Reepham Life

In response to Jan König’s letter of 23 October (“Life-saving defibrillator out of action”), the defibrillator in Reepham Market Place is owned and maintained by Original Cottages, with the assistance of the Community Heartbeat Trust.

Since it was drawn to the attention of the town council that the defibrillator is not operational, we have been working with both organisations to try and get it repaired as soon as possible.

Kirsty Cotgrove, Town Clerk, Reepham Town Council

Reepham Town Council has done the right thing in resisting District Cllr Stuart Beadle’s attempts to push for a Neighbourhood Plan.

As a former local authority planning officer and having been involved in such proposals, the principal issues tend to be housing allocations and highway issues.

In Reepham’s case, Broadland District Council has already determined that the future housing requirements for the town of 141 homes for the next 25 or so years will be at a single site at Broomhill Lane, next to the high school and college and proposed sports hall – despite the significant number of local objections and the local road network not being “fit for purpose”.

And the only highway issues that are considered will relate to traffic management and not highway improvements due to financial restraints.

The town council needs to be extremely careful regarding any “willing volunteers” coming forward as there have been significant cases of “vested interests”, especially relating to facilitating housing development for reasons other than the best interests of a Neighbourhood Plan.

Hugh Ivins, Whitwell

Please can the Community Speed Watch team set up somewhat closer to the bridge when monitoring Norwich Road, Reepham?

They can then record vehicles’ speed before cars have to slow down to negotiate the bridge.

I’m sure regular drivers will know by now that having been warned of the speed watch team’s presence by the sign on Booton green, they are safe to continue speeding right up to the bridge as the team always sets up just before The Moor turning.

Mike Rogers, Booton

When I moved to Reepham Moor eons ago, when the world was young, the only mammal pest in the vegetable garden was rabbits.

They were easily fended off with a chicken-wire fence, 18 inches high, supported on canes, easy to erect and remove, if a bit unsightly.

Then the Muntjac began to appear, wonderful at first, then more and more annoying as prime veg started to disappear.

We soon found that visual scarers like "glitter bangs" were useless. Rags soaked in diesel work, but who wants smelly rags all over the garden?

Fences proliferated and got higher and higher until the veg garden came to resemble an abandoned concentration camp, yet still they got through and losses continued.

Obviously, a completely deer-proof fence around the whole vegetable garden was needed if we were to go on growing vegetables.

So, giving up not being an option, we thought a bit and did some preliminary experiments.

The design criteria were: not too intrusive; as tidy as possible; lightweight; removable; and as economical as possible.

The final design has worked 100% for two years:

Posts: 2 inches by 5 feet, treated and pointed, spaced 6 feet apart. Bore a pilot hole with an augur in an electric drill to take the work out of putting them in. 2½ or 3 inch posts at the corners.

Fencing: 4-foot, green, plastic-coated wire with quite a large rectangular mesh so as not to be too visible, attached to the posts with removable plastic ties. Leave a gap at the bottom for strimming weeds.

Gates as required. Tile splines simply fastened at the corners with angle brackets from the “middle of Lidl”. Put in one diagonal to prevent sagging. Hook-and-band hinges to make gate easily removable. Simple latches.

This design works well on the deer. (Given their success in the wild, beavers might become the next pest.)

Ian Sinclair, The Moor, Reepham