Why does library get so cold?

Does anyone know why Wycombe public library has such a strange heating system? After spending most of the day heating the library it then switches to cold air around three or four o clock, freezing the occupants and ruining the previous good work. Really quite bizarre.

D.L. Kenton, Booker

We all have to stay optimistic

It may be down to the coronavirus but for the first time in many months last week's front page of the Bucks Free Press looked much brighter and more inviting than usual and contained the welcome news that ‘when you’re on your own, we are there with you.'

Great to hear this positive promise. It may have taken a major crisis to deliver this change of emphasis on your front page but please don’t go back to the continual dark and negative events happening in our area in every future edition.

For in each edition, if you look for it, there is much good news too.

And we all have to try to stay optimistic in the coming days and months.

Willie Reid, address withheld

Garden waste suspension not a good idea

Well done WDC! Suspending the collection of garden waste at the start of the gardening season and leaving residents with full green bins is a brilliant idea.

Especially when we are being encouraged to go out into the garden to get fresh air, to keep fit and to help morale whilst self-isolating.

The consequences are likely to be an increase in fly-tipping and an increase in air pollution from bonfires at the critical time when coronavirus is causing a massive increase in respiratory deaths. The drivers and vehicles used in the collection of green waste are said to be used for more important collections during this emergency.

It is difficult to understand what these more important collections can be which are not already covered.

If drivers and vehicles are needed maybe it would have been better to suspend the blue bin collection at this stage.

Arnie Parr, address withheld

We could see rise in fly-tipping

With the council declaring the cessation of all household bin collections during the current virus epidemic are they prepared for the inevitable rise in fly-tipping?

And if they manage to catch and charge those responsible will they enforce the full force of the law instead of the pathetic sentences that we see published in this paper?

Name and address withheld

British spirit of days gone by has disappeared

What unbelievable sights we have seen this week, the media only have to mention that there might be a shortage of something and the panic buying goes in to full swing, I hear many people saying "what is going on? why are people doing it"?

Well I'll tell you, sadly the British spirit of days gone by has disappeared and it has been replaced by a generation of the very greedy, those that wouldn't dream of going without anything and some of those wouldn't dream of working for a living either, as long as they have their mobile phones and mega size TV's and game boxes.

These greedy panic buying people don't like law and order, the same as those that don't think speed limits on our roads apply to them and then moan when they get fined for doing so, they treat the emergency services like it's a concierge service and A&E departments like a chemist shop, oh yes and you'll see them discarding their litter everywhere too as they expect others to do their clearing up for them, this is a very sad generation of people who wouldn't have a clue about what it means to pull together, the spirit that prevailed during our world wars has long gone.

Thank goodness that there are folk out there that aren't as greedy and uncaring and are willing to put themselves out for the elderly and the sick, the emergency services and NHS health workers in particular.

Roy Craig, Hazlemere

Thank you for your kindness

Could you please thank the three people who helped my husband this morning (March 21) in Piddington - especially Elayne who came to our home and saw to all his injuries.

I’m sure they all know who they are!

Pleased to say he is much better but very grateful for all the help. Another kind deed.

Thank you.

Chris, address withheld

Reopen the waste centres

Whilst the local waste collection service is under such great pressure, why doesn't the council reopen the local Waste Centres to receive domestic waste?

The numbers using the facilities could readily be regulated to ensure safe distancing practices as is happening with other essential services.

Effective waste disposal is an essential service at any time. If these centres remain closed there is a very real risk that more waste will be dumped and general waste contaminated with waste that should be recycled.

So my message to the council is - help us to help ourselves and our community.

Mike Griffin, High Wycombe

Stay home and save lives

Yesterday the Prime Minister instructed the British people to stay at home - to protect the NHS and save lives.

Buckinghamshire MPs are united in calling on all residents to follow that instruction.

It is critical - a matter of life or death - to stop COVID-19 spreading between households.

That is why people are now only permitted to leave their home for very limited purposes, such as food shopping, seeking urgent medical support, going to work, exercising once a day (alone or with members of your household) or caring for a vulnerable member of the community.

If you do absolutely have to go out, it is also vital to maintain a two metre distance from everyone else.

