We’ve had a couple of letters recently highlighting traffic problems on Rood Hill in Congleton and, doing the school run as I do, I can only agree. At certain times of the day Congleton is in a right mess as far as traffic goes.
We have the link road, sold to us as a development that would ease congestion in town, when it was never going to do any such thing — a clear breach of the Nolan principles for local government by all concerned, I would have thought. Now traffic in the town is worse than ever. I regularly travel from Holmes Chapel and it takes minutes to get from there to Congleton, but then anything up to 45 minutes to cross town.
As with our recent letter writer, I’ve tried cutting through to Sandbach Road or going up Padgbury Lane and there are massive queues in every direction. This week I did something I feel slightly ashamed about — cutting through Brownlow, doubtless to the annoyance of villagers there — but even going through Astbury to get back into Congleton meant a long queue, stretching back to the traffic lights at the railway bridge the other day.
We’ve carried stories recently about the Middlewich bypass, but Congleton is just as bad. And we’ve now got no chance whatsoever of getting a relief road, because we have the beautifully empty link road, which does not serve Congleton in any way. If its namesake Elizabeth Wolstenholme Elmy had been as useless, she’d never have a statue in town, that’s for sure.
The other day I tried going the length of the link road to come back into town and miss out Rood Hill, but the traffic at Lower Heath stretched back to the ambulance station. You get the same issue if you nip through Swettenham. Whichever way you approach, you are inevitably faced with a queue.
My first reporting job was in Malvern and I remember Worcester was always bad until they built a second bridge over the Severn. I think Congleton now is even worse. Maybe we should be inspired by the French, don reflective jackets and start a fire on a roundabout.
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Reform UK has joined the mainstream political parties in one aspect locally: its members think we’re biased against them. All parties think we’ve got it in for them; if they all do, it means we’re doing a decent job.
When I started, I was always told the Chronicle was biased towards the Tories, even though the Lib Dems had plenty of coverage and Labour was down to Robert Boston and Win Grimshaw -Lewis in Congleton (and Keith Haines in Sandbach). There’s only so much you can do. Now people say we’re biased towards Labour.
There’s not much we can do about it, even in the face of all evidence that we treat everybody fairly. It’s like the veteran letter writer who said we stifled his views because of partisanship, despite us printing every one of his letters, and his complain appearing in a published letter.
No one would go and see their doctor or newsagent and expect a poorer service for people of opposing political views. Just like doctors — and anyone who needs to make a profit — we treat everybody the same.
This is all a roundabout way of getting to the troubles at Staffordshire County Council, where the leader and at least two other county councillors have been accused of tweeting or retweeting racist messages, the leader being a member of a white supremacist Facebook group. As they said about Brexit: not all Reform supporters are racist, but all racists support Reform.
I have to say, I am very disappointed by the actions of the Reform county councillors. As I read news about the failings of other councils — Kent, Northampton, Worcester — I was pleased that the Reform councillors in Staffordshire seemed sensible enough. Oh dear.
We tried to get some quotes from Reform members for a story but none were forthcoming — I don’t blame them. What can you say about a council leader supporting a white supremacist Facebook page? They’ve let us, and the party, down.
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In brighter news, criminal, racist and former Islamophobe Stephen Christopher Yaxley- Lennon — who calls himself Tommy Robinson professionally — has held a carol service after finding God in prison.
We can only be pleased; as Jesus said: “There will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous people who don’t need to repent.”
I’m sure he’s serious, so we can presumably expect a different message from Mr Yaxley- Lennon, as Jesus’ teaching on migrants is clear: love, welcome and compassion are non negotiable duties.
As Exodus 23:9 says: “Do not oppress a foreigner … I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.”
Jesus declared “Love your neighbour as yourself” as the second greatest commandment, and “neighbour” is not limited to one’s own community but includes all people, even foreigners. The Good Samaritan parable is the defining illustration — our neighbour is anyone in need, regardless of origin.
The parable sees a priest and Levite pass by an injured man, but a Samaritan — despised by Jews — stops, cares for him, and pays for his recovery. By making a Samaritan the hero, Jesus tackled ethnic and religious boundaries.
Mr Yaxley -Lennon does not have to look far for Samaritans, as modern day migrants have proved heroes in both the UK and Australia recently.
Pigs and flying do come to mind; I’ll believe it when I see him leading carols at one of the camps in Calais.
