All aboard the new minibus
12 Village Voice March 2020
THE GARDENS MELBOURNE HALL Melbourne Hall and Gardens is a delightful place to visit with its historic connections and magnificent gardens. once home to Victorian prime minister, viscount Melbourne who gave his name to the Australian city. The hall is a treasure house
Gardens open April 1st - September 30th 1:00pm-5:00pm Wednesdays, Saturdays, Sundays and Bank Holiday Mondays.
Tea Rooms & Shops Open throughout the year (times vary) Tea Rooms: 01332 864224
01332 862502 www.melbournehallgardens.com info@melbournehall.com
MELBOURNE Community Care are now the proud owners of a new minibus and have already started using it for the regular trips. The bus is equipped with many more features which will help passengers as well as the regular volunteer drivers. The fully automated lift hoist at the back enables wheelchair users to access the bus more easily. Handrails and an automated flush-folding step on the side entrance to the vehicle will make it easier for the less mobile to get on board. With features such as a rear camera for reversing, blue-tooth connectivity, a lumbar and height adjustable seat, the driving experience should be much improved, although with the additional length of the vehicle some tricky three-point manoeuvres around the village may need a rethink! With up to 16 passenger seats the bus certainly has more room inside, and some of the early users have definitely given it the thumbs-up. The old bus has gone to a good home – it is going to be transformed into a camper van. Fund-raising needs to continue for the bus, as it has only been part financed, but Melbourne Community Care would like to thank all of those who have so generously donated already.
FARMERS AND BUTCHERS
l With the new bus are (l-r) Ella Battersby, Alison Thornhill, Len Johnson, Neil Wright and Paul Fox.
VILLAGE VOICE Postbag
Is HS2 a high speed gravy train?
I SHARE Robert Parker’s views in February’s Village Voice that the escalating costs of HS2 are highly unsatisfactory. How can it be that the costs of its construction have risen threefold in just a decade? We don’t have rampant inflation and the railway technology seems well established as many other countries have had high speed railways for many years. Presumably those who estimate the costs are experienced and know their business so why such a huge rise in costs? Are we in fact being duped and are we just going to see a white elephant that is in reality a high speed vanity gravy train? Do we actually need a high speed train with its associated high carbon emissions? Surely the most important justification for this new railway is that it increases rail capacity and helps to get cars off the roads, so why high speed? The more recently quoted justification is that HS2 will increase the prosperity of the north of the country. Possibly it will, but perhaps more likely it will make it easier for more people to commute to London from further afield. Perhaps the recently reported Chinese offer to build the railway faster and cheaper is a bit of a clue that we might not be getting value for money! £100 billion is an awful lot of money and would go a long way to help pump prime the schemes that are urgently needed to reduce our carbon emissions to what is required to meet our carbon budget, which we are nowhere near achieving at present. A further huge concern is the dreadful environmental destruction the railway will cause to some outstanding and hitherto protected habitats and ancient woodlands. The UK is already one of the most nature impoverished countries in the world and has, I believe the least tree cover of any coun-
try in Europe. Yet already, and actually before the latest decision to go ahead with HS2 was announced a few weeks ago, large numbers of mature oak trees were being felled not too far away in Cubbington woods in Warwickshire. Mature Oak Trees support the largest numbers of living creatures (mainly insects and invertebrates) of any of our native trees and mature trees take many years to replace. It’s not just ancient woodlands, but other valuable habitats such as wetlands that are also being destroyed. The likely impacts of HS2 on wildlife in Derbyshire have been studied intensively over recent years by Kieron Huston of the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust. These are pretty horrific and the proposed mitigation seem likely to be pretty inadequate. The details are well worth reading in the Spring 2020 edition of the DWLT Magazine ‘Wilder Derbyshire’. It is depressing enough to see trees being felled along motorways and existing railways, yet in the near future large numbers of oaks will be felled in Markeaton Park in Derby to make way for the massive £250million A38 improvement scheme, which will eventually and inevitably lead to greatly increased traffic flows and pollution in and around the city. Road traffic is now by far and away Derby’s (and most other places in the UK) greatest cause of carbon emissions and something that urgently needs to be reduced rather than increased. If Derby continues as at present and does not make major reductions it will use up all of its share of the carbon budget by 2029. This budget is the absolute amount of carbon that can in future be emitted in order to keep global warming to 1.5 degrees C and thereby avoid potentially uncontrollable climate change. Christian Murray-Leslie.
REGARDING your article on Page 5 (Village Voice, February, 2020: “Nottingham here we come – new bus hope”) would it be possible to suggest to the bus company that instead of congesting Potter Street (from Ashby) why doesn’t it go down Derby Road where there are four bus stops, then over the give way and turning right towards Packhorse Road where there are another three bus stops? It could then continue on Station Road and onto East Midlands Airport (EMA)? This alternate route would increase their revenue and not inconvenience residents in Potter Street. Its return journey from EMA would be as
usual – along Station Road, Castle Square and up Church Street, Market Place, Ashby etc? It’s just a thought. Thanking you, Tricie Delahay-Drake
Join us for Easter to enjoy some Easter fun. ALTERNATIVE ROUTE FOR NEW SERVICE Build a bunny workshop, hosted by Peter Rabbit - keep your Peter Rabbit teddy with birth certificate, craft activity & chocolate egg. (Saturday only). (This must be pre-booked by messaging or BOOK NOW on Abi's lnflatables Facebook page or call 07887 950119
O O O O O O O
Easter Hunt Trail Bouncy castle Giant sandpit Sit on tractors Pin the tail on the bunny Children’s craft activities Paint an egg
Face painter (Saturday only 12-2pm) Hot food and drinks Ice cream Easter bonnet competition with prize O Giant outside children’s games O Monthly fish van O O O O
PLEASE NOTE WE ARE CLOSED EASTER SUNDAY.
Kings Newton Lane, Kings Newton, Derby DE73 8DD Tel: 01332 865698 Tues - Fri 9am - 5pm Sat 8am - 5pm Sun 10am - 4pm Closed Monday Call 01332 865698 | Email orders@toriandbensfarm.co.uk @toriandbensfarm | toriandbensfarm.com | Tori and Ben’s Farm
THANK YOU
TO Margaret, her staff, and my nephew Roger: thank you for caring for me when I became ill on February 19 in the paper shop in Melbourne and for bringing me home. It was very much appreciated. Thank you. Ann Ingleby
Please send your letters to: letters@melbournevillagevoice.co.uk or write to us at The Village Voice, 11 North Street, Melbourne DE73 8FZ.