MK Today - Wednesday 15th March 2023

Leon – The School of Legend.

It’s coming up to Comic Relief or perhaps better called RED NOSE DAY.

Leon – The School of Legend. When it comes to Red Nose Day Leon was in on the ground floor – or should that be up in the sky ? How many of you know this legend ?

Leonite students were on the ground but it was the helicopter up in the air that took the photograph.

I was very busy working in my office when Headmaster Abbott walked in. The following day our first school visit to Sutter Junior High School in Sacramento California was happening and I was busy making final arrangements.

“A newspaper had chartered a helicopter,” Abbott explained. “Tomorrow is Red Nose Day and I want you to take your entire year group out onto the field, stand them in lines to spell red nose and then the helicopter will fly over and take pictures.”

What ! What was Red Nose Day ?  This was the first such event and I had never heard about it.

“I’m really, really busy can’t you get another year group to do it.”

“No, it’s your job now make it happen.”

Trying to line three hundred teenagers on the school playing field to spell RED   NOSE   DAY was mission impossible. I didn’t have a clue how to begin. The Leonites thought I had lost my mind and were not over keen to co-operate. Headmaster Abbott was bellowing orders through his megaphone. Chaos ! Chaos but we did manage to make it happen.

The sound of the approaching helicopter suddenly made it happen and the photograph of RED NOSE LEON SCHOOL hit the newspaper’s front page.

So when you see Red Nose Day, perhaps these days better known as Comic Relief, remember that Leon School added this to its portfolio of legend. The full report can be found in Milton Keynes TheCity Of Legend and the chapter Leon School The School Of Legend.

MK Today - Monday 13th March 2023

Born on Monday 5^th July 1948 the National Health Service is without any doubt at all the most iconic institution within our country. Thirty-six years later Milton Keynes Hospital opened its doors and today is the most celebrated legend in its own time here in the City of Milton Keynes.

My daughter was born the previous year, it was within its very early days that Milton Keynes General Hospital, as it was back then, diagnosed her to be suffering with chronic renal failure. And so began my almost four decade love of our NHS and my pride in what is now University Hospital Milton Keynes.

I keep shouting about this, not looking for sympathy but for love – love for our NHS and love for Milton Keynes Hospital. December last year I tripped over some rubbish in Morrissons car park. I felt my nose break but did not immediately become aware of other injuries including my misshapen right arm.

Attending A & E immediately a nurse began trying to stop my nose pouring blood. No long queue, waiting time two minutes perhaps. Half an hour to let the blood clot then off to have my arm x-rayed. The first of several x-rays that morning. I was treated not by one doctor but three as my arm was pulled back into shape and plastered. One week later I was under the surgeon’s knife having a metal plate placed in my arm. Then EVERY week until early March I received weekly therapy sessions.

ALL OF THIS DURING THE PRESENT NHS CRISIS ! I was told post-discharge if I need any further help all I had to do was to ask and it would be there ready and waiting for me.

People can only work within our front-line NHS if they genuinely love and care for people. Strikes are not really about pay but about respect and support. You can blame the government but its failure to respect and support our NHS is merely a reflection of society.

We were there weren’t we clapping for the NHS during covid. Supermarkets were giving NHS workers discounts on their shopping. But looking back we can now see just how shallow and empty this all was. Where has it all gone ? Was it genuine ? I fear not, at least not by my definition.

Recently I visited a vulnerable patient in University Hospital Milton Keynes. Due to their conditions patients were highly demanding, the ward was under-staffed but I watched exhausted staff caring with so much love for their patients. Not for one second did any staff member do less. Why is society, why is our government failing to show a similar level of love.

How much money do you earn ? The starting pay for a nurse is £27,055 per year. The salary for a backbench MP is £84,144. You need good qualifications and much training to be a nurse. You need love for people to be a nurse. You don’t need any of such to be a politician ! I am a pensioner on a limited income but I honestly would give 10% of my pension to give nurses a proper pay rise. Would you ?  Would our members of parliament ?

Last summer I held a garden party to support children who were sick in Milton Keynes Hospital, to send love to their families and support the front-line NHS staff who were caring for them. I sent a personal invitation to every single member of Milton Keynes Council asking them to come and show their love. When nobody replied I chased things up. One councillor, just one, kindly responded and made a generous donation to the cause. One member of the Regressive Alliance Party where politics come before people was quite rude in his response ! I sent four invitations to Milton Keynes Mayor, she failed to respond to each and every single one of them.

