Nothing here for Olympic visitors

I HAVE been reading the Chronicle about how the chamber of commerce wants to attract tourists (Olympic ones) to Hounslow to spend their money.

They are joking, yes?

Who would want to go to Hounslow High Street? No nice shops and it’s a dirty area.

You may catch something from people spitting. Isn’t it also a TB area?

There’s nothing there.

Sorry, but it’s true.

JAN BURTON

Acton

… the High Street is full of rubbish

I SEE a tourist destination map is being launched to encourage Olympic visitors to spend money in Hounslow. Why? What does Hounslow have to offer?

We have more than 10 banks and lots of fruit and vegetable stalls, but look around the Treaty Centre and you will see shops are boarded up!

The High Street is a mess – rubbish is everywhere.

It’s bad enough I and other people who live here have to shop there, but to bring tourists here?

What for?

There’s nothing here for them!

MRS J GRANT

Devon Waye

Heston

… I’m glad I don’t live here any more

I CAME over for a holiday from Australia, stayed with my sister in Hounslow, and left her this letter to post to you.

I was born in Hounslow. I went to school there – it was a nice area then.

It was home, clean, friendly.

On this visit, I went to Hounslow High Street. It’s worse than it was after the war.

Dirty, smelly, overcrowded, a real dump.

I’m glad I don’t live here now.

I feel very sorry for my sister as Australia won’t take old people and you have to have money to take care of yourself there. Here you don’t, and that’s why there’s so many people, I was told.

And you’re having the Olympics?

The people won’t forget the dirty town if they come to Hounslow, will they?

TV will show this event in Australia and the US, they will see how they live in England.

I hope my sister gets to move to somewhere else, a clean, non-violent area, if there are any left.

Thank God I’m going back to Australia.

DAN ROBERTS

Australia

The good points about bus drivers

IN HIS incoherent rant against bus operations locally, Ed Driscoll, on his Saturday lunchtime broadcast on Radio London, seems to have completely missed the point.

I am a former bus driver and can say routes and services have much improved in recent years.

Transport for London listens more keenly to customers and the fares are subject to review.

The timetables are better than ever – witness the overhead displays at many bus shelters.

Drivers are mainly courteous and professional and often work long hours, sometimes at short notice.

They also have to put up with the ‘hard’ men at closing time without fares – or they think they are hard after a couple of pints.

If customers want lower fares, they should have voted for Mr Livingstone.

He may not stand for mayor again but I reckon we haven’t heard the last of Ken.

ROY JOCARD

Boston Manor Road

Brentford

Deaf have right to good service too

FOLLOWING Deaf Awareness Week (May 7-13), we are highlighting the barriers facing patients who are deaf and calling on local health services to improve their access, and to commission interpreting services that use only appropriately qualified sign language interpreters.

Our new research shows that 41 per cent of surveyed people who use British Sign Language (BSL) as their first language have left a health appointment feeling confused about their medical condition, because the interpretation was not of an adequate standard. Sixty-eight per cent said they have asked for an interpreter to be booked for a GP appointment but did not get one.

People who are deaf have the legal right to experience the same level of service as other patients so, to avoid unnecessary confusion, anxiety or embarrassment, it is vital that they can access communication support best suited to their individual needs.

To sign our petition calling for local health services to use only interpreters registered with the National Registers of Communications Processionals (NRCPD), which shows they meet the required standard for communicating essential medical information, go to www.petitionbuzz.com/petitions/deafaccess.

ACTION ON HEARING LOSS

ASLI (Association of Sign Language Interpreters); BDA (British Deaf Association); BSMHD (British Society for Mental Health and Deafness); NRCPD (National Registers of Communication Professionalsworking with Deaf and Deafblind People); SIGNATURE; SIGNHEALTH