Councillor Pat Strack will doubtless be appalled to discover that she and I are in agreement over one thing: that “sniping from the sidelines” (Your Views, April 8) will not save Aldenham Country Park from the determination of her Tory friends at County Hall to destroy it.
But there this unexpected outbreak of harmony ends. Because while she believes the correct response to the actions of county councillors Bright, Plancey and Clapper is to raise the white flag of surrender, I believe it is an all-out artillery barrage.
No true “friend of the country park” would be parleying with its enemies, because once the county council abandons the park, everything else will be in its gunsights — the library, the multi-purpose day centre, another swathe of bus routes. The list of services vulnerable to Tory savagery is almost endless.
Why are they doing this? Like her political allies, Councillor Strack offers no explanation and no apology. But Hertfordshire County Council squandered £28 million of public money in speculative investments in Icelandic banks.
Have those responsible suffered in any way? No, they continue to enjoy the perquisites of office, while the rest of us face the closure of our country park and other amenities as the direct consequence of their perfidy and folly.
If it wasn’t a tragedy, all this would be a farce. But tragically it is for real, as the day when the axe falls on the park draws ever nearer.
John Cartledge
Haddon Close, Borehamwood
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