When I was a member of West Bletchley Council I proposed a motion of love during the pandemic and lockdown supporting our front-line key workers. This was hijacked and destroyed labour party for its own sad political gamesmanship. Regressive Alliance, proof that politics come before people !

My daughter spent most of her childhood in and out of hospital, Guys Hospital in London. I

defy anyone to find a photograph of her anywhere where she is not smiling. She was always known as Little Miss Sunshine. That Smile came from our NHS. HNS stands for National Health Service but within my vocabulary it stands for National Happy Smile.

Beck’s story is told in my book Our Rebekah A Love Story From Our NHS. After a kidney transplant she enjoyed a very happy life. Sadly the transplanted kidney began to fail but immediately she was again wrapped in a blanket of love, that blanket being within our beautiful Milton Keynes Hospital and Churchill Hospital in Oxford. When she died in May 2017 both hospitals threw their arms of love around my family. University Hospital Milton Keynes CEO Professor Harrison wrote to me and the nurse who had cared for Beck in the renal clinic attended her funeral.

If I live to be one hundred years of age I will never be able to repay the debt my family owes to our NHS. I try to repay part of the debt in my book NationalHappy Smile – My Story And Your Story.

Well, very briefly that is part of my story and love for our NHS. What is your story ?

NHS – National Happy Smile. I LOVE OUR NHS.

MK Today - Friday 10th March 2023

A bit of a rant and a rave today if I may.

When I was a kid it was considered bad manners to eat or drink as you walked along the street. Yes it was, the last thing you would have seen was somebody on the pavement clutching a cup of coffee !  If you did see such a happening it would have been your duty to call for an ambulance and have the unfortunate person taken off to the looney bin ! (A bit of out-dated and now politically incorrect language !)

Do you remember when there were notices in shops asking people not to use mobile phones while standing line waiting to be served ? That was around thirty years ago.

Dropping litter was once considered unacceptable. But back in those days in

contrast if your dog did a poo on the pavement you simply left it there. The edges of the pavement adjacent to the road was there ntr to delineate where motor vehicles and pedestrians belonged but to scrape dog poo off the sole of your shoes after you had accidentally stepped in it.

Speaking of dogs, call your vet and ask for an appointment. The receptionist is likely to say something like: Can you come along this afternoon or would tomorrow morning be better for you ?  Do the same for your doctor and providing your phone battery can  last long enough the response could well be: Do you by any chance have your diary for the year 2029 handy ?

I don’t wear glasses and certainly not rose tinted spectacles. I was born in the nineteen fifties, grew up and swung my way through the sixties, disco danced through the seventies, I was a yuppie (Do you know what one of those was) then gingerly stepped my way into older age. Now I am striding my way into Old, with a capital O - age. I do not by the way use a walking aid, in my day known as a walking stick !  In my opinion I am now living, you are living in a society where disrespect is the norm. We live in a society of ignorance and bad manners.

Milton Keynes is a filthy, scruffy city, something we all should be thoroughly and utterly ashamed of. At the beginning of last month I devoted an entire edition of MK Today to debating this situation. It is also a chapter in my book MILTON KEYNES THE CITY OF LEGEND. Litter is a legend we can do without. I tried to engage both my ward councillor and MP on the subject, both ignored my communications. Litter and the dropping of such = bad manners. Being a politician and ignoring communications from a real person = ignorance. (Ignoring being the verb and ignorance the noun.)

We have some truly beautiful parkland in Milton Keynes, my favourite and my Doggie Barnaby’s favourite place to walk is Ouzel Valley Park with Walton Lake and trees framing our unique centre of learning, the Open University. You do not need a degree from this world famous centre of academia to know that dropping litter is disrespectful. Actually it is more than that, it is harmful to wildlife. Some idiot after finishing a ridiculous cup of costa fortune coffee (small case letters) thought the right and proper thing to do was to throw the cup into the shrubbery adjacent to the path.

