Just as the dust looked like it was settling over the A14, we get this bolt out of the blue.
I'd consider moving to the Shetland Islands, but if I did, the Government would probably announce they were going to drill for oil in my garden !
D Carrick
Bluegate
Godmanchester

Why is it hard to pay bills?
>> MUCH has been written recently about the problems facing local Post Offices as they are threatened with closure or having more services taken away and given to the private sector, and thought your readers might be interested in my recent experiences.
This week I received my bill from Anglian Water, who note on the bill that a charge will be made (presumably by Anglian Water) if payment is made at the Post Office.
So I searched for ways to pay locally over the counter without paying extra for the privilege.
Mentioned on the form was Payzone, which said that I could pay at the following shops: St Ives News in Market Hill, Waitrose in Station Road, Huntingdon (they meant St Ives, the postcode confirmed this) and VG Stores, Lorna Court, Cambridge (again they meant St Ives). All very muddled and inaccurate.
I rang Waitrose St Ives, who said they only sold mobile phone top-ups under the Payzone sign. I checked on the Payzone website ("it payz to pay at payzone") where Waitrose was missing but Fazel's of St Ives was listed.
Further confusion is added by having a second business, presumably in competition with Paypoint, who according to Anglian Water no longer accept water bill payments.
Why do we need competition in where to pay our bills? There must be profits being made and I would rather that was by the Post Office, which I thought we all owned.
Trying to find details of Post Office payment on most bills is difficult enough anyway. 
So my question is why, at a time when Post Offices are under threat, is it still being made increasingly difficult to pay our everyday bills, at no extra charge over the counter, especially when Post Offices have barcode readers to make the process fast and accurate?
Tony Dutton
Weir Road
Hemingford Grey
                                
Not a pretty picture
>> ISN'T everyone fed up with councillors splashed all over our papers?
They're not photogenic and must be putting advertisers off.
If they carry on like this not only will St Neots have lost its Post Offices, its Registrar's Office, Job Centre, Bargroves Centre and probably the Priory Centre as well but we'll be in danger of losing our local papers.
St Neots councillors just seek publicity and do nothing except waste our money – see the £40,000 decorating offices they plan to demolish!
Then there was the £150,000 on unsafe Christmas lights, heaven knows how much on a lottery people just don't want.
And this year they will spend £10,000s more on useless consultants.
They've done nothing about our cinema, swimming pool, transport, roads or pavements, dying shops or anything else that people want and the town desperately needs.  
St Neots never gets anything because councillors think fooling residents with empty words and silly pictures is all they have to do.
I suggest Mr Giles gets the fag packet he worked out his 10 per cent tax increase on and use the other side to list what we were promised and haven't had.
James Clark
The Broadwalk
Eynesbury

We have town's interest at heart
>> Mandy Thomas (Town Crier, February 28) asks why St Neots has town councillors who are "champions of policy areas over which (we] have no jurisdiction".
Please allow me to enlighten her. My fundamental task as a town councillor is to pursue the interests of the town and represent all its residents.
It happens that I have an extensive knowledge of transport issues from past work, and contacts in other levels of government and the private sector.
I take it upon myself to make sure the town council replies positively to consultations, to make sure we take advantage of anything on offer from higher up, to pursue problems on behalf of residents, to act as their eyes and ears, to keep the county and district councils aware of St Neots issues, and to help my fellow councillors of any colour who need to call on that experience.
"Not having jurisdiction" is a poor excuse for not influencing and informing those who do. And I am sure Ms Thomas would be very quick to inform us if I did simply sit on my backside and let others get on with it.
Cllr Julia Hayward
St Neots Town Council,
Eaton Socon ward

Thank you very much!
>> May I say well done to the Town Crier for the excellent '50s and '60s night at The Priory Centre this Saturday.
We had a great time and the two singers were very entertaining.
I particularly enjoyed the Elvis tribute, it's a shame that a few people left early before he could get to a couple of The King's best tracks – Suspicious Minds and In The Ghetto.
It was also good to see our local paper doing something for the community. I was pleased to see some of the young carers there and thought the lady's (Lucy Francklin of the Huntingdonshire Young Carers Project) speech about what the charity do was very moving. (see report, page 14)
Mr Shepherd
Eynesbury

