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

If you would like to share a letter here, email bfpletters@london.newsquest.co.uk or write to Bucks Free Press, Loudwater Mill, Station Road, Loudwater, HP10 9TY.

Help our vital food bank

Over the next two or three weeks we celebrate Harvest time, schools and churches collecting what used to be “surpluses food stuff” for redistribution.

Food redistribution - for this, Wycombe has its own food bank, One Can Trust.

Some see this as a waster’s charter, well it is not. The clientele, or recipients are mainly working families who face a crisis, illness, bereavement, temporary unemployment and so-on, and all are referred to us for help.

However there are some seasonal rises and falls in specific demands. Let me explain: school holidays, during term time most schools provide breakfast clubs (at the schools expense, not the tax payer) come in early and you get help with homework and a breakfast, some families get free school dinners and finally some schools have evening homework clubs as well often with a light meal provided.

School holidays normally generate a crisis demand, as many families through one reason or another rely on school supported activities as essential helpers.

Well there is also the other end, the new terms start and there is a rise in demand for young single people’s food parcels.

I asked a social worker (who knows about these things) why, and was told, some children reaching 18 are being “kicked out of home” and end up in hostels, the YMCA and other temporary residential care.

In this day and age and in our town. And why, normally is finance, loss of family accommodation or a family crisis like divorce, bereavement, separation etc.

And as it happens One Can Trust now needs your support.

Please help us so we can help others in our town get over these temporary problems.

This last summer holiday and the new term have severely depleted our shelves.

All large supermarkets have collection points as do most churches and mosques or deliver in person to our warehouse.

Anthony Mealing, High Wycombe

Will new lifestyle centre be a success?

Well, the last hurdle for the start of the new Chiltern Lifestyle Centre has been overcome, with approval of the (unpublicised) business case by the shadow executive of the new unitary authority. This is a massive project for Amersham, so we must all hope that the construction goes well, and that the centre proves to be a success.

However, as residents and future users gradually become aware of the sheer scale of this building, I wonder just how many people realise that:

1. There will inevitably be a gap of possibly six months when there will be no swimming/gym/community facilities at all in Amersham, as one of the planning conditions is that prior to occupation of the new building, the new parking scheme must be fully implemented, which can't be done until all the existing buildings have been demolished to make way for a large number of the car parking spaces. (Planning condition 13).

2. You'll need to get used to the reduced size of the library when it temporarily moves into KGV House in October, as the total floor area of the library in the new centre is less than HALF that of the existing facilities. And the new community centre spaces are smaller than the existing as well by the way.

3. The new car parking plans include only 30 more spaces than exist at the moment - for a centre that is reliant on doubling its membership for the business case to work. Also, the only coach space provided is in the refuse/delivery bay, where passengers will have to get on and off and the coach then has to swing across the footpath that passengers have just used, to reverse out.

4. The timber cladding proposed for some of the building has a guaranteed life of only 30 years, compared with the loan to build it which will take at least 45 years to pay back.

5. It is inevitable that there will be a lot of disruption when the contractor starts work. First off, the library car park will be closed immediately, thus seriously reducing the town's car parking spaces for the duration, and secondly, CDC have never provided any kind of logistics plan for how the project will be built, but prepare for big construction vehicles, muck-away lorries, concrete deliveries,and general material delivery vehicles to be clogging up Chiltern Ave, Woodside Road and King George V Road from 7am. And where will all the contractors' vehicles be parked - you have been warned.

6. The business case has not been made public since early this year, when it had a £4 million hole in the finances. We have been promised sight of a precis of the final version soon, so it will be interesting to see how that hole has been plugged, and where the money is coming from?

I sincerely do hope that the new 'Lifestyle Centre' is a success, but I fear that most residents of Amersham have been sleep-walking into a Chiltern District Council vanity project that they will find is just far too big for the site and the town, and comes with a whole host of unforeseen, or unrecognised, problems.

Patrick Carroll, Amersham

Labour plans should concern all parents

Over the weekend members of the Labour Party have pledged to abolish OFSTED, the regulatory body in charge of overseeing school standards, abolish private schools, and to seize and “redistribute” investments and properties held by private schools.

The nonsensical proposition will cost taxpayers untold billions of pounds, in addition to causing immense disruption to parents with children in both public and private schools.

As a son of immigrants, having spent my formative years in public and private schools in Britain, I look at Labour’s proposition with horror. Our education system has long been reputable, with students coming from across the world to receive the benefit of our private and public schools. In Beaconsfield, our excellent public and private schools work in tangent to provide the best of education to our children. Indeed, we are most fortunate to be in an area where 94% of our primary school pupils and 81% of our secondary school pupils are attending local schools that are ranked “good” or “outstanding” by OFSTED.

Furthermore, OFSTED provides parents like me with a school’s performance indicator as compared to the national average, preside over a school’s handling of disciplinary issues such as bullying, whilst providing schools with the training they need to improve. As a school governor for a local primary school, I can say that OFSTED ratings and guidance are absolutely crucial in helping us improve and do better for our children.

As a parent myself I understand that it is in nature of parents to want to provide the best within our means for our children. On wanting the best - like many others in Beaconsfield, my two daughters are currently schooled in the very reputable Butlers Court School. I’ve not thought of moving them to private schools, but I can understand that, should circumstances evolve, why I would appreciate at least having the option to send my children to private schools.

Having both institutions available in some ways allows us to have the best of both worlds. If a system works, why break it?

There is a sinister underlying aspect of the Labour Party’s policy announcement – it is not what they claim to be for the benefit of our children. It is their ideologically driven, callous disregard towards property ownership. The seizing of assets does not serve our children – it is another attempt at social engineering.

In the eyes of the Marxists, these fundamental tenets of freedom – of choice, of ownership, of property, will be abolished in favour of the “collective” who we know will be controlled by a select few.

Let's hope that, like all Marxist endeavours, Labour’s plans will fail.

Jackson Ng, chair of Beaconsfield Constituency Conservatives Association and 2020 unitary council candidate for Beaconsfield

Can you help with coaching students?

Would you like to coach 15-year-old mixed students and watch them gain confidence and blossom as you coach?

If you have some interview experience and a deal of empathy for 15-year-olds then join us coaches one morning of: Monday 21st, 22nd, 23rd, 24th October at Beaconsfield School.

We coach the basics of job search, application and interview. The students will use it this year to apply for sixth form, college, apprenticeships, traineeships so it is clearly worthwhile.

Coaches say they thoroughly enjoy it and over 95 per cent of students say it was good, useful and confidence building in feedback.

We have been doing this for many years and full guidance notes will be provided.

For details please contact DennisHElsey@aol.com.

Dennis and Madeleine Elsey, Jordans & District Rotary Club