Security worries in a supermarket car park

LAST Monday it was snowing heavily and I resolved to get what shopping I had to do and then batten down the hatches and spend a lazy day watching the snowfall from the comfort of my own armchair.

I was there by 8am just as they were opening up and, as I was the first in, my shopping was soon done. I had no bag with me as usual and so stuffed some of my shopping in my large roomy handbag and carried the rest to my car, activating the lock as I almost ran to the car.

The lock would not open and I tried and tried as the flurries were getting thicker and settling on my coat.

A gentleman came to my aid and suggested that maybe the batteries in my key fob needed replacing. He showed me and told me what to do.

Another gent stopped to inquire if he could help and he thought it might be that the locks were frozen. As we stood discussing what to do another gent came up to us and said "Leave it to me." And pressed his own key fob and sprang my doors!

I was incensed. I had just paid a lot of money for my car and here he was able to open it with his own key. How secure was that?

I thanked him but said I was angry that he was able to do it so easily with his own key. I got quite hot under the collar, even allowing for the snow.

He said it was easy to open the car because it was HIS car – and mine was the one flashing like mad to the left... Oops!

JOY JAMES

Colwick Park Close

Colwick Village

I WILL watch the development of the Harvey Hadden Leisure Centre with interest.

I wonder if Nottingham City Council will track any possible decline in under-sevens learning to swim, following the closure of Beechdale Baths, and then after the opening of Harvey Hadden in two years' time.

Or perhaps there is no means to track this, which I suspect there isn't, as I am beginning to think the lives of young children are worth less to the city council than those of budding athletes.

I am referring to the lack of a small teaching pool. There is also no small pool at Djanogly Leisure Centre.

Protest at this, as well as the decreased ease of access by public transport, formed the focus of the opposition spearheaded from the late 90s of the Save Noel Street Baths campaign, which stalled the closure of Noel Street Baths, where thousands of inner-city children learnt to swim over the years, and the development of a swimming pool in the Djanogly Academy on Gregory Boulevard (which is not directly served by any buses).

At five years old my son could not swim. The reason why we had wasted £90 on lessons he refused to see through, though we kept booking them, in order to attempt to ensure his safety in water was, it transpired, because he was scared of the 25 metre pool and, at 29 degrees, rather than the recommended 31-34 degrees for a teaching pool, he was cold. We learned this as he liked Arnold's small pool so he requested lessons there.

In Sept 2012 I wrote to Andrew Millar, manager of Djanogly, and Councillor Jon Collins, voicing my concerns over Beechdale's closure and the proposed move to Harvey Hadden in the light of the problems experienced at Djanogly.

I hoped that my concerns would be fed into the consultation process but was informed it had not yet started. I did not hear anymore regarding that until I heard, on Radio Nottingham, that the three-week consultation had ended and work on Harvey Hadden had begun.

Unlike Noel St Baths, Beechdale, with its soft play centre and sensory room, is used by and accessible to the whole of Nottingham. Surely all Nottingham residents should have had a say in its future?

Please please, would those in power, with influence in Nottingham City Council, reconsider the design of Harvey Hadden. It is never too late for children's safety to be taken account of. By all means have an Olympic-sized pool and a velodrome. Nottingham needs its heroes.

But don't forget the thousands of small people whose parents can't afford to defect to a private gym, and whose safety is being compromised.

Let our children be safe to enjoy the National Watersports Centre we proudly enjoy and please make Nottingham a truly safe city to be proud of.

ALICE McGREGOR

Watcombe Circus

Carrington

THE Government's welfare reforms will affect thousands of people in Nottingham. For many people this will mean they can no longer afford their rent and, in extreme cases, will become homeless.

The Asra Housing Group provides 2,394 homes in Nottingham and has launched an awareness campaign called Changes Ahead 2013.

The campaign is focused on asking all claimants – are you ready for changes to your benefit?

Coming in from 2013, the new Bedroom Tax will hit many families the hardest. Anyone who is deemed by the government's new rules to be under-occupying their home will receive a large reduction in the amount of housing benefit they receive.

A lot of people will simply not be aware that this is happening or they may choose to bury their heads in the sand.

We're urging every resident who claims benefits to visit our website at www.asra. org.uk/changesahead2013 to see whether they are affected. It contains lots of advice about what to do next and who to speak to.

Among the other benefits due to change are disability living allowance and council tax benefit. All benefits are due to be brought together as one overall benefit called "Universal Credit", which the Government hopes will simplify the benefits system. An overall benefit cap will also be introduced.

AMANDA SHARPE

Asra Housing Group

Leicester

IT has been a very long time since my last letter regarding my grave concerns about Nottingham City Council's tram extensions, but two recent letters you have published have prompted me to put finger to key once again, even though I am fighting for the survival of my 27-year-old small business in Beeston, situated along the tram route.

Councillor Barber, Labour, wrote on January 3 that we must accept the tram plan and pull together and not make a political issue about it.

Yet on the January 9 the local Labour candidates for the county council elections are promoting themselves by indicating what they think they can "find solutions to congestion problems" caused by the tram construction. What is going on here then?

If elected, they will negotiate for us all, the best deal.

What deal would that be, then, after peoples, homes and businesses have been knocked down and many people's livelihoods badly affected and many old people's lives adversely affected? Pray tell all.

Also – voters please note – even if you usually vote Labour, Mick Warner is the same ex-councillor Mick Warner who stood down as county council leader and said that, if the tram route went though Neville Sadler Court, in Beeston, that he would lie down in front of the bulldozers before it was knocked down.

Is he still going to do so if he is stupidly re-elected or, as I fear and he knows, it is all too late?

What a bunch. Yes, the tram issue should never have been a political one but it always was and always will be.

Time to wake up everyone, as I kept on saying, but it is too late and you get what you deserve, unless you act now. I never wanted to say I told you so.

STEVE WILLIAMS

Chilwell Road

Beeston

THE Love Food Hate Waste campaign (Post January 26) provides a delicious recipe for bread and butter pudding which uses eight egg yolks.

Could they now give us a recipe to use up the eight egg whites? There's only so many meringues one can eat, and it would be counter to the message of the campaign for the whites to go to waste.

LIZ HAYTO

Eden Close

Arnold