Sir,
It seems strange to me that, whenever I submit a letter to The Monmouthshire Beacon, it is always replied to by an anonymous, yet Monmouth loving, citizen !
I was always taught to speak my mind, yet it seems that my letters are always answered by anonymous readers!
I always believed that freedom of speech was a fundamental part of my being British, whether Welsh, Scottish, Irish or English, gained for us by the actions of the countless men and women who gave their lives, not just from 1914-1918 & 1939-1945, but are still fighting, and dying to this day, in far away lands, such as Iraq & Afghanistan!
But,if the last respondent to my letter had taken the time to read and digest the point of my letter, he/she would have taken the time to realise that the point I tried to make was that the police can take time out to police a bike ride, yet our children, our future, seem to to take a second place.
On the same issue, a retained fireman, luckily not on call that day, was stuck on Watery Lane for four minutes.
That 4 minutes hold up could have been the difference in, God forgive, the anonymous child/parent/friend dying in a blaze because a fireman was held up by a bike race.
Yours, still a proud born and bred Monmothian.
Richard Simmonds