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George Sand would be most displeased with noisy Sóller

Dear Sir,
Kay's Kilometres on Soller was rewarding reading. Soller unfortunately is polluted by noise from the smallest of motor cycles. They belt up and down the beautiful narrow streets, that in a bygone age were frequented by the clip-clop of horses and donkeys. The writer George Sand would have been most displeased. She described the Soller Valley as “tranquil.” The situation could easily be sorted by the authorities insisting on more effective silencers.

It might be an idea to have the traffic restricted for a few hours per day, perhaps while the shops were open. It worked very well in Soller at the recent festival.

Everybody seemed to like it, and you did not have to look over your shoulder every 30 seconds to see if you were going to be run over.

Regards,

Terance Hall. Hotel Marina Madrid. Port de Sóller.

Writing in defense of the police

Dear Sir,
“Letter to the editor” (Majorca Daily Bulletin 28/5) from a Mr Dunlop on “great holiday marred by police.”

Whilst of course not knowing the full facts, there are a number of anomalies, so in defense of the police, whom I have found, in my 30 years-plus living here, to be generally most helpful and lenient, I would question as follows.

Mr Dunlop's wait for over two hours for the tow truck seems a long time, my experience is one hour maximum.
His description of a “minor accident” could hardly be the case, as the car was presumably undriveable.
If no other party was involved, one presumes he ran into a lamppost/tree, ditch or wall. That the third set of police who stopped took an interest in a mid-day accident, with no other party involved, is quite natural. That they gave him an impromptu test/walk the line/touch the nose may have been because they were not carrying a breathaliser test, or did not want to go down the full, official route. That the assumption someone may have had “one too many” at lunch time, on this island, is not unusual. My wife had someone once run into her stationary vehicle at 12 noon, when breathalised, he “said” he had been to a funeral and had a couple of cognacs afterwards.

That he registered 2.9 could only have been an indication of his extreme grief! Whilst one understands British drivers are used to the other side of the road, one sees some potentially horrific situations when driving along one was a tourist going the wrong way round a roundabout, the worst, another reversing down the exit ramp back onto the motorway, having taken an exit too early! I think Mr. Dunlop should be happy his accident did not happen in the UK - police there seeing a car halfway up a lampost or where ever would certainly consider a “driving without due care and attention” with subsequent endorsement of the licence.

Yours sincerely

Graham Phillips.

Postcomm the regulator

Dear Editor,
Opposition to the speed by which the Postcomm Regulator's timetable for dismantling the Royal Mail in the U.K. has been well written by the “Observer” and argued by both “Consignia” and the Unions.

When I read the report in the Bulletin, Saturday 25th May, I nearly fell off my milk churn.
So Express Dairies has applied for a 12 month licence to deliver business mail to householders.
If the licence is granted to a milk delivery company then surely this must make a mockery of the regulators insistence that the 'Post will be safeguarded.

Will the United Kingdom have Express Dairies milk churn shaped pillar boxes dotted around the cities and housing estates? How will they handle registered and other premium business services?

Or will it mean the Postperson becoming a two to three hour part time worker collecting, sorting and preparing the post for delivery, then handing the bundles of letters over to the dairy?

What then happens to the letters addressed to people who are not Express Milk dairy customers or people who do not have milk delivered at all? Yes we know the Post Office is in a mess, the “Sawyer” report, published last year told of the many problems, but this application does not seem to be the solution. How does security get protected?

What would happen to business letters which for many reasons cannot be delivered? It is not unknown for a pint of milk to be stolen from a milk float when the milkman or woman is on the twentyfirst floor of a block of flats. Who looks after the mail on the milk float?

Come on “Postcomm” throw out this application it smacks of a milk company on the turn.

R.A. Durkin. By e-mail.

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