Newbury Weekly News

22 / 96

Thursday, May 11, 2017
14a Tuesday Market Place, King’s Lynn, Norfolk, PE30 1JN
Visit or phone us on 01553 661 500.
Bob Green
The Dartmouth Express
Saturday 24th June 2017
• Premier Dining includes full English breakfast and a four course dinner silver served at your seat.
• First Class includes morning coffee with a Danish pastry and afternoon tea with a savoury dish followed by a selection
of fancies and cakes.
• Standard Class includes a reserved seat usually at a table for four.
Fares Adult Junior Family
Premier £279 £195 £851
First £195 £137 £595
Standard £135 £95 £462
Approx. Timings Outward Return
Newbury 07:50 21:35
Paignton 12:10 17:20
Kingswear 13:00 16:45
A special rail journey into Devon and by ferry to pretty Dartmouth.
Our vintage train will travel along the Kennet and Avon Canal to Bristol to meet an historic steam
locomotive No. 34046 Braunton or No. 6023 King Edward II. From there we will steam through
the Somerset countryside, climbing Whiteball Summit on the Somerset and Devon border before
dropping down to Exeter and enjoying an exciting run along the famous sea wall from Dawlish
to Teignmouth.
The Dartmouth Express will stop at the holiday resort of Paignton where passengers can choose to
spend the afternoon or stay on board for Kingswear where a ferry (fare included) will take them
across the River Dart to the picture postcard town of Dartmouth to explore its narrow winding
streets and castle. On the return our vintage train will leave our steam loco behind at Taunton
finishing the journey diesel hauled.
Your booking is made subject to the terms and conditions of The Railway Touring Company
A buffet car is available and serves tea, coffee, snacks and light refreshments. Tables for two can
be guaranteed in First Class and Premier Dining for a supplement of £22 per person. (subject to
availability) Terms and conditions apply. Please ask for details.
Steam to Paignton, Kingswear and picturesque Dartmouth…
£5 per person discount for Newbury News readers. Please quote code QPA when booking.
U
K
S
T
E
AM R AI L DA
Y
T
R
I
P
£135from
Newbury Weekly News
Your views
POST: Newspaper House, Faraday Road, Newbury, RG14 2DW EMAIL
talk
to us
Email letters to with your full
name, a terrestrial address and daytime phone number.
DEADLINE: MONDAY NOON
How togetyourviews
published intheNWN
THENewburyWeeklyNews isdelighted toreceive
letters andviews from readers.
Preference willbegiven toletters offewer than300
words and local topics. Allviewsmaybeedited to
conform with legalandpublishing requirements.
Theidentities ofcontributors maybewithheld only in
exceptional circumstances. Anonymous submissions
willnotbeconsidered.
Lambourn busservices
aresimply notjoined up
More should bedone to
stoppavement cyclists
I AM an occasional user of the no 4 bus
service from Great Shefford into
Newbury, but recently I looked into the
possibilities of using the bus to go to
Swindon.
The no 4 from Newbury connects with
the no 47 for Swindon at Lambourn,
but a look at the timetable showed me
that this so-called connection is a joke.
The 0922 from Great Shefford gets into
Lambourn at 0935, but the 47 departs at
0930. The 1122 reaches Lambourn at
1135, by which time the 47 has left five
minutes earlier.
Only in the afternoon do the
connections work, although passengers
arriving in Lambourn on the no 4 at
1515 would have to hope that the bus is
punctual and they are swift on their
feet, as the 47 leaves at the same time.
In the opposite direction, departures of
the no 4 from Lambourn towards
Newbury provide a reasonable overlap
with the arrivals from Swindon up to
early afternoon, but the penultimate no
4 of the day departs at 1655; the same
time as the arrival of the 47.
The last bus from Swindon arrives in
Lambourn at 1835; 15 minutes after the
final no 4 service has left for Newbury.
Where is the sense in having bus
services in a rural area whose timings
seem designed to inflict the maximum
of inconvenience on passengers?
The current timetable states that the
no 4 service is operated under contract
to West Berkshire Council, while no 47
RECENTLY I visited my friends in
Plymouth, and as we walked through
the city centre, I remarked how
surprised I was that there were no
cyclists riding on the pavements.
