Royal Junk Mail

Dear Royal Mail

I have signed up to the Mail Preference Service; you might have heard of it. It's a service that tells people that I don't want to receive any junk mail. That includes the advertising leaflets that you are paying the postie to shove through my letterbox on an almost daily basis. This money-grabbing opportunity you have taken on really smacks of desperation. Is distributing advertising really the way to make up for a naff service, and more convenient methods of communication?

I don't need to be told that Pizza Hut and Dominoes are in competition on Tuesdays, offering more pizza than me and the hubby could eat. Similarly, I have never, ever been into a Farm Foods store. The leaflet that came through my door will not persuade me otherwise; in fact it went straight into the recycling bin.

So thanks for cluttering up my doormat with more useless crap. I might well start reciprocating by shoving it all into your pillar boxes.

Yours etc etc

P Doff

Aylestone Meadows

Aylestone Meadows is a nature reserve situated approximately 2-3 miles from Leicester city centre. It is located next to the old Great Central Railway, near to the River Soar and the Grand Union canal, and gives local residents somewhere green and tranquil to walk, jog, run or cycle, away from the hustle and bustle of the traffic and everyday suburban/city life. Being in the southern part of the Soar Valley, the area is susceptible to flooding, however the main paths have been designed to accommodate this.

The area plays host to an disused velodrome to the north, and to the west, an empty school. Neither are affected by any flooding, and are easily accessible to the public. Leicester City Council has decided it wants to build a number of artificial football pitches, complete with club house, changing facilities and car parking. It is already in the process of building pitches close to the old velodrome, but the city, apparently needs more.

Both the velodrome or the school would be ideal locations for these new pitches, however according Leicester City, in its ultimate wisdom, the best location is bang smack in the middle of the nature reserve. Not only will they need to create access, but no doubt the area requires significant work done to prevent the new pitches from flooding. One can only assume that the old school and bike track are going to be sold off for residential development, with the short-sighted council rubbing its hands at the thought of the millions it could raise by selling this land.

Will the money raised from selling land to developers be used to stave off cuts to front line services? I doubt it. It will be needed to pay to make a natural flood plain into a playable surface for football teams that will soon be inundated with pitches to choose from.

In the mean time, those local (and not so local) residents who enjoy the peace and quiet of the nature reserve will be forced to use smaller recreation areas.  Leicester City Council has proposed 'giving' land to angry residents, but these are small pockets that are already being used for other purposes (a horse charity, being one), or are further away and not so accessible to the residents of Aylestone (Glen Parva). 

It also goes without saying that there will be irreparable damage to the habitat and local wildlife, and Leicester City Council doesn't appear to have taken that into perspective.

Leicester City Council has shown time and time again that its attitude towards local planning is both short-sighted and backwards thinking. If it's not demolishing historical buildings that give our city character, and replacing them with monstrosities, then it seeks to take away any green space it has. Oh look, there's some land, let's build on it.

If you wish to speak against this development, you have until the 16th March to do so. To make a comment, follow the guidelines set out here. 

Out Of Sight....

From next year, cigarettes will not be allowed to be displayed in larger stores, with smaller retail outlets having to remove them from public view by 2015. Apparently "out of sight, out of mind" will discourage smokers, new and old. With most smokers already hooked to a particular brand, there would appear to be no point in displaying countless arrays of competing products. If smokers cannot see packets of fags on the shelves when they go shopping, they won't be tempted to buy them when they pop to the supermarket. It is also thought that non-smokers won't be tempted into smoking if they can't see cigarettes on display.

I am not a smoker; I actually hate the filthy, disgusting, cancer inducing habit. But I fail to see how this course of action will work. Smokers are already addicted, they are already loyal to a brand, yes, but how many times do they go shopping purely for the purpose of buying more cigarettes?

Supermarkets do indeed have cigarette counters, but how many times have you, the average shopper going through a 'normal' non-ciggy counter checkout, been held up because a member of staff has had to go and fetch 200 for the customer in front? Not seeing packs of fags isn't going to stop smokers from buying them; a smoker will stop smoking because they want to.

As for tempting new smokers, as mentioned, I am not a smoker, I have never smoked a cigarette in my life. I've also worked on a cigarette counter at my local supermarket as an impressionable 17-18 year old. Was I ever tempted by the many packets stacked up behind me? No. Of course I wasn't. Children and young adults start smoking because of other factors; peer pressure, seeing celebrities, misguided information such as "smoking helps you lose weight" and not because they see them in the corner shop.

"At least there'll be more room for booze....
you what....are Walkers okay? Normal
size? Not grab bags, obviously....."