Dog poo is biodegradable but not so the brain cells of the semi-intelligent owners who think it acceptable to leave the poo where their canine left it. We have moved on from dog shit alley of the 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s. If your dog does a poo today you pick it up and take said substance to the nearest poo bin. They are everywhere so no excuse for leaving it on the floor. I live in West Bletchley where the parish council provides free poo bags. Free or purchased from the local pet shop why do so many people walking through Ouzel Valley Park scoop up then poo, tie off the top of the bag then throw it on the floor !

Could someone please invent a phone app to track and trace such offenders ?

If Boris Johnson or Matt Handcock were to let their dogs poo and leave such where it fell no doubt the dog-poo-media would blaze such on its front pages.

Parkland in Milton Keynes is beautifully maintained by the Milton Keynes Parks Trust, it is disrespected by the Milton Keynes Dog Poo and Litter Mistrust.

Looney bin !  Let me be a little less twenty-first century political incorrect and dip into my nineteen sixties thesaurus: Funny Farm !

My generation’s colloquial for a telephone was to call it the blower. Blowers were provided by the GPO – General Post Office which had its regional training centre in Bletchley Park occupying the mansion which during the war had been the home of the codebreakers. Nowhere within such was there anyone who could have predicted the enigmatic folly of a mobile blower later to become the smart blower. Can a person blow smart ?

It is no secret that I hate, I despise, I totally loathe smart phone. If you were to gather together all the litter to be found in our city and pile it high on top of all the dog poo needing to be picked up across our parkland such would not equal the disrespect and ignorance of a single smart phone user.

In the Swinging Sixties if a kid wanted to ride a bicycle it was required, not by law but by society, to pass the Cycling Proficiency Test. Is there such a thing as the Cycling Proficiency Test today or is it now simply nothing more than an ap on a phone !  It is illegal to drive a motorised vehicle while using a phone, it is NOT illegal to ride a bicycle while using a phone.

Are you old enough to remember the Green Cross Code – look left, look right then look left again ? Again I am obliged to ask if this is now also a phone ap, people use them to cross the road neither looking left not right let alone looking left again. All they need to do is to look at their dumbo stupid smart phone.

We live in a society of ignorance and bad manners. Make that we live in a CITY of ignorance and bad manners.

Rant over.

MK Today - Wednesday 8th March 2023

Within my book MILTON KEYNES THE CITY OF LEGEND there is a chapter What’s In A Name where I look at the heritage behind various places within our new city. Coffee Hall estate is named after Coffee Hall Farm. Shenley Lodge was once known as Energy Park with all of its roads named after scientists who worked in the field of such engineering. Faraday Drive for instance. How many pupils, teachers even, attending Caroline Haslett School know who Caroline Haslett was ?

One road I do not talk about is Foxhunter Drive in Linford. Foxhunting was made illegal in 2004. I am a passionate animal lover and have recently adopted a beautiful little dog Barnaby from the RSPCA. He was the subject of a case brought against his original owners for cruelty beyond imagination. He is such a loving dog, my wife and I love him to bits and he loves us to bits. This cruelty did not happen in Milton Keynes but would it be acceptable to name his former home Dog Cruelty Drive ?

Slightly aside, it has just been announced that the oil to be used to anoint King Charles during his coronation will not include any animal ingredients. It will be vegan ! No animal cruelty for His Majesty.

Fox hunting was one of the most evil and cruel so called sports, is it acceptable then to have a road named after such terror ? Would you want to live in Foxhunter Drive ?  How about Pig Sty Road or perhaps Lamb Slaughter Avenue ? Desirable residences or not !

Foxhunter Drive, is it acceptable within our city to name a road after a former illegal activity ?  One of the most celebrated sons of our area is John Newton, a former slave captain who

turned his life from evil to beauty and gave us Amazing Grace. Drive into Olney where he was curate of Saint Peter and Saint Church you will find signs saying Welcome to Olney Home of Amazing Grace. You will not find a road anywhere within the parish called Slave Trader Way !

Why is it our two members of parliament think it acceptable to have their offices located on Foxhunter Drive ?  Pardon the pun but is this not politically unacceptable ?

Yes, I am a passionate animal lover. I always have been but now aged seventy-two years

going on seventy-three I have only been a vegetarian for five years. Let me tell you how it happened, how I turned away from munching on a McDonald’s dead cow burger or adorning a slice of murdered pig with a slice of pineapple. I was sitting looking at my beautiful dog Jake and said to myself could I eat him roasted and served with potatoes, peas and Yorkshire pudding. Jake was a dog of love, he filled our home with an abundance of love. When he passed away I was devastated. I was then contacted by the RSPCA and asked if I would adopt Barnaby.

