This is what you have been writing to us about this week.

If you would like to send us a letter, email bfpletters@newsquest.co.uk or write to Bucks Free Press, Loudwater Mill, Station Road, Loudwater.

Thank you for your service

Marlow, the restaurant, cafe, coffee shop centre of the Western World, or so it seems.

Unfortunately after 33 years of delicious menus and wine, we have lost our first class Italian Restaurant, the Villa D’Este.

Having attend from its very beginning for celebrations, birthdays, anniversaries, Christmases and New Year’s Eve events we are so sad to see our special dining place disappear.

With so much competition in the town, tastes changing and new styles of eating evolving, the service and menus offered by Fabio and his staff no longer seem to attract the discerning continental diner.

A great pity, so we must travel further afield to savour the starters, the pasta, the sauces, the succulent lamb, the excellent sea bass and the sweet trolley, yes of course the sweet trolley.

Farewell to the front of house staff, the waitresses, the chefs and kitchen staff.

We trust you will all find suitable new jobs and we hope to see you in the town somewhere.

To Fabio, thank you for your hospitality and for always making us welcome.

Ciao, grazie mille.

Mike and Sheila Hyde on behalf of our family and friends, Marlow

Who will fund unwanted cemetery after unitary comes in?

So the planning committee of WDC have rolled over and given the town committee permission to put an unwanted cemetery on recreational land at Queensway, Hazlemere (‘New cemetery finally given the go-ahead’ - Bucks Free Press September 20). A unanimous decision to spend £1.68 million with no one dissenting.

Much of the credit for that must go to the officer’s report which was a masterpiece in presenting information to get the desired result. It contained no serious discussion of the history of the site, no information about the co-ownership issues and nothing about the three past, but failed, attempts by WDC to use the land.

No attempt was made to explain the impact of the loss of recreational land for Hazlemere residents, just dismissive remarks about dog walkers. There was no serious attempt to summarise the 50+ representations submitted as objections.

The officer’s report did nothing at all to justify the claim that there was “compelling evidence” for a new cemetery. Nor did it explain why land within the boundary of the town could not be used instead for the burial of the future dead of the town.

Apparently none of the councillors were aware that Hampden Road is not the only cemetery in the district. There are others. The ones at Cock Lane, Tylers Green, and at Four Ashes, Hughenden, come to mind. Holtspur Top is only just over the district border. They all have spare capacity.

None of the councillors seemed bothered by the extravagant features of the design such as the pond and the series of reflective pools; nor by the unnecessary special exit for hearses into Queensway. Criticisms were limited to a few minor points about design. Presumably we can assume that they are all happy to take £1.68 million plus out of the reserves to fund this project.

Apparently none of the councillors were mindful of the changed circumstance now affecting WDC. When the town committee started this project WDC was confident it had a future. Now it knows it does not because of the unification project. WDC will be terminated on March 31st 2020.

However a cemetery is a very special and unique project. It is intended to last for all time which means it has to be managed for all time and funded for ever.

So can we ask the councillors to explain exactly which part of this project will be started between now and March 31st, how much that work will cost, and, who exactly is going to take the project on and fund it from April 1st 2020?

Don’t be shy councillors, explain yourselves to the taxpayers!

Andrew Barrow, Hazlemere

Our justice system needs a massive overhaul

The article on page five of the BFP on September 20 regarding the jail term given to Billy Silcox (‘Man jailed for three-and-a-half years over dangerous driving crash death in Iver’) left me disgusted and very sad.

It sums up just what is so wrong with this country’s justice system that a lady’s life can be taken in such a horrific and thoughtless manner by an idiotic person who doesn’t give a hoot for anyone else but himself.

It beggars belief that Silcox was riding a motorcycle at 87mph in a 40mph limit but that’s not all, he had earlier been seen riding through a pedestrian area, he had no driving licence or insurance and to top it all the motorbike had been reported stolen from London.

What sentence would you think would be justified in committing such a serious crime? And yes this was a crime, well the law states a sentence of no more than fourteen years imprisonment for causing death by dangerous driving, which in itself is a pittance for taking another person's life, Silcox was given three years and six months! He will of course only serve a fraction of that before he is out to enjoy the rest of his life.

He was also disqualified from driving for five years and nine mmonths and be required to take an extended driving test. This should have been a ban for considerably longer for such an offence, what planet are these judges on that they think this is a reasonable amount of time for the person to reflect on the seriousness of what they have done?

It has been established that had Silcox been adhering to the 40mph speed limit Ms Kaur would have been able to safely cross the road and would in fact still be alive today, what further proof would the judge need to be convinced that this stupid person should at least have received the measly maximum amount that the law states?

Oh yes and you might be thinking that this man would be remorseful for his actions in depriving this lady of her right to live, not a chance.

This offence took place in March 2018, why on earth does it take so long to come to court? That in itself must be torture for the family of this poor lady and now they get a massive kick in the teeth by seeing the perpetrator given this meagre so called punishment.

Our justice system needs a massive overhaul to end this lenient sentencing and have some that is more realistic in acting as a deterrent to drivers who flout the rules of the road and cause such misery and heartache.

Roy Craig, Hazlemere

MPs everywhere must be rejoicing

Obnoxious, lying and self-opinionated MPs up and down the land must be jumping for sheer joy with the departure from the Today programme of master inquisitor John Humphrys.

Andrea Gibb, Marlow

11-Plus shambles shows tests should be scrapped

Good to see the BFP supporting the parents and children who had to endure the 11+ exam shambles last week (BFP comment, September 20). But your conclusion of ‘Do better next time’ won’t help anyone who is caught up in the current fiasco.

