mind, maybe for our grandchildren’s sake time may reverse, and once again we will have family communities, where people stick together, where the only crimes were a punch-up and a handshake from the loser to the winner, where there were boys’ clubs, youth clubs and family get-togethers.

The youth of today need to have this kind of life, then hopefully the love and respect for other persons will return.

GEORGE (JEEP) JONES

Lingfell Avenue

Cockermouth

The final amount collected was £1,138; a most welcome contribution towards maintaining the essential service of saving lives at sea.

During the recent welcome spell of good weather we all enjoyed, it is all too easy to forget our “local heroes,” our brave lifeboat men, who are prepared to voluntarily put their own lives at risk, to save anyone, anywhere, at any time, often in the most atrocious weather conditions.

As we receive no other source of funding at all, other than contributions from the general public, to everyone who contributed, from the more affluent who gave “folding money” to the toddlers who surrendered their “pennies” so willingly, a very sincere and heartfelt “thank you” to you all.

JOAN KIRKWOOD-McDOWELL

Chairwoman, Workington fund-raisers

Royal National Lifeboat Institution

We, as Bridgefoot residents, feel that this proposed extension to the hotel, extra bedrooms and 60-plus log cabins will only add to the flooding problem experienced already in the village.

The proposal to allow water to enter the Lostrigg Beck, even at a controlled rate, is unacceptable as this adds to the problem of flooding within the River Marron.

The tiny tributary (Kirkbeck), which will receive this outflow, cannot cope with present capacity without adding more.

Having suffered the misery of flooding and all its consequences I feel that to allow such a development is ludicrous and contravenes all Government directives which advise against any new build in the vicinity of flood risk areas.

The proposal is now to direct sewerage from the Melbreak Hotel to Curwendale and Stainburn. How do the residents of these areas feel about this? Are they even aware that this has been proposed? Can that system cope with the excess produced?

We live in this affected area, whereas the owners of the hotel do not.

NAME AND ADDRESS SUPPLIED

On driving past the long-awaited replacement I was moved to verse.

Almost for a decade

We’ve waited in a queue

Through every kind of weather

Just like we always do

The parish council shouted

Where has our shelter gone?

“We took it to the yard, lad”

So we were left with none!!

So now we’ve seen our new one

We’re glad we made a fuss

Could there ever be a better place

For “heralding “ a bus !

CELIA TIBBLE

Seaton Parish Councillor

Green Gate

Seaton

Remember when clocks round the town

Told time at an upward glance.

Shops of every shape and size

Lined the busy streets.

Butchers, bakers, jewellers, watchmakers

All local names and generations old.

Gents outfitters, tobacconists

Hat shops and haberdashers

Rea’s Cafe for the town’s elite

Their Milk Bar with the swivel seats.

Wedged in-between was Moss’s stationers (high class)

Where we bought our first real-writing pen

Plus bottles of Stephens Ink.

Co-op branches at each turn.

With stamp-sized cheques and divvy sheets.

Woolshops, fabrics and dry-cleaners

Roko and the Rubber shop

For the fashionable plastic mac!

Ironmongers and Browne’s emporium

E D Smith’s and Simpson sports

Lipton’s tea, Goss’s rum butter

Bacon sliced while you waited

Toggie’s for coffee on Oxford Street

Where the juke-box played three for a bob

And Mary’s scowl said “Time to quit your seat.”

Summer bike-rides, tennis matches.

Three clubs thrived in town.

Friday night meant pictures, queuing at the Ritz

Girl met boy and shyly shared

Their first teenage kiss.

Saturday nights in the throbbing “tin mish”

No alcopops, no vodka shots, no need for popping pills

Great local groups playing Mersey beat

We danced the twist, drank Vimto through a straw

Then last bus home for TW3

In black and white on the old TV.

How times have changed as life moved on.

Where have all the flowers gone

From our town once proud in bloom

It’s now so cold, so stark, no soul

Millions invested but so much gloom.

ANNE CHAMBERS

Dean

Cockermouth