A slight difference of opinion
>> William Davison is to be commended on an excellent story – MP leads levy attack (Town Crier, February 21) – bar the inclusion of some rather startling figures regarding the number of Prospect members who pay into the union's political fund.
Figures for the union's 2007 annual report show that out of Prospect's total working membership of 78,559, only 1,724 members opted against paying the 60p per year contribution to the political fund.
This means 97.8 per cent of the membership did contribute – a far cry from the 0.3 per cent quoted in the article.
To reiterate, the political fund is not as MP Jonathan Djanogly suggests, ring-fenced funding for the Labour party. As stated, Prospect's rules contain strict guidelines to protect its party political neutrality. The fund, however, is a requirement to protect the union from any legal challenge to its campaigning activities under legislation passed by a Conservative government in 1992.
Without it, important campaigns on issues such as energy policy or the privatisation of the Forensic Science Service could be deemed political and stopped – a fine example of government red tape hindering clear communication, except that this time it is trade unions rather than business that are the victims.
Paul Noon
Prospect General Secretary

Editor's note: We disagree with Prospect's statement that our figures are wrong.
Our article states: "...just 0.3 per cent (230) of Prospect's 90,456 members chose to pay the reduced, non-political levy..."
In other words, 230 (0.3 per cent) of members opted out of paying the political levy.
Prospect (which has more up to date figures on its membership) state that 1,724 members (2.2 per cent) opted out of paying the levy.
Therefore we say 0.3 per cent opted out, Prospect says 2.2 per cent. We do not consider that to be a "startling" difference.

Drain to blame
>> IN answer to Ian Smith's letter (regarding the road collapse in Ramsey, (Town Crier, February 28) I would like to inform Mr Smith that I was contacted by a member of the Middle Level, to say the problem was that Cambridgeshire County Council had made the road wider over the years.
Can Mr Smith tell me why, in that case, has the Forty Foot drain got very much wider? I have been around the Ramsey area since 1951 and I have seen the river get wider and more dangerous in that time.
Cllr Ray Powell
Ramsey Town and
Huntington District Council

How independent will they be?
>> THE letters pages of recent papers remind us that, in May, the Town Council elections are due in St Ives.
Every four years up pops the usual crop of letters asking us all to abandon party politics in local government and to "vote for the independents", whilst heaping indiscriminate, and often wholly unwarranted, condemnation upon anyone with any form of "party" affiliation. As someone who has had, at various times over the last five years, some direct but independent involvement with St Ives Town Council, and over 50 years service in local government generally, I shall watch with great interest to see just how "independent" are those candidates who are brave enough to put themselves forward for election. 
How many will represent special interest groups? How many, I wonder, will be the old political cast-offs of a bygone era upon whose shoulders rests the responsibility for many of the problems facing the council today? 
How many will be those who so swiftly rush to compose cheap and easy letters of criticism? Will they be putting their candidacies where their mouths are?
Had the recent problems, including that of the Corn Exchange, been so easy to resolve would not the current council quickly have done so – especially with elections looming? 
Sometimes, sticking to the law and doing what is right is not always popular. If you want to be a councillor just to be popular – forget it!
To comply with the law of the land is a fundamental requirement upon every local councillor (although some take more persuading than others).
To propose or be complicit in any policies contrary to that law is, not least, a betrayal of the trust to which every elector and taxpayer is entitled. To those who decide to seek election to St Ives Town Council, I would say that there are many who will watch your future actions with considerable interest in the hope, maybe, that they might just match your promises. 
Good luck!.
Ted Bockin
Home Farm Road, Houghton

Kids suffer after footbal club theft
>> Where do we go wrong and why we do bother? It would be so easy to have this attitude!
We would just like to express our disgust to the persons who decided to break into the Ramsey Colts clubhouse on Saturday evening.
Due to their mindless actions we were unable to offer refreshments and raise funds for the club in the process to the teams that played at the club the following morning.
All of the committee and managers are volunteers and spend many hours of their own time providing a service to over 200 youngsters from the ages of five to 17.
The actions of these sad, mindless people dishearten all those involved at the club.
Unfortunately with being a small community it is likely that they have either family or friends that play at the club and it is the same people they have stolen from.
It's the children at the club that are the losers. Despite taking an extensive amount of chocolate, causing damage to the window where entry was gained and the total inconvenience they caused, we will continue to provide a service to the youth of the town who do appreciate us. So if anyone does know of anyone in possession of an unusual amount of chocolate and who may have been violently sick due to eating such a large amount please call the local police, we are sure they would welcome your call.
Ramsey Colts FC
committee