Letters To The Editor

We urgently need improved assistive living and palliative care

Dear Editor

I was disappointed to see your front page article promoting the assisted dying bill going through parliament.

I feel for those experiencing painful end of life but this is not a time that anybody should be promoting easier ways for disabled people to be killed. I urge people to watch Liz Carr’s excellent film.

I recently visited the memorial in Berlin to the disabled people who were the first targets of the Nazi holocaust. The parallels in the language used is chilling. Disabled people are already facing a barrage of cuts and we are told that anyone without paid work is a burden.  Before calling for assisted dying we urgently need improved assistive living and palliative care.

Penelope Brown

Local store is a target for thieves

Dear Editor

As a former employee of Marks & Spencer in Frome, I’m deeply concerned about the increasing shoplifting in my old store (I’m a resident). An ex-colleague recently told me that over £1,000 worth of goods were stolen in just a couple of days, and thieves are even travelling from far and wide, due to the store’s reputation for being “super easy” to steal from.

This raises serious concerns. Why isn’t more being done to stop these thefts? It’s not a victimless crime: businesses suffer, prices rise, and staff feel unsafe. It beggars belief that the police, local authorities and store management don’t take immediate action, whether through increased security or closer collaboration with the police, to protect our stores and community. What the blo… Hell is the CCTV for?

Name supplied

The right to a dignified exit

Dear Editor,

I write in support of Mr Spuy’s arguments in your last edition. I too have terminal cancer in my bones having been diagnosed as stage 4 at the early part of 2020. I had no symptoms at all other than aches in my hip which I hoped wasn’t arthritis. I have been very lucky in that my symptoms since then have been very slight consisting of fatigue and various aches that come and go. I am also approaching my mid-70s and I have had a very enjoyable life and feel very sorry for all those younger than me who will have to go through this. I have received, and continue to receive, excellent care from the RUH but my time is running out and even though I am in good health at the moment, the end is inevitable.

I do not intend to die from cancer but know that I will die with it as I hope to have the strength to choose my own exit when things get really bad. I’m not going to put myself or my family through such a pointless experience. It seems as though there reaches a point where the health service, the legal profession, and cancer all join forces to keep us painfully alive for as long as possible. As people in my situation are not allowed any assistance in choosing our own end we have to resort to subterfuge. How can this be done? An overdose of medication is the obvious way but how can the drugs be obtained? via the dark web? try to buy some heroin off some junkies? Assisting suicide maybe a crime but perhaps nothing compared to the crimes that may have to be committed to avoid an agonising death.

Well done Mr Spuy I really admire your courage in publicising your situation. I’m afraid that I don’t share your courage as I’m still active and working and there are many people who don’t know my situation and I don’t want to cause them undue distress, so I have asked that my name be withheld from publication until nearer the time and then… we shall see, all I want is a dignified exit when time comes, I don’t see it as shortening my life but shortening my death.

Name and address supplied

A gift to the people of Frome

Dear Editor,

Amongst all the gloom and doom of approaching winter, a transformation is on the horizon, drastically changing the well-being of the people of Frome – the wildlife corridor is coming ever closer to Frome!

Frome’s Missing Link with its untouched wild woodland, tumbling streams, heritage apple orchards brown hare, roe deer, rabbits, muntjak, bush crickets, grizzled skippers, skylarks and corn buntings, hawfinches, flycatchers, golden plover and ring ouzel as well as orchids, meadow saffron, yellow rattle and musk mallow, over 650 species already recorded, so many species of conservation concern, but just a fraction of the treasures yet to be discovered.

Traffic-free walking, riding and cycling, opening up fresh air, exercise, peace and tranquillity to all, so desperately needed in a traffic-congested town like Frome, where the car and lorry fumes are trapped in the teacup of the river valley.

We do hope the supermarkets and other large stores in the town will lend their support and donate.  This amenity would help compensate not only to the cost of the wear and tear to our roads from their articulated lorries constantly driving through the town causing almost continuous road closures, but also the damage those exhaust fumes and particulates causes to the air quality.  A gift to the people of Frome, now, and for the future, remembered and appreciated by all.

Graham & Joyce Muirhead

You can help the town council make decisions

Dear Editor

Safer School Streets has been implemented on a trial basis around key streets and roads around schools. Is it as good as it could be?  No. Could it be better than it is? Yes. Is there room for improvement?  Of course.

  There has been much written on social media about the project with some pretty wild things being said but what does it actually achieve?

   You can just turn up to a Frome Town Council monthly meeting and air your concerns. You don’t need to book an appointment and they will listen.

   We would do well to remember that Frome Town Council members give their time free of charge and are trying to do the best they can for the town. They will make mistakes along the way but they actually care enough to try.

  We all have a stake in democracy and if we feel strongly, we can attend the public consultations and council meetings to help decisions.

  Being a father whose son has nearly been knocked off his bike twice while cycling to school, I applaud the efforts of the council and the costs that people are raising pale into insignificance with the emotional pain of a bereaved parent that has lost a child.

  If you’re going to be upset about anything, be upset about the parents who ignore the parking restrictions on the jagged yellow lines dropping their kids off, posing a direct threat to other children.

  See you at the next council meeting.

Drew Gardner

Write to Frome Times, 31 Market Place, Melksham. SN12 6ES or email news@frometimes.co.uk

Please include your name, address and a daytime telephone number