The number one reason this is so important is to save lives. COVID-19 is incredibly infectious, with up to a 14 day incubation period.

Put simply, every human interaction risks spreading the virus further.

No health service, anywhere in the world, could cope with the level of demand required if we do not slow the spread of COVID-19.

Our incredible NHS staff deserve our support. They are on the front line dealing with this crisis, we owe it to them to act responsibly in everything we now do. It’s their lives at risk too.

All five Buckinghamshire MPs continue to do all they can to answer queries relating to the COVID-19 crisis and are available by email to feed in specific issues to the government.

Please do contact your local MP if you need our help.

For further advice and clear guidance please see www.gov.uk/coronavirus

For local Buckinghamshire information, including details of volunteering through the community hub, see www.buckinghamshire.gov.uk/community-and-safety/coronavirus

Remember: Stay home and save lives.

Rt Hon Dame Cheryl Gillan MP, Steve Baker MP, Rob Butler MP, Joy Morrissey MP, Greg Smith MP

Open letter to businesses

COVID-19 is preoccupying all of our thoughts and is a clear and present danger to the health of many vulnerable people, but long after the pandemic has subsided, we will be faced with a much bigger problem; a widespread economic recession.

Businesses in Bucks are mostly small and don’t carry large reserves.

They are already feeling the impact of the growing run on confidence and the team at Buckinghamshire Business First has received many calls from businesses today that are threatened with failure.

Businesses, including mine, are making contingency plans to make people redundant/cut salaries/dramatically reduce expenditure/stop investing and even if the sector they work in isn’t currently directly affected, there is a sense that sooner rather than later all businesses will be.

Travel and hospitality businesses are seeing negative bookings and others are reporting turnover down by 90%.

I know that some innovative businesses are thinking about trying to reallocate team members to other businesses that aren’t affected, rather than lose them completely.

Recruiting and training good people is expensive and time consuming and simply laying them off seems like an old fashioned approach, especially as it is hoped that once the health crisis is over and the economy picks up businesses will start to grow again and one of the biggest challenges will be finding skilled people.

What if there was a widespread way of redeploying people to other businesses, or it to public service to cover people unable to work or where additional resources are needed.

What if we knew what every business in the county does, what their specialism is, what trained people they have and what capacity they have to help or where they need help.

Buckinghamshire Business First (BBF) has a membership of 12,000 businesses employing 70% of the employed people in Bucks.

We have much of this information available now and we can communicate quickly and effectively to fill the information gaps.

We can achieve three things that will not just directly help the business sector;

1. Provide a triage service for businesses in difficulty who need advice and support in areas such as HR, finance, security, marketing and property.

We can put together panels of experts and with my own property expertise, for example, I can assist companies with restructuring leases by negotiating with their landlords to obtain rent free periods and reduce costs.

2. Act as an intermediary between businesses and the public sector to see what resources (people and skills) can be made available.

This could be drivers, catering staff, logistics experts or manufacturers that could be making alternative goods.

3. Support businesses as things get back to normal with knowledge and resources to accelerate growth.

This needs financial resources to be allocated now.

This isn’t going to be achieved on a voluntary basis. Whilst many will offer to help, they have businesses to run and staff to pay.

Buckinghamshire Business First (www.bbf.uk.com/covid-19) can second significant additional resources from the business community at short notice; people with strategic skills and relationship that will make a difference.

We will need access to significant funds from government or other agencies.

We can scale this beyond the county if required.

Clearly, some businesses will have skills that are nationally important. If the government uses just existing supply lines, there are likely to be delays and challenges and undoubtedly profiteering.

We are lucky to have political, business, healthcare and education alignment in Bucks that should make getting things done more straightforward.

We need to act quickly and think differently though and break through any barriers if we are going to make a difference.

Investing now to save jobs will be much cheaper and less damaging than picking up the pieces afterwards.

Team Bucks is a phrase that has been coined to describe how different stakeholders have been working together in economic development; let’s extend this to achieve much more.

How do we achieve this? Please socialise this if you think we can find a way to make this work.

I appreciate you will have their own priorities and have a greater understanding of some of the issues, but we will achieve more if we work collectively and between us, we will have different but complementary perspectives.

Michael Garvey, Chairman of Buckinghamshire Business First