Barnaby is two years old. For his first year of life he was forced into badger baiting. For the second year of his life he was cared for by the RSPCA while a case was prepared against the evil people who had subjected him to horrific cruelty. This is an imprisonable offence. Sadly while foxhunting is illegal it is currently only punishable with a fine.

Prison or fine, foxhunting is illegal. Is it acceptable for a road in the City of Milton Keynes to be named after an illegal activity ?  Is it acceptable for our members of parliament to base their offices within such celebration of illegal activity ?

Rule Britannia, Britannia, rule the waves - Britons never, never, shall be slaves

Britons never shall be slaves but when those words were written it was perfectly acceptable for a Briton to own a slave or two ! We have seen in places like Bristol statues associated with the slave trade torn down and thrown away. Metaphorically perhaps Milton Keynes should tear down Foxhunter Drive ! Perhaps our members of parliament should be those who initiate such action and begin so doing by relocating their offices to somewhere other than a celebration of former criminal activity.

MK Today - Saturday 4th March 2023

On 8^th December last year I tripped over rubbish in Morrissons car park Westcroft sustaining multiple minor injuries. I was admitted to A & E at our wonderful hospital where I received immediate care. Do not believe any media rubbish insinuating waiting times in hospital, such was not my experience ! On Thursday 2^nd March I received my last hospital consultation. THREE MONTHS during which I received weekly physio appointments and non-stop loving care from our beautiful HNS within University Hospital Milton Keynes.

That recent accident left me with a minor disability, my right arm is weak but I am told it will get stronger the more I use it. How fortunate I am that my disability is both minor and temporary. This has been an important lesson. As a society we do not properly accommodate people with disabilities.  I am NOT saying that we should go out of our way to accommodate disabled people, such should be the natural way society lives its life every day.

In my book MY KA’S ADVENTURE IN A BRAVE NEW WORLD I take inspiration in one chapter from my arrogant teenage life working as a management trainee in a giant Birmingham City Centre department store. There two lift operators were disabled, one losing a hand and one a leg in the war. I thought it disrespectful to customers to be confronted by men with bits of their body missing. What a horrible, arrogant young man I was.

Today we have disabled parking bays, we have wheelchair access, disabled toilets and so on. We have support dogs for people with hearing and sight problems. The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association was founded way back on 30^th August 1934.

If I had to lose one of my five senses which would I sacrifice ? That is a very hard question to

answer. In my schoolboy years the mayor of the town where I lived was blind, he had lost his sight during the Second World War. He didn’t exactly make a joke of his sight but having honed his remaining four senses to compensate is quoted on one occasion saying: Oh, I’m sorry I didn’t realise you can see !

My great-grandfather lost his hearing in the trenches of World War One caused by the incessant explosions of shells around him. Living in London during the Blitz of the Second World War he never heard the bombs drop but always felt the ground shake from their explosions.

Hearing versus Sight. I would give up sight before hearing.

Losing the use of my right hand, I can type on my laptop with a couple of fingers assisting those of my left hand, it has been so frustrating not being able to hold a pen and be able to write properly. (My handwriting has always been scruffy !)I am thinking back to that lift operator, he could not hold a pen in his right hand as he had no right hand ! I wonder if he learned to write left-handed.

I have complained for years about excess packaging of products we buy from our local supermarkets. I complain that there is a deliberate confusion as to what can and what cannot be recycled. I complain that a chain saw need to be a household tool to open such a huge variety of packages. But what if you do not have the use of a hand with which to hold a chain saw ! Don’t buy a tin of Del Monte pineapples. Such comes in a ring-pull can which the world’s strongest man would have difficulties opening !

Back to toilets. Some disabled toilets have notices explaining that not all disabilities are visible, other are locked demanding any potential user obtain a key from the building’s operator. Two extremes !

Perhaps we should stop using the word disabled and in its place use diffables, diff as in different.

A couple of times a year I take a break in Devon staying in a hotel which goes the extra mile and some more to accommodate disabled people. There are slightly raised bands in the corridors helping people to use their feet to find their way. Brail notices abound. Assistance dogs are welcome, very welcome.

