Apparently, Anglian Water received the results of the testing on Tuesday morning.

By Tuesday night I had received four emails warning me of the situation from Neighbourhood Watch and the parish council.

On Wednesday it made the national TV news and all the papers.

On Thursday, we received a warning through the post.

Now, given the moaning that is going on about "why didn't they tell us sooner?", I think Anglian Water deserves congratulations on its efficiency.

Incidentally, the warning I received told me to boil the water before drinking.

Did I miss the bit about rushing out to buy over-priced bottled water then claiming compensation for the expense? I think not!

Now we have everyone who has suffered a dicky tummy over last weekend claiming it was caused by the bug.

I too went down with diarrhoea but, silly me, put it down to the two helpings of vindaloo on Friday night.

If only I had realised it was cryptosporidium I need not have abstained from curry since then!

OK, maybe I am exaggerating but Anglian Water does a thousand tests every day, seven days a week.

It found traces of the bug and acted immediately.

Give them some credit.

I do, however, agree with the request that we be compensated for increased gas/electricity usage.

That is only fair and, as an optimist, I am confident Anglian Water is looking at it.

Come on, Northamptonshire, we have put up with worse than this.

Stop trying to put the blame on someone.

We will probably never know how the cryptosporidium bug entered the supply as it can be found in all manner of faeces, animal and human.

We cannot expect our animals to improve their personal hygiene or, possibly, even our fishermen!

Let's move on.
John Wilshire,
New Street
Weedon.

Time councillors got on with job
What is wrong with Northampton's local councillors?

If they aren't trying to score political points off each other, we now have to witness the circus where they are arguing about who sits where.

For goodness sake, grow up the lot of you and get on with the job you were elected to do, which is representing your constituents and their views.

I live in the south of the county and sit on South Northants Council but reading daily about the antics of our neighbours makes me understand more clearly why the general public are so cynical and disengaged from local, let alone national, politics.

We all left the classroom a long time ago but reading about this issue makes me wonder whether it's time for a lesson in common sense and personal responsibility.
Cllr David Aaronson
Deanshanger Ward
Patricks Lane
Deanshanger, Northants

David Essex fans should complain
We too were at the Derngate to see David Essex, and we totally agree with what Mrs Eva Gill had to say about it (C&E 28th June).

We hope she, and others who had their evening spoilt by these selfish women, do as we have done and put a formal complaint in writing to Derngate.

We have seen this happen at his and other shows before, but the theatre ushers seem to ignore it, apart from the two rushing into the audience to stop them from filming or taking photographs.

Pity they weren't as robust in ordering them back to their seats!

From the moment he appeared on stage, nearly all the people in the front stalls either stood up or left their seats to surge to the front, leaving people with no option but to also stand.

What about the few that could not stand, like the lady behind us, therefore we spoilt it for her too because we too stood up?

This is totally unacceptable in a seated theatre, after all, it is not a "party in the park"; we paid for a seat and we expect to be able to stay in it and see what we paid to see, and not the backs of people.

If there had been more control then we all could have enjoyed the show, and perhaps they wouldn't have had the problems with the stage, resulting in it having to be cut short.

We hope they address this problem by the time he brings his new musical to Derngate next May, or they might find we and others will not be buying the tickets!
Mr & Mrs Higgs
Queen Eleanor Road
Far Cotton, Northampton

What did Diana do for the town?
I do not understand why people keep harping on about erecting a statue to Diana Spencer, the late Princess of Wales.

Surely statues and memorials are for people who did something for the town?

She was born in Norfolk, was educated in Norfolk and Kent, finished in Switzerland and lived and worked in London.

Where is the connection with Northampton, apart from a family seat in a village outside the town that she rarely spent time at?

This council has wasted far too much of the council tax payers' money as it is, without throwing more away on a statue of a woman who did little, if anything, for the town.

Diana was just an ordinary woman, with the same faults and frailties as the rest of us, who happened to live a privileged and glamorous lifestyle.

She may have left many people in Northampton with pleasant memories of a visit, a smile or a word, but let's be honest, she made no real contribution whatsoever to the well-being of the town.

I realise that these comments will probably leave me open to vilification from some quarters, but really, let's get on with real life.
Denise O'Hora (Mrs)
Longland Road
Northampton

Family learned a lot from Eric
When we moved back into this area in the early Eighties, we started getting the Chronicle & Echo and from then enjoyed reading Eric Roberts' columns.

They were always rather refreshing and very informative.

I think we as a family have learned quite a lot from them.

I was wondering if they could continue on an archive basis, random picking of the same day (i.e. time of year) from any of his 55 years with you, similar to your 'Looking Back' section, but on a different page.

That is, if Eric is in agreement!

Enjoy your well deserved retirement Eric.
Carole Anne Harrington & family
Parva House
Duncote, Nr. Towcester

Chained chairs
I visited the fracture clinic last week and was shocked to see that all the chairs had been chained together in one of the waiting rooms.

It was more like Wormwood Scrubs than Northampton General Hospital (not that I've ever visited Wormwood Scrubs, you understand, but that's how I would imagine it being like).

I don't really know why I was so shocked, after all, that's the way society's going (or gone). Or perhaps it's a case of letting the drunken brawlers have one last "round" before getting "plastered".
S Green (Mrs)
West Leys Court, Moulton