We should be investing in youth
AS A young worker, I was saddened but not surprised to read your article on August 2, (Fears of a 'lost generation' in the borough).
Nationally, there are more than a million unemployed young people, tens of thousands of whom have been out of work for more than a year.
This does not include the millions more trapped in part-time work, or full-time work that is so low paid they have to rely on state benefits in order to survive.
In reality, young people are caught in a vice.
On the one hand there are massive, unprecedented and cruel government cuts. On the other, the refusal of big businesses to invest in decent jobs and opportunities for young people.
In Hillingdon, the council has sacked hundreds of workers, closed down the Connexions youth service, cut the budgets of many services and continues to privatise the rest in the name of ‘financial responsibility’.
This is despite £17million reserves.
In return, they have created a few apprenticeships, on £90 a week, with no guaranteed job at the end.
What has Hillingdon Labour said or done in response? Nothing.
Not one councillor has publicly voted against cuts, or proposed an alternative budget to provide opportunities for young people.
Socialist Party members like myself and my colleagues in Hillingdon Against Cuts, as well as trade unionists across the borough, say that instead of cutting, the council should be investing in a future for young people.
They could be creating jobs by building public housing and refurbishing the stock, to alleviate the growing housing crisis and take people from the hands of greedy, private landlords.
They could restore EMA, which would take pressure of struggling families and allow their children to attend college, and restore and extend funding to youth services, to get young people off the streets and support them in their search for work.
Ian Harris
branch secretary, Hillingdon Socialist Party
Via email
Cutbacks needed to help the disabled
WHAT a disgrace that the council has to use ‘nesting birds’ as an excuse for not cutting back trees and bushes within the borough (Overgrown hedge badly needs a trim, Letters, August 15).
The disabled home at Colham Road has to transfer service users by wheelchair via the road, due to the overgrown trees and bushes.
Furthermore, tree roots 100 metres up from the home on the public highway have caused trip hazards.
Someone (possibly the council but don’t hold your breath) has sprayed yellow paint on the public highway warning the public of the poor state of the pavement.
Possibly I may stand as an independent at the next election for the ‘less abled people of the borough’, as the current council seems to have difficulty undertaking these tasks.
I know how difficult it for wheelchair, having a relative with multiple sclerosis.
It is a disgrace and the paper should highlight this matter for the good of all disabled people.
Geoff Horwood
Via email
Can you help with identity of sisters?
I HAVE recently been handed a photo of five women c.1960 (below), with suggestions that one of them is a family member, that all five were sisters, and that although they were originally from County Clare, Ireland, they all lived, settled and married in and around Uxbridge.
It’s suggested that the woman centre front was an Elizabeth Cox, nee Thompson, and that the other women were her sisters: Susan, Marion, Rebecca and (unknown).
I can find reference to what I think might be these Thompson women as a family record in the Irish census of 1901 and 1911, at a place in County Clare, and the family has it by word of mouth that the whole family came to the Uxbridge area around about the late 1930s or early 1940s.
Elizabeth was married to a Sidney Henry Cox in Denham parish church in January 1929.
Here’s hoping that someone might recognise them and be able to confirm any of the information.
Kevin Turner
Barnstaple
Via email
? If you have any information for Mr Turner, please email ian.proctor@trinitymirror.com.
We must support our local shops
I READ Brenda McLaughlin’s letter about the number of local shops that have closed in Yiewsley and West Drayton (Have planners got retail offer wrong, Letters, August 29).
Elderly people and those without cars depend on local greengrocers, bakers, chemists etc.
It is also better for the environment when people can walk to their local shops rather than having to drive to supermarkets.
They meet others at the local parade of shops, so it’s beneficial for the community.
Greengrocers are often cheaper than supermarkets.
We shouldn’t think that supermarket produce is always fresher, as press articles have reported that sometimes apples are stored for weeks before being put on supermarket shelves.
People who are able to should try to buy at least something from local shops each week.
Councils could help greatly by reducing the high rates they charge for shop premises.
Incentives could be offered to encourage people to open a local shop, as this provides employment.
Think how sad and dull our local areas would be without our local shops!
Name and address supplied
Well done to our college students
IT WAS very pleasing to see in The Gazette last week how well the borough’s students had done in this year’s GCSE exams.
Could I add my congratulations to those at Uxbridge College, who between them sat nearly 1,000 GCSE exams. Uxbridge College, unusually for a General FE college, offers GCSEs and these may be taken for the first time or as a re-sit, and provide students with opportunities to pursue a range of options and open up a number of career pathways.
They may perhaps progress to A-level study; go straight into work; enrol on a vocational qualification such as a BTEC course (which itself can lead to university study), or take advantage of our service to match young people to local Apprenticeship vacancies.
Our students usually do a maximum of five GCSE subjects, as they study for the exams intensively in just one year, and I am pleased to say there was an overall improvement in pass rate at grades A*-G to 99 per cent, up from 97 per cent last year, with traditional strengths in the sciences, ICT and English literature being maintained.
We also had some excellent individual results – among our top achievers were Sakina Husen who got A* grades in ICT and English and As in maths, biology and English, and Shenaz Shabir, who got As in maths, biology, chemistry, physics and English. Both now plan to stay on at college to take A levels.
GCSE results herald Uxbridge College’s enrolment period in which those who have received theirs, whether at college or at school, join one of the many academic or vocational qualifications offered here.
Whatever decisions young people may be making about their futures at the moment, it may be worth talking to us – those who come and see us for the first time are often pleasantly surprised to discover just how much we have to offer.
Dr Darrell DeSouza
Vice-principal for curriculum and standards, Uxbridge College
Park Road
Uxbridge