How many places in Milton Keynes can match that ? I can’t think of any but I would love to be wrong. How many places in our City are disabled person friendly ? I can certainly answer that – NOT ENOUGH

As I have been working through the names on our war memorials, composing Milton Keynes Book Of Honour, I have been thinking of those who did not lose their lives but lost a hand or leg while serving King and Country. The area of our City was then a rural community; Coffee Hall was Coffee Hall Farm. Emmerson Farm, Valley Farm today Emmerson Valley. Cities like Birmingham created special jobs for disabled servicemen, what jobs could be created for these persons on farms ? I wish I had a time machine so I could go back and speak with them, invite them to tell me their stories.

Disabilities v Diffabilities perhaps one day society will abandon the first and better respect the second

MK Today - Wednesday 1st March 2023

Milton Keynes Members of Parliament

QUESTION: From January 1967 when our New City was born right through to today how many members of parliament serving our home have given their name to an area of heritage in Milton Keynes.

ANSWER: In round figures none. Not one. Not a single elected member of parliament. None have gone down in legend, that is if you don’t count the infamous Robert Maxwell. These here today, forgotten tomorrow politicians have a record of leaving nothing behind after their departure.

ANOTHER QUESTION: Well two actually. How many councillors have there been since Milton Keynes Council (Unfortunately) came into existence ? And how many of these persons have given their name to a landmark of heritage.

ANSWER: There is not enough memory on my laptop for the calculator to number them all. However, there is one who lives on with his name rightly assigned to a special, very special place in our city. I’ll tell you about this special gentleman in a moment but to return. Let’s do everything in order, to question one and it’s negative answer. Let’s hop into a time machine, you ready Doctor Who and go back to the coronation of His Majesty King George V and the coronation of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

King George V was crowned in Westminster Abbey on Thursday 22^nd June 1911. Within his coronation honours was knighthood for a certain Herbert Samuel Leon of Bletchley Park. Herbert was returned to Parliament as Liberal Member for North Buckinghamshire, serving as a member of the opposition. He contested the seat again the general election of 1892 defeating the tory candidate, Sir Walter Carlisle when the Liberal Party was returned to power under Gladstone. In 1895, however, the tables were turned and Walter Carlisle was returned as Conservative Member with the Liberals being returned to opposition. Herbert Leon did not stand for the constituency again.

By today’s definition of the word I would suggest that Sir Herbert Leon was not a politician, being a member of parliament was simply a way of extending his portfolio of love for his home town. He did not only serve as a member of parliament, he was also a local councillor and justice of the peace.

Herbert Samuel Leon was born on Saturday 11^th February 1850 and left us on Friday 23^rd July 1926. He and his wife Fanny Leon moved to Bletchley Park in 1883, one hundred and forty years ago. Even though such a length of time has passed the Leon name can be found right across the area, he gave us so much. Something he was very much at the centre of was giving us Bletchley and Fenny Stratford War Memorial.

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was crowned on 2^nd June 1953. Within her coronation honours a knighthood was bestowed on Stony Stratford man Frank Markham. Sydney Frank Markham was born on Friday 18^th October 1897 and left us on Monday 13^th October 1975.

He began by fighting the Guilford seat for Labour in 1924 but failed to win. In 1929 he was elected as Labour MP for Chatham then defected with Ramsay MacDonald to become a National Labour MP. He then stood down at the 1931 general election. Again as a National Labour candidate he was

elected for Nottingham South. He lost his seat standing as a National Independent in the 1945 when National Labour was dissolved.

In the 1950 he stood as the Conservative candidate for Buckingham (Milton Keynes) but failed to unseat the sitting Labour Member of Parliament Aiden Crawley. However, in the 1951 general election he beat Crawley by a margin of fifty-four votes. He held the seat with narrow majorities in the 1955 and 1959 elections. He stood down before the 1964 general election.

So what do you make of all that ! Can you imagine how the political commentators within today’s twenty-four rolling news would have exploited his career ! I tell you what I make of it, Frank Markham was not into politics but he was into people.

Frank Markham was born in Stony Stratford Milton Keynes, he served as Member of Parliament for Buckingham (Milton Keynes), when he died he was buried in Calverton Road Cemetery Stony Stratford. When his wife passed away she was buried alongside him.

