Cemetery has been neglected

I HAVE read your article in the Uxbridge Gazette about neglected cemeteries (Couple fight on for a better cemetery, Gazette, August 15).

My grandparents, auntie, dad and great grandma are buried at Uxbridge and Hillingdon cemetery.

There are overhanging trees and holly bushes growing out of collapsed graves.

The bushes are unkept and out of control.

There are heaps of grass – when they do cut the grass – lying around, and fallen branches which [have come down] in the wind lying on the ground.

My relations are in the older part of the cemetery and it looks an eyesore.

I am the owner of the graves now, and I don’t know who to complain to.

Northwood Cemetery is very well looked after and appears immaculate compared to Hillingdon. It is a pleasure to visit Northwood.

I hope something can be done soon to make it a better place to visit passed loved ones.

JACKIE BROWN

Via email

We have to clear grave ourselves

I HAVE read the article in the Gazette about West Drayton cemetery (see reference above).

Hillingdon Cemetery is just as bad, especially the baby section where my daughter is.

It’s only a small area but sadly an area which is neglected.

When we visit, we have to cut the overhanging trees back ourselves and clear all the leaves and weeds.

I have contacted the civic centre about this in the past but nothing gets done.

JOANNA SIBLEY

Via email

Usain and Yohan always welcome

BRUNEL University would like to reciprocate the compliments that triple Olympic gold medallist Usain Bolt and Yohan ‘The Beast’ Blake paid to us after the Jamaican relay team broke the world record in the men’s 4 x 100 relay.

We are honoured and privileged that Usain and Yohan use our world class facilities for training, and have done so for the past few years and in the lead up to the London 2012 Olympic Games.

They are great to have around and they are welcome any time.

PROFESSOR IAN CAMPBELL

Pro-Vice-Chancellor

Brunel University

Orange slug that caught my eye

I READ with interest the article in the Gazette of August 8 about the orange slug that was found in Pole Hill Road, Uxbridge because it was that morning I found one trying to get into my shed at home [Close encounter of the slimy kind].

It caught my eye from the back door because of the brightness of the colour. The picture enclosed does not give an accurate reproduction of the brightness but I thought it was a beautiful creature.

I tried to contact the Natural History Museum as you suggested but found it impossible to get through, so I am sending the picture to you.

Sadly my wife came out and threw it over the fence before I could stop her; I would have kept it and hopefully taught it how to behave in the garden.

GEOFF J COX

Kenwood Close

West Drayton

You missed many idyllic pubs Mrs F

I AM not surprised Barbara Fisher failed to find a pleasant wayside pub in the soulless suburbia that is new town Basingstoke, after diverting off the M3 on the way home from Southampton (Bm@il, Gazette, August 15).

Basingstoke certainly has some pubs, but they are more of the town centre, beer company variety rather than the quiet rural idylls Mr and Mrs F wanted.

But if they had continued along the A30 instead of returning to the motorway and settling for refreshments in the horrid surrounds of Fleet Services, they would have found what they were seeking.

They could have made a short diversion to Old Basing, a lovely little village which has several traditional country pubs, where I’m sure a ploughman’s would have been on the menu.

The pubs in Dummer, again a short distance from the main road, are also worth visiting.

Or Mr and Mrs F could have carried on up the A30 – once the main route to the West Country, when it was clogged with traffic throughout the day – to discover wayside inns at regular intervals, in villages along the road and nearby, including Hook and Hartley Wintney, and Odiham.

The A30, pleasantly un-busy since the M3 opened and took away its trunk road designation, loses its rural charm at Blackwater, which is the place for London-bound drivers to get back on the M3 to avoid heavy traffic on the Surrey section.

So next time Mr and Mrs F are on their way home from the South Coast, they can easily take a break from the motorway and avoid doing porridge at the services.

ROB SEARLE

Via email

RAF site ideal place for a new hospital

I SAW your article about a visit by an RAF veteran to the former RAF Uxbridge; very interesting [Trip down memory lane for RAF vet].