If the mere sight of a product in a shop is enough to tempt the paying customer, then why do so many people eat an unhealthy diet, despite the aisles of fresh fruit and veg in the local supermarket? Furthermore, where will it stop? Once cigarettes are off the shelves, what next? Alcohol? Chocolate? Crisps?

By all means, educate people and inform them of the risks, but people must be allowed to make their own decisions and take responsibility (or not, as the case may be) for what they put inside their own bodies.

The English Patient

It was announced last week that Scotland was to join Wales and Northern Ireland in abolishing prescription charges from April 1st.

Two days later, it was announced that the cost of a prescription in England would rise from £7.20 to £7.40 per item from the same date.

Hmmm....

"Thanks for subsidising prescription charges
elsewhere in the UK, *mug*"

Leave Me Alone!

People, on the whole, are like sheep. Where one person goes, someone else is bound to follow. I choose a parking spot at the supermarket that is the furthest away from the main entrance on purpose. I go to the emptiest area so that nobody has to park next to my car, and dent or scratch it. I don't want to come back to my car and find some lazy so and so has left a trolley in my way. But despite the plethora of empty spaces, it's a nailed on certainty I will return to find that not only has someone parked next to my car, they've parked it far too close. On one occasion, I had to climb over the passenger seat to get in, even though there were plenty of empty spaces elsewhere.

What goes through the minds of these people? What is it about the spot that I choose that makes it so attractive to another shopper? Is my car really that cool? Seriously, why do they do it?

Those who don't know me very well (actually those who do too...) might think I am a misanthrope. Believe it or not, I do like to socialise with people, it's just I like to think I am more discerning as to whose company I keep.... 

It's just that I like to do my own thing. I have a great deal of admiration for those who also like to do their own thing. I have come to a theory that intrepid explorers don't go off for the thrill of things, or for the satisfaction of discovering something new. I honestly believe that they are looking for somewhere no other bugger will come along and disturb them.

There are times I would love to go off and find somewhere vast, and I could be left alone to wander by myself. I could take in the stunning scenery, and enjoy the peace and quiet, taking time to think about life, the universe and all that jive. I could pitch a tent, knowing I could get a decent night's rest without someone disturbing it. But deep down, I know if I did that, I would wake in the morning to find someone had decided to put their tent up right next to mine. I bet they would also be frying mushrooms for breakfast. Grr.

First Cuts, Then First Increases Fares

It's been reported that First Leicester will increase bus fares from this weekend, citing 

"operational costs, including diesel, lighting and wages"

for the no doubt inevitable increase. Bus companies are very quick to use increasing diesel prices to put up their fares, but it's amazing how those fares never revert back to pre-increase prices when fuel prices eventually go down.

"Not in service" - about right

Worse still, this announcement comes just two weeks after it was announced that the public transport provider will be cutting some of its services. Those cuts were prompted by the cut in council subsidies.

First Leicester is part of the FirstGroup, that provides bus and rail travel around the country. With increasing fuel costs, insurance premiums at a high (Arriva's excuse), wages etc, on top of councils cutting their subsidies, it would be hard to imagine how companies like FirstGroup survive. It would be totally flabbergasting if an operating profit of £55.4m was reported, an increase of 9.1%. I mean, you wouldn't want to be increasing fares if that was the case, would you? It would be totally underhanded and short-sighted to make customers, who will probably struggling financially and dependant on buses, after all.....

Fat Nation

It's been reported today that Britain's women are the fattest in Europe, with our men the 5th fattest. Whilst lagging behind in the world stakes, it's the first time in decades the UK has seen such unparalleled success in Europe.

Coming soon to a beach in Ibiza....

Rather than revelling in the fact we can do something bigger and better than our European counterparts, the popular press has been quick to raise blood pressures amongst our ever-increasing population - probably not the wisest move, given health and fitness levels. The Sun refers to it as a "crisis", for example. The Torygraph has also sensationalised the news somewhat, but has done some investigation into the causes of our obesity problems. Rather interestingly, Tam Fry, of the National Obesity Forum, puts the blame down to the successive Governments

"feeding children junk food in school, selling off playing fields, and failing to tackle the food industry"

Nothing to do with:

• Overeating
• Driving everywhere
• Giving kids games consoles, TVs and DVD players
• Increase in using conditions such as asthma to excuse children from what PE schools can and do provide

Nobody is forcing parents to buy junk food. Nobody is stopping them from taking their precious ones to the local park for a kickabout. It doesn't take a genius to work out what's healthy food, and what isn't, and surely even the thickest person out there must realise that if you consume more calories than you burn off, YOU WILL PUT ON WEIGHT!

The sooner the "Great" British public start to take responsibility for their actions (or inactions, as is most probably the case) and stops looking to blame everyone else, the sooner this "crisis" will be dealt with.