For twenty years Frank Markham researched the history of North Buckinghamshire. During

this time the New City of Milton Keynes took over so when this vast research was published in two large volumes its title was The History of Milton Keynes and District. When I was writing Not The Concrete Cows in the early 1990’s Lady Markham gave me permission to refer to her late husband’s writing within my own.

Frank Markham loved the area he represented. You have only go to read his book for that to be clear. I have said so many times that no person should be allowed to become a member of parliament for Milton Keynes, no person should be allowed to stand for election to Milton Keynes Council without having read every word of Sir Frank’s work. Given the way Milton Keynes councillors today engage with we the people I wonder if any of them can actually read !

How terribly sad it was when the secondary school named after Sir Frank Markham changed its title to The Milton Keynes Academy !  What a ridiculous name !

I wrote to Stony Stratford Town Council, I wrote to the member of parliament for Milton Keynes north suggesting the Stony Stratford Library should be renamed The Sir Frank Markham Library. My letters were ignored !

You know what, every politician in Milton Keynes 2023 together is not worth a single full stop in Sir Frank’s writing.

Sad. But I want to end today’s edition on a positive note. Back to my other question. How many councillors have there been since Milton Keynes Council (Unfortunately) came into existence ? And how many of these persons have given their name to a landmark of heritage.

Luing Cowley, former mayor and Milton Keynes Council died at the age of ninety-five. Another gentleman who was passionate about our city and those of us who live here. University Hospital Milton Keynes has a department named after him, every day people pass through its treatment centre. Cowley was passionate about our hospital and went the extra mile in its early days to ensure our city has the incredible University Hospital Milton Keynes we know and love.

Herbert Leon, Frank Markham, Luing Cowley; three special people who were not politicians but people who loved the area they represented and those who lived there. Society need more of their like.

MK Council complaint re Leon Dinosaur

The Chief Executive Officer

Milton Keynes City Council

1 Saxon Gate East

Milton Keynes MK9 3EJ

Dear Sir

I am obliged to file a formal complaint against Milton Keynes Council for its negligence bringing about the demise of Leon Dinosaur and its failure to engage across a period of fifteen months to save this valued landmark from ultimate destruction. In filing this complaint I have the support of a vast area of our community. There will shortly be launched a petition enabling these good people to formally file their support.

The construction of the dinosaur was the idea of Leon School Headmaster Bruce Abbott. He made me its project co-ordinator. To turn Bruce’s idea into reality I engaged Milton Keynes community artist Bill Billings who worked with Leon School students to construct the statue. Both Bruce and Bill are no longer with us. It falls, therefore, to me to bring to account the failing of Milton Keynes Council and attempt to salvage the destruction its negligence has brought about.

This complaint contains the following elements:

·   Milton Keynes Council’s failure to respond to my letter of 15^th February 2023. Neither to acknowledge receipt nor to reply.

·       In November 2021 someone from the Lakes Estate Regeneration Programme did engage with me. We agreed to meet at a later date, to discuss the situation and see what could be done to ensure repair and relocating the statue. Fifteen months later I am still waiting for this meeting to happen.

·       Milton Keynes Council is responsible for the demise of the statue over an extended period of time.

My letter of 15^th February 2023:

This was a positive attempt to set aside past failures and seek a happy outcome. I am here complaining that Milton Keynes Council elected not to so engage. I received neither the courtesy of an acknowledgement nor that of a reply. I, therefore, am left to assume either Milton Keynes Council has a sub-standard administration system or it is electing to allow Leon Dinosaur to fall into total destruction.

NOT PART OF THIS COMPLAINT but I would here place on record that copies of my letter of 15^th February 2023 were sent for reference to Iain Stewart – Member of Parliament for the constituency where Leon Dinosaur stands, Bletchley and Fenny Stratford Town Council and to Leon School. NOT ONE OF THESE PARTIES HAS ENGAGED AND REPLIED ! However, I do need to place on record the fact that school half-term fell within the time between my letter and this complaint.

Undertakings by Lakes Estate Regeneration Team in November 2021 have not been followed up:

If such had been honoured the present extended situation of deterioration would not be the case. The following message was sent to me by a concerned member of the public.

