Before it was agreed that we qualified, no less than 70 letters and documents passed between ourselves and the service. That was three years ago and the process took almost a year!

On April 11 of this year, I notified them of a change in our circumstances, for the worse as it happens.

This produced a communication on April 29 which seemed completely unrelated to my letter.

Among other documents, they wanted copies of my wife's pay slips.

At 82 she doesn't get many.

Following that there have been half a dozen letters and a dozen telephone calls, none of which have had the slightest effect, except to produce promises that they would telephone me on a certain day or at a certain time, which they have never done.

I have a knowledge of business matters, some experience in letter writing, and an ability to understand some of the jargon used but can you imagine what it must be like for someone in their mid-80s to be confronted with this mass of correspondence?

We got pension credit because after 70 letters I didn't give up. Most others probably give up at long before that.
Owen Bryce,
Blisworth.

Time to halt the development
One must conclude that large housing and commercial developments which have not started at present will not be commenced for 7-10 years and some which have started be held in abeyance, as anyone who lends money for whatever purpose will scrutinise in detail the borrower's capabilities of being able to repay.

Easy finance deals which we have experienced over the last 16 years have now gone forever.

Britain is in the grip of a full blown economic and financial crisis.

Inflation could rise to four per cent, according to the Bank of England.

With the present economic outlook, what use is the West Northamptonshire Development Corporation?

While anybody can prepare housing development numbers, economics play the major part in respect to such proposals becoming reality.

WNDC funding is believed to be £15.3m which they spend on escalating staff levels etc. Such an amount could surely be better spent?

Local authorities' regeneration departments should be severely reduced, saving council tax payers costs.

Council leaders should be mindful of the severity of this financial debacle when they suggest town centre commercial property acquisition and redevelopment when 38 shops are presently empty and redevelopment of the Grosvenor Centre has been on-going for 10-plus years with no commencement in sight for another 7-10 years.

Obviously the severity of the present financial crisis is not the fault of development corporation or Northampton Borough Council but facts, reality and especially economics affect any type of development proposals.
Rod Kilsby,
High Street, Spratton.

Committed to low bus fares
We at Meridian Bus would like to welcome First Bus to the idea of cost-effective buses after it dropped the fares to 50p on the 29/30 service between Northampton town centre and Kings Heath.

However, we would like to ask First Bus why the rest of Northampton doesn't also deserve 50p fares? We would also like to ask it to match our long-term commitment to low fares.

For those who don't know us, Meridian Bus was set up to answer some of the problems of the bus industry. That is why we are reliable, punctual, operate a fleet of modern buses and have a maximum fare of £1.

At a time when an ever greater focus is on public transport, we abhor the idea of destabilising the local bus industry with short term gimmicks.

Perhaps if First Bus had actually provided a decent service in the first place, then we would never have taken so many of their passengers from them.
Derek S Taylor,
Commercial Manager, Meridian Bus, Northampton.

A dictatorship in all but name
The Labour Party is systematically destroying the country and has been for the last 30 years as have the other main parties.

They have put the fear of God in most people by smear campaigns and so other parties have no chance of getting their opinions heard.

The Labour party has been in too long and has lost its way and are trying to do as much damage as they can before shuffling off to their index-linked pensions and leaving the rest of us to suffer, then blaming whoever takes over the country for the problems and deficits they leave behind.

We are in a dictatorship in all but name as we do not even make any major decisions because they are made by the EU.

We are being taxed out of existence by this Government that makes unenforcable laws so they can make more laws to criminalise the population.

Should you try to elicit a response from this Government and its minions, they are so arrogant that they will not even answer or, at best, pass you over to another department who will not reply.
Mike Papworth,
Ruskin Road, Kingsthorpe, Northampton.

Failing schools are still failing
When is Northamptonshire ever going to get someone responsible for education who can do the job properly?

I wrote in this paper a couple of weeks ago about Councillor Loud and her stupid decision to disrupt the education system in this county and, if the exam results that were published in Wednesday's Chron were anything to go by, it looks like the fears about the change that myself and the vast majority of other parents had have been proved correct.

The sad thing is, no-one will hold their hands up and say "we got it very wrong, children are suffering greatly because of this".

Councillor Kirkbride said that it would be several years before we would see what effect the changeover will have had. What complete and utter rubbish. This is a get out, because she knows by then it will not be her problem.

The GCSE results are self-explanatory.

The schools that were listed in the report were struggling before. Instead of giving them new buildings, maybe proper studies should have been done into the teaching standards.

If the standards aren't improving, what does that tell you?

It would be great if the person in charge of sorting the schools out had children actually in these schools, who are now being the victims of this nonsense.

It's time for the councillors to stop blaming everybody else but themselves and for the schools to take some of the responsibility as well.

Get it sorted out and start putting the children of Northampton first before it's too late.
S Boyer,
West Paddock Court, Lings, Northampton.