There were significant differences in levels of disruption in schools. Some were advised of the problem in advance but in some there were delays, in others extra time was given. There were differences across the whole county.

No statistical process can cover such discrepancies, either for schools or for individual children. It’s wishful thinking for the test provider to claim all will be well.

The test providers would do well now to be honest with parents and admit that no statistics can set this straight. Then they should withdraw the test.

What they do next is a problem – but scrapping this test is the only way to sort out this fiasco.

Katy Simmons, Burnham

Dominic Grieve is trying to save us from disaster of no-deal Brexit

In today’s print BFP Mr Laurance Reed applauds the decision of the Parliamentary Conservative Party to withdraw the whip from Dominic Grieve and twenty other MPs.

Mr Reed likes to evoke the authority of honest homely folk to support Brexit. Earlier this year (BFP May 17) he quoted the opinion of two honest Yorkshiremen who were Remainers in the 2016 referendum, but had changed their minds.

This time Mr Reed repeats much of what he has said here before but there are no Yorkshiremen – he says Dominic Grieve and others like him ‘…owe their political careers to the Conservative Party and to the hundreds of men and women up and down the country who work tirelessly for victory in general elections. In exchange they owe us at the very least loyalty to the common cause.’

Mr Reed’s letter would carry more weight if the Conservative Prime Minister who withdrew the whip had not himself voted against his party seven times between 15 January this year and 23 July when he became Prime Minister. The ‘common cause’ Mr Reed mentions seems merely to be Brexit, possibly without an agreement, rather than some more widely-shared body of social or political ideals.

This is the second time Mr Grieve has been disowned by his party. He was deselected by the Beaconsfield Constituency Conservative Association AGM on 29 March this year after an influx of entryists, including Jon Conway, the UKIP candidate who had stood against him at the 2017 general election.

I pointed out here at the time that a report in the Guardian, too long to quote here, of the AGM, said it was part of something larger. It quoted Mr Grieve saying it was: ‘pretty plain that he (Jon Conway) organised both bringing members into the association and also organised preliminary meetings prior to this AGM … for the expressed single purpose of coming to defeat the motion of confidence in me.’

Mr Conway denied this, claiming he was ‘the only ex-UKIP activist who had joined the association’, however another report in the Guardian in April confirmed: a ‘leaked email … reveals he (Jon Conway) boasted of forming a 100-strong “breakaway group” of members to “bring down” Grieve.’

The Guardian said: ‘Grieve was one of several Tory MPs targeted for deselection by Leave.EU, the organisation founded by the Ukip donor Arron Banks.’ Banks is of course the man who after being on the verge of bankruptcy in 2014 suddenly became the largest donor in UK political history, to UKIP, during the 2016 referendum.

The source of Banks’s wealth is still uncertain and there have been repeated suggestions in the press that it was of Russian origin - Banks was unable to account for it to, among others, Andrew Marr on TV, and, as a result of information uncovered during the investigation into Leave.EU financing, Banks was put under investigation last November by the National Crime Agency.

After the events at the Tory AGM on 29 March it seems absurd for Laurance Reed to claim that Dominic Grieve owes his political career ‘…to the Conservative Party and to the hundreds of men and women up and down the country who work tirelessly for victory in general elections’. Surely these people have become sidelined - Ms Caroline Strafford said earlier this year (BFP April 19): ‘This year 364 members attended the AGM instead of just 80 members in 2018’. - Beaconsfield Conservative Associations seems to have been taken over by UKIP sectarians with the one aim of ‘delivering’ Brexit, if necessary with no deal, and it seems to be anecdotally widely accepted that UKIP has infiltrated local Conservative parties - hence ‘BlueKip’.

Surely Mr Grieve owes no duty of loyalty to one-issue entryists, some recent members of other parties, and others supported by dark money.

Mr Reed says: ‘Dominic Grieve was re-elected in 2017 … because he was the official Conservative Party candidate with a manifesto which stated that the party would respect the referendum result. It is now clear that he never intended to stick to the commitment and that he will vote against any deal Boris Johnson brings back from Brussels.’

This is not a new claim – Mr Reed and other people have made it here since January. It seems pointless to go over it again but Dominic Grieve said during the 2017 election that he would respect the referendum and: ‘… support a reasoned process to give effect to it (and) … strongly support the Prime Minister’s determination to secure a negotiated arrangement for leaving the EU…’

Clearly the reasoned process and negotiated arrangement have collapsed. Brexiteers like David Davis and Dominic Raab were given the responsibility not Dominic Grieve. Parliament as a whole last week voted down the disastrous idea of no-deal Brexit and it is only a hostile guess by Mr Reed that Dominic Grieve would automatically vote against any Johnson deal.

Mr Reed could consider that Boris Johnson lost the vote to prevent a no-deal Brexit last week because a majority of the entire Commons voted against him, and, if he were to bring back some reasonable proposal, a majority could vote with him and nullify the opposition – if any - of Mr Grieve.

An MP should represent all his constituents not just the party supporters who voted for him. If the present Parliament were to allow a no-deal Brexit, future generations would execrate its members, as we lived with the consequences.

Dominic Grieve owes nothing to the new BCCA and the infiltrators at the March AGM. Instead – like any conscientious MP - he owes it to all his constituents to look after all their interests and in particular to continue trying to save us from the disaster of a no-deal Brexit.

Lawrence Linehan, Wooburn Green