Reference your story 'A deprivation area?' (Daventry Express, April 17) a very controversial feature that I am sure you are well aware will attract a lot of angry response.
Firstly it lacks direction and disguises the real point, that the area lacks services. What services does it need? There is a very good shop, a takeaway offering fish and chips and Chinese food, and as you say a church, a community centre, and most i
mportantly 10 minutes' walk away there is a town called Daventry, which has three supermarkets, three chemists, an Argos, and a multitude of charity shops and estate agents, cafes, not to mention at least seven pubs and a nightclub.
Also five to 10 minutes away is Borough Hill, Daventry Golf Club, and the Country Park. Also I don't know if councillor Millar ever noticed the rather large playing fields incorporating two football pitches.
So where does that leave the surrounding villages? Badby – two pubs, no shop/post office; Newnham – one pub, one shop and now also no post office; Everdon – one pub; Staverton – one pub, etc, etc.
Why are they not 'deprived'? They don't even have the bus service the Southbrook has so I fail to see how that makes the Southbrook 'deprived'.
I was recently a resident of one of these villages and I can assure you that parts of the Southbrook are a darn sight quieter.
There may be the odd occasion when some of the younger residents get, how shall we say, a tad boisterous, but they are kids and we were all young once.
Problems on the Southbrook, I am afraid to say, lie at the council's feet. Wander around and look, most of the things in disrepair are the council's responsibility, fencing, garages,etc.
The new estates being built at present have nowhere near the facilities the Southbrook has and neither are they as close to town.
Cllr Hills' comment that the Southbrook needs a pub and a post office – what planet is he on? Hasn't anyone told him that nearly all the post
offices have recently been closed? And don't the police have enough to do in town at the weekend without having to worry about another pub?
If Cllr Millar is so concerned about these areas he should stop blaming the Government and look in his own back yard a bit harder. How about investing some of the money from their new subterranean trolley park (the new canal/marina] and their wonderful 'pod' transport system into these poor terribly deprived areas?
Bridie Hume
Via email
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