Even in the pedestrianised zones I saw
cyclists walking with their bikes until
they reached the end of the zone and
they only remounted when they
reached the cycling lanes.
It is all due to the police fining the
riders according to a letter in the
Plymouth Herald on Saturday, April 8,
which is as follows:
“A cyclist giving someone a ‘backie’
was one of more than 100 riders slapped
with fines for breaking the law, new
police figures show.
“Devon and Cornwall Police revealed
that 112 cyclists have been hit with
fines in the last five years. But the
number of tickets issued has dwindled
from 60 in 2012 to just four last year.
“The most common offence was
‘contravening traffic sign/road
marking’ – such as jumping a red light.
“Riders were also penalised for not
having working lights, cycling on a
footpath and failing to stop for officers.
“Fines for cyclists breaking the law
rose from £30 to £50 in 2013. In all,
riders paid fines totalling £3,960.”
We still have a problem in Newbury
with the pavement cyclists, and when I
and other pedestrians have asked them
to stay on the road, we have had verbal
abuse, which has got to stop.
Also, recently a cyclist was seen riding
through the Kennet Shopping centre by
many shoppers.
So come on West Berkshire Council and
Thames Valley Police, please try and do
something about the few irresponsible
cyclists who endanger pedestrians.
And, if they only thought, they
endanger themselves as well.
MICHAEL CRYER
Enborne Road
Newbury
Thanks toMaestros for
theshow atfamily hub
I WOULD like to say a great big thank
you to Berkshire Maestros’ Early Years
Team for their wonderful Pantomimus
Show last week.
As part of a series they are staging,
they performed two fantastic shows for
toddlers, babies and their families who
attend the Central Family Hub
(formerly Thatcham Children’s Centre).
As one of West Berkshire Council’s
family hubs, we are committed to
improve outcomes for children and
their families and reduce inequalities,
particularly for those families in
greatest need of support; early
education is a major part of improving
outcomes for all children.
The Pantomimus Show accomplished
this by the bucket load, deftly
incorporating communication and
listening skills, physical movement,
pattern recognition, motor skills and a
whole host of others. All these, but
with heaps of fun, enjoyment and
pleasure so that no one felt they were
‘learning’.
It was such a privilege to be able to
give our families the opportunity to
experience Pantomimus; the expertise
was not only in the execution, but the
fundamental understanding of early
years education which underpinned
the show.
I have rarely been so impressed. Bravo!
PAULA CRAVEN
Central Family Hub Manager
is operated by West Berkshire Council
transport services team.
As the council appears to have
responsibility for both of these
services, why don’t those in charge of
transport ensure that the timings meet
the needs of the passengers rather than
the convenience of the operators?
These are, after all, supposed to be
‘services’.
ROY BAILEY
Great Shefford
n Continued from page 21
The kind of tactics that led to the Lib
Dems being slaughtered at the last
election, when they were reduced to a
handful of seats, and Ms Bunting’s vote
dropped by 20 percentage points?
It is, of course, true that in some areas
where Labour is successful,
Conservatives vote with the Liberal
Democrats in the hope of a coalition
which will preserve austerity, damage
the NHS and force young people out of
higher education and the housing
market.
In Newbury though, a vote for the
Liberal Democrats is a vote for the
Conservatives.
It may be a tactic, but it’s a bad, failed,
futile tactic of Tom-ish proportions.
There is no hope of a Liberal Democrat
victory here.
If you want progressive policies, then
you can’t vote for parties that aren’t
progressive.
The Conservatives offer austerity and
a hard Brexit, the Lib Dems offer Tory
plans wrapped in an EU flag.
Only the Labour candidate can promise
to fight for those progressive policies of
fairness, for a more hopeful future.
The dictionary definition of tactic is an
action carefully planned to achieve a
specific end. A tactical vote means that
the specific end will be a Conservative
victory.
So before deciding on tactics, watch
Tom getting a frying pan in the face,
and think again.
ALAN CHILDS
Newbury Labour Party campaign
co-ordinator