Milton Keynes Council is leaving people to wonder just how serious it is regarding the area’s overall regeneration.

Milton Keynes Council is responsible for the demise of the statue over an extended period of time:

Milton Keynes Council became responsible for this iconic statue and its place within the heritage of our city. Neglecting its responsibility has brought about the present sorry situation. In so doing Milton Keynes Council has disrespected residents, Headmaster Bruce Abbott, Community Artist Bill Billings and all Leon School Students who were part of the construction project. I am also within this area of complaint specifically calling to account the elected Milton Keynes Councillors representing the Lakes Estate who have stood by and allowed such a sad situation to come about.

That now concludes my complaint against Milton Keynes Council which I will make sure is duly processed and a happy outcome achieved, in so far as the repair and relocation of the dinosaur is concerned. Aside from the complaint I am prepared, as the project’s original co-ordinator, to return to my attempt on 15^th February 2023 to positively achieve that needed to save Leon Dinosaur. I will work with anyone to bring about such but will not engage with anyone who has a party political agenda.

A public petition, as I explained earlier, is part of the plan to formally organise the support Leon Dinosaur already has with the community.

Copies of this letter are being sent to the media inviting support.

Leon Dinosaur features in my books NOT THE CONCRETE COWS – published 1994 and MILTON KEYNES THE CITY OF LEGEND – published 20^th December 2022. Within this sequel to Not The Concrete Cows I am seeking to raise awareness of our City’s heritage and to rescue some lost legends. Leon Dinosaur is not a lost legend but something actively being destroyed by the negligence of Milton Keynes Council.

Milton Keynes Council has destroyed a number of fundamental areas within Milton Keynes Development Corporation’s Strategic Plan, it must not be allowed to continue the destruction of Leon Dinosaur, the legend behind it and its rightful place within our City’s heritage.

Please reply IN WRITING AND NOT BY E-MAIL within seven days to acknowledge receipt of this complaint. Then please bring about a resolution as a matter of extreme urgency.

Yours faithfully

David J B Ashford

MK Today - Saturday 25th February 2023

Milton Keynes The City Of Bad Drivers:

Sir Herbert Leon served as a justice of the peace working out of Fenny Stratford Magistrates Court. Leon is recorded by North Bucks Times of Tuesday 30^th May 1925 handing out just punishment to a speeding motorist. Frank Bransom, a commercial traveller from London, was charged with driving a motor car through Little Brickhill at 35mph. In his defence, Bransom claimed there were no signs warning against high speeds. Leon would hear no excuse and said that signs or no signs, 30mph was far too fast a pace at which to drive through a village and fined him £5 with ten shillings cost !

Milton Keynes with its farsighted and unique grid road system was built for the car. Today it is possible to get from one side of the city to the other in such a short time. I wonder how many other cities can boast such. Originally there were three hundred and sixty roundabouts in Milton Keynes, I wonder how many there are today. Did you know that Newport Pagnell Services was the vert first service station on the

entire motorway system ?

I do not think that Herbert Leon JP and the planners of the New City of Milton Keynes could ever have imagined the appalling standard of driving we would in the third decade of the twenty-first century see on our city’s roads today. Sadly that is something not in any way unique to Milton Keynes, it is a common and dangerous situation nationwide.

In 2021 there were 1,558 road deaths across the country. Pandemic and lockdown actually reduced this by 11% but just how scary is this number ! Milton Keynes has been a world leader in so many different ways, from Bletchley Park’s computer to Christ The Cornerstone. From our Peace Pagoda to its present ambition to

be a smoke free city. Could we perhaps lead the way and change the way road users behave ?

I am not convinced it is the duty of our police to enforce good driving. I am convinced it is the duty of the government to pass much tougher driving laws but that’s never going to happen with that lot !

If you or I had tomorrow to retake our driving test would we pass ? Having originally passed my test first time around in 1976 I think I would but when I reached the dreaded age of seventy years I had to renew my licence. No check up test, all I had to do was to put a tick in a box saying I was fit to drive !