But what I want to know is why this site has not been mothballed for the future location of a new Hillingdon Hospital.

The present hospital location is there because of history, not any forward planning.

They just keep adding buildings on the old, badly situated location, just like Heathrow.

The government could have transferred the RAF site to the NHS. When the buses stop outside the hospital, the traffic flow is effectively stopped, causing bottlenecks.

The car parks are ram jam full, and at times visitors and workers have a hell of a job getting in and out of the car parks, causing more traffic issues outside.

At some stage, a new Hillingdon Hospital will be badly needed; the old one is now very shabby and they keep patching it up, probably costing more than a future new build.

The RAF Uxbridge site is a natural choice, has a Tube station in town, two dual carriageway access roads, land and space for car parks and even a small bus station. And we are going to get more houses – which could have been built on the old hospital location.

NAME AND ADDRESS SUPPLIED

Diabetes foot care team badly needed

AS SOMEONE who is affected by diabetes, I am writing to let your readers know that National Inpatient Diabetes Audit shows that The Hillingdon Hospital does not have a specialist diabetes foot care team that can prevent amputations in people with the condition.

People with diabetes are over 20 times more likely to have a lower limb amputation than the rest of the population, but up to 80 per cent of these amputations could be prevented.

One of the ways they can be prevented is through hospitals having one of these specialist teams, called multi-disciplinary foot care teams.

Having access to one of these teams within 24 hours can mean that foot problems in people with diabetes do not deteriorate so badly that an amputation is needed, and the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence recommends that hospitals have them.

I am very concerned that Hillingdon Hospital does not have one of these teams because they can literally mean the difference between keeping a foot and losing it.

This is why I am calling for the hospital to introduce one of these teams as a matter of urgency.

I would suggest other people in the area who are affected by diabetes do the same.

NORMAN WALL

Flemming Avenue

Ruislip

n The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust can confirm that in 2010 it reviewed its diabetic foot management and consequently developed an integrated, multi-disciplinary diabetic foot service with input from consultant diabetologists, vascular surgeons and orthopaedic consultants.

The specialist team also includes diabetic specialist nurses, podiatrists and has input from the Orthotics Department. There are specialist Diabetic Foot Out Patient Clinics to ensure that patients are appropriately managed.

Diabetic inpatients with foot disease are placed under the care of named diabetic consultants and these consultants liaise directly with the orthopaedic and surgical teams as required.

The Trust developed this service as the early management of foot problems can reduce the number of lower limb amputations.

Friend I would like to get in touch with

MANY years ago I was at college with a great friend; he went to Canada in the early 80s and I stayed in Europe.

I left the UK about 12 years ago, being appointed to a senior role in Switzerland, and last year transferred to what I think is paradise – only wild horses would drag me back to Europe to live.

My pal and I stayed in contact and visited each other.

We both got married and he became a born again Christian, and I got fed up with him trying to convert me.

However, I still consider him as my best friend and would like to get in touch again.

I have been trying for many years and now take this as my last chance to renew what was then a great friendship.

His family lived in Denham, along the Oxford Road. His father sold up and moved north with his wife and we lost contact. In between this my parents died, and I suppose Robert’s parents have also passed away.

His sister, Christine, married a local boy and lived in Uxbridge and had two children.

My friend’s details are as follows: Robert Douglas Strode, sister, Christine Strode (I do not know her married name; her husband’s name was Tony and I believe from an Italian family). I believe she lived on the road out of Uxbridge towards West Drayton.

Father and mother, Douglas and May Strode, of Sylvan, Red Hill, Oxford Road,

I would dearly like to get back in touch; I have tried in Toronto and Vancouver, to where he moved, without much luck.

I can say that we were great friends and if I am not mistaken I think we would be great friends today, we shared many ups and downs.

RICHARD AINSWORTH-MORRIS

Gerente Financiero

Tabacalera de Garcia SAS

Zona Franca 1

La Romana

PO Box 124

Dominican Republic