MAY I clarify a couple of items that were printed in the Standard dated July 17.

There were three stories all appertaining to the Chesterton Community Project.

Firstly, the area which is now called the Thistle Patch was not there 30 years ago as stated. This area came about in the early 90s. In 1984, which was 30 years ago, this was still being used as farm land by Chesterton Farm. The adjoining work yard was moved some time in the early 90s ready for the building of the new development which has now been up approximately 10 years or so.

Secondly, at the open meeting we had discussions with Sarah Tenant Bell over student issues. Some students do get up to things that they shouldn’t, but don’t tar every student with the same brush. We have had some issues with some of them, but hopefully this will be resolved when I meet up with Sarah over the summer period. If everybody worked together as a community instead of complaining about them all the time, things would be better.

We had issues about the bins being left out after collection. Instead of complaining, go and knock on the door and ask them to put their bins back in — it is that simple.

If you do find that students have gone away for the summer break, why not just pop round and put the bins out for them. It will benefit you in the end instead of having rotting refuse causing a smell all over the summer.

I will be sending Sarah a leaflet via e-mail which was devised by the project to tell students what goes on around the estate, and two of them will come on to our committee for the term so we, as a committee, can discuss any problems with them which they can relay back to the university.

Thirdly, inspector Karen Ellis attended our meeting. She noted all the problems that were mentioned to her and I am sure Karen will follow these up and report back to me. I will also keep an eye on things.

With your help we can work together and help solve crimes and stop speeding cars. I can also report back to Neil Lightfoot but if you do have problems phone the 101 number and you will get an incident number. Keep referring to that number until you have a reply.

On a separate issue, there was talk about a raised flower bed in the Thistle Park. This has been discussed with Martin Conyers, who will of course look into it further for us, but be aware shrubs cannot be planted until late September or early October. We will look at this as soon as possible, so please bear with us until it can be put in. Also, it will need to be looked after but the community project has not got the resources to do this so shrubs to be planted there.

ROLY HUGHES

Chesterton Community Project Chairman