Cars have changed since 1976, I have owned and driven everything from a Mini to a Jaguar. I hate the present Kia my wife insists we transport ourselves in. I am going to buy a bigger, probably another Jaguar, car which I believe will give me far more comfort and which I will be 101% safe driving. My son drives a Teslar, that is something I most certainly would not be safe driving. I want to be in control of my car not some robot laptop being in charge. Why am I allowed in law to use my 1970’s driver training to endanger the lives of road users in such a way ? My son-on-law drives a hybrid which I quite like but for the technology to operate it has to be connected to a dumbo smart-phone !  No way will I ever lower myself to own such technology. Smart-phone with its all-consuming brain destruction addiction, do I look that stupid !

Phones !  Why is it illegal for a car driver to phone or text but it is perfectly legal for a cyclist to

use one ? In some countries there is an offence called jay-walking. Why is it legal to cross a busy road while ignoring traffic and safety by staring into a phone ?

People complain about cars parked on the pavement, what would be their attitude if cars were allowed to drive on the pavement ? Why is it OK to ride a bicycle on the footpath ? Who was it who invented these ridiculous e-scooters we see motoring their way along pavements intended for pedestrians ? Milton Keynes Development Corporation gave our city a network of redways, why are they under used ? Cyclists get off the pavement and onto the redway. With one exception, of course, being Central Milton Keynes where they are the primary delivery routes for criminal drug dealers !

Newport Pagnell where James Bond buys his cars. James Bond 007 Licenced to Kill. He is not licenced to be a bad driver. What is the top speed of an Aston Martin ?  Does James Bond have any speeding related points on his licence ?

Punishment fines for speeding offences are far too lenient. Forget fining in terms of money, we have moved on since Herbert Leon fined Frank Bransom £5 with ten shillings costs, punish speeding motorists with community service. How about ten hours picking up litter in Scruffy Milton Keynes, that surely would be more effective. A second offence within ten years of the original should be punished with fifty hours of litter picking and a ten year driving ban.

Breaking speed limits sorted ! Well partly.

Drive through Wavendon in Milton Keynes and you will find warning signs and cameras. These are brilliant and need to be rolled out right across our city. Number plate recognition cameras need to be fitted to catch and ensure punishment of offenders.

Driving while using a phone ?  Easy, five years in prison with no parole and a lifetime driving

ban. The same punishment for being found guilty of dangerous driving. For driving without due care and attention the same sentence but make the ban for just ten years suspend imprisonment, however, for life.

Lead by example !  How many members of parliament have points on their driving licence ?  How many members of Milton Keynes Council have points on their driving  licences ? How many within both circuses actually passed a driving test ? How did they manage such when they are not able to read and write ?  Well they never answer letters sent to them !

Such information needs to be in the public domain. Do you agree ? But what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. We need to have an easily accessible list within the public domain of ALL in possession of a driving offence.

Am I being a bit totalitarian ?  I hope not, I want to be big time totalitarian ? In 2021 there were 1,558 road deaths across the country. Did you know that 1.32 billion vehicle miles were travelled on roads in Milton Keynes in 2021. Across the last five years in Milton Keynes 21 pedestrians, 2 cyclists and 9 car occupants who were children were killed or seriously injured. Widen those statistics to people of all ages, for the year 2018 there were 14 pedestrians, 15 cyclists, 17 motor cyclists, 37 car occupants. Do you still think I am being totalitarian ?

I was well into my twenties when I learned to drive. Growing up I knew a lad whose father had been killed in a car accident, I did not want to be the cause of somebody being killed at my hands. However, moving to infant Milton Keynes driving was a basic need and so I learned to drive. I learned to drive, by the way on roads and not as would appear the norm today in

supermarket car parks !

In earlier days I drove extensively, many times all over Europe and America. I remember on an overnight flight home from San Francisco waking up many hours into the flight and thinking the Boeing 747 had not yet flown as far as I had driven in the last two weeks. Driving today is much confined to Milton Keynes and its grid road system, that and occasional holiday breaks in England. I would not want to drive as I did in America and Europe, I am not sure I would be safe these days. The moment I feel the same driving here in England, here in Milton Keynes I will stop driving all together.

How many people, how many children are living their lives today but are pending statistics of road death somewhere in years to come ? NO WAY will I ever allow myself to be part of such an eventuality. How many drivers think the same as me ?  How many have never given such a tragedy a thought ?

Milton Keynes the City of Bad Drivers – England the Nation of Bad Drivers.

The City of Milton Keynes, a world leader in society. Could we lead and change the situation I have here tried to set out ?