Your papers have rather been taken over by the council’s Local Plan spin department this last week.

Is there room for a little reality?

All the talk is about things that other people would have to build/pay for.

It is very convenient for Colchester Borough Council to have “visions” of them, which not only gives an impression of dynamic action.

It also serves to create a false impression that the transport consequences of the massive new East Colchester “concrete city” must be solvable, merely because there are so many (theoretical) options.

But will any of them work?

So far as the old chestnut of the university station goes, to be of any use in this context it would have to have 12-coach platforms for London peak trains to call, would be very costly and would require the university’s permission for users to drive through the uni grounds to reach it (unlikely).

It would also need the withdrawal of many London trains’ stops at Wivenhoe or Hythe in order to stop there instead.

Basically, not very likely at all!

Moreover, commuters from the new city would not be able to use Wivenhoe station either (no extra car parking space possible), or Hythe (wrong side of Clingoe Hill and tailbacks).

Turning to the supposed East Park & Ride, the actual news story here is: “Despite the blatant evidence that the existing P&R is achieving almost nothing in peak periods, because too many Colchester workers have free parking in town, Colchester Borough Council is so unwilling to face reality that it still wants to have more millions spent on another one.”

People in most of Tendring can access Cuckoo Farm almost as quickly as an eastern site anyway, and indeed form a fair percentage of its limited users.

The main actual achievement of an eastern park and ride would be to reduce Wivenhoe and Brightlingsea bus services by using public subsidy to entice off their car-owning passengers.

However it is Essex County Council and not Colchester Council which has to bear the costs of their joint folly in starting the park and ride against all the evidence - and Essex County Council may not be so keen to get burnt in Colchester a second time!

As for Ipswich being an example to follow, is this the Ipswich where one of the three park and ride sites has been closed down (writing off £5million), and where the council has spent recent months trying to come up with a rescue package for the other two?

Peter Kay Park Road, Wivenhoe

  • Dated buskers should be banned

I note with some alarm that rules may be relaxed on buskers (“Later shopping could be a reality” July 22).

I wish to ask, what rules?

We have a resident dulcimer player who plays every day in Trinity Square or near the Cat Rescue shop who happily plays his repertoire of four songs for hours on end.

There is a rather dreary singer/guitarist who has taken to playing every Friday/Saturday with amplification and some lyrics unsuitable for children.

I pay rent to sell goods in Trinity Square, these buskers do not, nor is the council interested in licensing them.

Many of them are so convinced of their talent that they bring amplifiers. This is definitely not permitted, but no-one enforces this rule to my knowledge.

Most shoppers only have to experience this in passing, but for those of us working in the town centre with a modicum of musical discernment, it is a cacophony of La Cucaracha hammered out endlessly, 50-year-old Bob Dylan songs (get with the times some of you) being crooned, not to mention the busker who has been murdering “Mrs Robinson” for at least the last 20 years.

I have had enough of it thank you.

Sam Glen Eudo Road Colchester

  • Councillor was speaking traveller truth

So councillor Tina Bourne complained to Colchester Council’s monitoring office about an email sent by councillor Roger Buston about travellers because they are afforded protection under the Equalities Act.

This may apply to something like ethnic origin, but from the extracts in the paper Cllr Buston appears only to have stated things that ring true, as the councillors of Weeley so bravely demonstrated recently by stopping a group of travellers entering on to their green to leave it contaminated as they had done on a previous occasion.

It is also a bit rich for Cllr Bourne to criticise someone for stigmatising people given that this empathetic person, upon the occasion of Margaret Thatcher’s death, posted a photo of a bottle of champagne and wrote a tweet saying “chin chin everyone”. The words pot, kettle and black spring to mind.

Richard Hart Harwich Road Colchester