Letters: Street changes for cyclists are overkill

Street changes

I totally agree with the letter by F. Foster about the changes being made to our streets and intersections. It appears that many of the changes are being made to accommodate large numbers of cyclists.

I believe the council is putting the cart before the horse. There are not large numbers of cyclists in Wanganui, and I have my doubts that there ever will be. In our lovely little city it is very easy to find a park within a short distance of where you are going. You do not need to resort to a bike.

At the moment and into the foreseeable future, it is only necessary to keep the traffic flowing for cars. If and when we have large numbers of cyclists, then changes can be made. Not years before it is necessary, if ever.

I am a cyclist, and use our great river tracks on a regular basis. And guess what? I rarely encounter more than a half-dozen other cyclists in the 20 or so kilometres on the tracks. So you cannot tell me that we are all of a sudden going to be inundated with thousands, or even hundreds of bikes, moving around the city.

Our traffic manager tells us that roundabouts are not safe for cyclists. What a load of twaddle! As a regular user of roundabouts on my bike, I can tell you that I much prefer the flow around these to lining up among the cars at traffic lights.

KEVIN O'SULLIVAN
Parkdale

Tale not true

A letter headed "Weird war tale" was submitted by Ted Downes, (Chronicle May 26) and to remind readers of its content, I condense it to explain that it purports to have come from a domestic employed in an "upper class boarding school at Potters Bar in England", whose proud boast was that it had educated Field Marshall Montgomery.

It also claimed "Monty had such an attachment" to his school that, after his victory over Field Marshall Erwin Rommel in the North Africa campaign, once Monty came into possession of Rommel's personal caravan and subsequently had no further use for it, he had it delivered and donated to the school, "for all to admire".

Now to the "weird" bit.

Following Rommel's suicide in October 1944, the staff at the college "tell of a day when all hell broke loose in the caravan — the commotion was such that all rushed out to see what was happening but there was no explanation".

Ted concluded his "weird war tale" by posing a question about a link to Rommel's death and "all hell breaking loose" in the caravan.

All in all, a jolly good ripping yarn, straight out of a copy of Boy's Own or Beano
Now back to reality and some facts.

Monty's school was St Peter's School in West Kensington, Not Potters Bar.
St Peter's School was taken over by the military and all school staff and pupils were relocated to Berkshire for the duration of the war.

St Peter's School was used by Monty as his "Invasion HQ" from 1941 to 1944. Erwin Rommel's suicide was on October 14, 1944, at which time no school staff would have been on the West Kensington property to observe "all hell breaking loose."

Monty's caravans — he had three, one of which had been Rommel's — were bequeathed to the Imperial War Museum in 1976 following his death.

St Paul's School has denied that the donation of any of these caravans to them ever took place.

The explanation for the "weird war tale" is simple. It never took place; it was pure fallacy.

V W BALLANCE
Westmere

Bible bickering

Dear God, Can You please help stop all this bickering about who can quote the Bible the best through the letters of the Chronicle?

Seems like there's a quote for every argument.

It's more than Bible-bashing now. It's starting to feel like Hell on Earth or perhaps eternal damnation.

Thanking you for your assistance in this matter. Amen

ROBERT JAUNAY
Whanganui