solutions

Fernando Pinto has looked after our garden front and back over the last few years. He is a very careful gardener and works hard until the garden looks beautiful. I can't recommend him highly enough - oh and his charges are very reasonable. Tel: 07946 757938

Fernando Pinto has looked after our garden front and back over the last few years. He is meticulous, takes pride in his work, always on time, works hard until the job is done.The garden always end up looking pristine! I can't recommend him highly enough - oh and his charges are very reasonable. Tel: 07946 757938

Once again I am happy to recommend the gardening services of Fernando Pinto. Always meticulous, very reasonable charges, reliable and keen to ensure his customers are happy with the end result. Thanks Fernando for leaving my front garden looking trim and ready for spring. Stephanie

One of the most frustrating if not most important things is the so called 'crowd control measures'. The misery starts outside the main entrance to the station when hundreds of commuters are shunted into a sort of corral to shuffle forward slowly into the station. Then once you are in the station there are so many people you are lucky if you can get near the announcement boards to even see what trains are cancelled or might be turning up. Then the crowd control keeping everybody back from the platform fast becoming a larger than safe number of frustrated commuters waiting for the passengers to get off the train that finally arrives and get squeezed past in another narrow walkway. These measures add to the misery, lack of safety and sense that the whole station does not seem to be fit for purpose.

I would like to add my recommendation to this impressive list of recommendations! Fernando has transformed our mini jungle front and back gardens into neat and tidy gardens. We are delighted with the transformation. It is actually a pleasure to look at the garden again. Fernando is a professional dedicated gardener, always polite, punctual and reasonable charges too! Fernando has done our garden before and he will be the one we ring when we need help again. Thanks Fernando

Civil servant - thanks for the explanation and link re SNT.

DJ thanks for the interesting post. I think that many people are not exposed to, experienced or used to talking to offenders or ex offenders and the fear that is attached to 'what they might do' gets in the way of realising that they are people who have taken a wrong turn. I base this on reactions from colleagues who ask if I am afraid when I go into the two prisons I work in. As you say many of them respond to respect, genuine interest and an opportunity to be constructive. What kind of society do we want? If we answer that question we may get nearer the solutions. I think it is reasonable to expect that we want a peaceful,productive society with people using the talents they were born with or can develop - idealistic I know but if we have a vision of something as near to that as possible it will go halfway to helping. I am interested to know what SNT means. By the way for those who make sweeping statements about white and middle class people, I am white and middle class, I spend most of my working week contributing to society not only with a sense of responsibility but with passion and my appeal is for more listening and open mindedness. Thank you.

In my case also from my perspective of working with prisoners - when you actually meet and talk to some of them you realise they are people who have committed crimes/misdemeanours yes and many of them need help to turn their lives around - (probably not the best time to go on about disadvantaged lives) and the probation service makes an important contribution to their rehabilitation, support and plans for a constructive future. For everybody concerned, the offenders, their families and the communities they live in they make a difference to the outcome. Perhaps some case studies or stories of successes, even small successes, would be helpful to redress the balance.

Surely you don't mean that?

it looks like the debate is still running on how long these butts take to biodegrade - anything from 18 months to 12 years, mostly 12 years seems to be quoted and some researchers have claimed that the acetate contained in butts never fully biodegrades. The chemicals contaminate the environment as well and butts are one of the greatest litter problems in the world. So I agree, please dispose of the butt carefully!

wow this has generated a lot of interest! for my contribution I have the following: I used to do some voluntary work for Big Issue on Saturday mornings. It was in the West Country about two years ago. First I want to say that the vendors were fully supported by the Big Issue office, they had posts allocated to them and there was a local office that was available for the vendors to come in in the mornings, collect their magazines and then they had to go out to their posts. The office had a list of who was allocated on which post. The shop concerned would have given its permission for the Big Issue to have a pitch outside their shop. It was as far as I recall a first come first served arrangement so a vendor could not hold on to a post if they turned up late or didn't come at all. They also had a system whereby newcomers were given a trial run to see how they got on. Any issues like turning up under the influence of alcohol or being in somebody's else's post would be reason for temporary suspension. They were not allowed to swap posts and if anybody just decided to pitch up anywhere they fancied the office would get to hear about it. Also the vendors were like a small family (mainly) all knew each other and lots of chatting about who was doing what went on in the office so the staff would know what was going on. The office was always very busy so I would think that the best way to make enquiries would be perhaps to find out where the local office is and go in there or ring. Actually these postings have got me interested again! Finally I would like to add that I was very impressed with the way in which most of the vendors took their jobs seriously, adhered to the rules of Big Issue, turned up on time, went on their pitches and made their money. I think it is a great opportunity for people to work within a supportive environment to get back on their feet.