Letters Page

LATEST MISSIVE

20th July 2007
Director's Cut

Hey,

Firstly, I've gotta thank you for this website, it really does show the "real" Brentwood. I moved here in 1997 and I've grown up here, so I do understand quite how boring the town is.
A year ago I decided to go to college in Benfleet, and most of my college friends live in Rayleigh, Southend, Basildon, etc... and I spend most of my time there. No wonder. When I'm at a friend's house and we're bored we can always go out, maybe on a 10 minute walk and do some shopping, hang out with friends, see a film...the list goes on and on.
When my friends come over here (and I live in Doddinghurst so walking to town is too time-consuming, and the bus that runs once an hour is hardly ever on time) we can get a lift in to town, and get coffee! Ok, so we've spent 10 mins getting hyper, now what to do....well we cant see anything so we'll pop into the tourism office to see if they know anything we don't. Oh wait, they're closed! Okay, we'll spend all day looking for something to do. 3 hours later and we're back by the Baytree center, having done sod all.

I'm directing a feature film and we were going to shoot the opening sequence in the arcade. Okay, it's not New Zealand but with a bit of good camerawork it doesn't look bad. Unfortunately we've now changed that shot to Benfleet as (after getting support from all the shops down the arcade) as I couldn't get a location release for less than about 30 times our total budget. Brentwood council couldn't help either as they don't actually have a filming department like every other council in Essex does.

I'd like to ramble on with more complaints but I just don't have the time. (As you can see it's almost 2 am and I've just finished my paperwork for the day)

Keep on being grumpy, we wouldn't have you any other way

Paul

LETTERS
11th December 2006
B-List Celebs

Hi Mr Bored in Brentwood,

Can I ask do you actually live in Brentwood?

I completely Disagree with near enough every negative comment you have made about Brentwood, It is a desirable place to live and the fact that you said people only live their because they can't afford London or a better Sub-urban alternative (not your exact words) is completely ridiculous.

Half of the people who live in London could not afford to live in Brentwood and also a lot of people who live further out could not afford it. If it is such a cheap place to live then why would Sir Alan Sugar live there, he's not exactly strapped for cash is he?

Also Brentwood is a very fun place...what is it that makes it boring is it the nice bars and restaurants? is it the funky nightclubs? Is it the go Carting? Ski slope? Or is it the fact that you have not adapted to the Brentwood way of life?

Brentwood is a place for wealthy Essex people to move to or retire in, there is an abundance of fast cars and large houses, wealthy children and B list celebrities....The schools are of very high standard and commuting isn't too bad.

I am afraid I have no more time sit here and disagree with you but please send a response and I will disagree some more.

Many Thanks

Joe (Happy to live in Brentwood)

Hilarious Joe, thank you.
I've lived in Brentwood for 25 years whereas Alan Sugar has lived in Chigwell for 26 years. He also has homes in Spain and America, but not Brentwood, according to the Business Times

LETTERS
10th December 2006
Romford. Yuck!

I’ve had a laugh reading your website about Brentwood ; thank you! When I was moving there in 1994, people teased me as I was moving to the ‘most boring town in England ’. I was transient as all the thousands before me; Ford Motor Company being the guilty party. But alas, I fell in love with a man who was born in Brentwood , and so, Brentwood is now our Pilgrim destination! I will be bringing our two young boys to visit Nanna once again, and as I search the web for interesting things to see and do whilst in England , not much is in Brentwood as you know!

But speaking for the many foreigners who have had their lives briefly touched by ‘passing through’ Brentwood , it really isn’t that boring. I had a lovely two years living there, meeting people, and enjoying the local culture! You are a town of friendly people, most eager to please visitors. And that in itself is something to be prideful of. Chelmsford may have a ‘community’ by your definition, but it doesn’t exude the friendliness I always found on Brentwood High Street. Take a look at Romford, yuck! A lad would be more likely to grab my handbag than to grab a door for me like in Brentwood .

Arguably, I did live there 12 years ago, things may have changed, but my trip in 2004 seemed pleasant enough, still smiles abounded. It’s hard to argue with the economics that effect towns, I understand your position. But remember, it still is people that make a community, and Brentwood is filled with charming folks!

Thanks again, I truly enjoyed your site!

Kind Regards,

Dawn

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

LETTERS
30th October 2006
High Street Cess

I think that you have really under estimated Brentwood. It has a highly active youth culture that is split into three factions.

The bustop people,
The scary goth children that come out on friday night,
and the older pub yobs.

Just kidding the youths of Brentwood are stupid.

I think you should write an article about how the children of Brentwood are mutiplying and adding to the cesspool whihc is currently known as the high street.

- H-man

LETTERS
22th October 2006
Setting the Record Straight

Having been sent a copy of your web site articles regarding the impossibility (in your view) of a cinema deal, will you be updating it with the news that we have got one, with waitrose as well?

Just wondered

Brandon

When we see the new six-storey multi-plex monstrosity towering over the local dwellings, and when we see the hooded vandals lurking around in the labyrinths of the new faceless litter-strewn concrete shopping-malls, then I guess I'll have to update the comment.
But not till then.

LETTERS
12th October2006
A youngsta writes...

Hey there just read your website and ive lived in brentwood for about 12 years now and im sick of it... your right in what you say about people just passing thru and treating it like shit! Im abit angry at why they made the salvation army into another fucking resturant wtf? Shouldnt it have been made into a youth centre or something instead of another place for the oldies to eat... When is something gnna be done about the youth in brentwood its not on!!
Will

LETTERS
9th June 2006
Why bother?

What a lot of work you have put into your website?
Why go to so much trouble if you hate the town so much?
Sue

LETTERS
20th April 2006
Each Year It Gets Worse

Hi,
I have never enjoyed a site more, I assume you are not high up on the list of people invited to Council meetings and such like.

I live in Brentwood, and have dome for 25 years, each year it gets worse. But is it because I am getting old and want it the way it was, even when I moved in? My sons think its great, loads of places to eat and drink, they shop in Lakeside.

LETTERS
31st March 2006
Hassle

Hi Mr Bored, In Shenfield the counsillors came up the idea of charging to park in the car parks and allow parking in the street free of charge (on one side of the street anyway). Result : empty car parks and half the main road occupied by parked cars. Brilliant - they must have gone to great lengths to work that one out.

By the way I never shop in Brentwood as its not worth all the hassle. One word: if you really think Brentwood is so boring, try a day out in Sidcup.
Rgds.
Paul

LETTERS
23rd January 2006
Old News

Congratulations. You are front page news in Brentwood's most esteemed "newspaper", the always hard-hitting Yellow Advertiser. Notice your site has been updated for a few months now, so obviously the chaps there have been holding on to this story until a slow news week. Last week's headline was "man dies of natural causes".
Russell

LETTERS
18th January 2006
What Ho Good Sire

What Ho good sire.

So Brentwood is boring is it. Have a care the curse of we boring old farts doesn't get you. Remember the artistic cretin who started it all - young David McClucly - actually I rather thought his name was McClusky - but no matter as an old ex journalist, I was never any good at names, dates and places.

Point is, having bit the hand that fed him as it were. the poor lad met a sad fate. Escaping from the hordes of uptight local burgers (?) one weekend to the delights of Camdon Town he was set upon by a gang of mischievous persons who set about him and soundly beat him up.

There is of course no truth in the rumour that these were members of the SAS wing of the Brentwood Civic Trust.

Still love the site. Having just discovered it. keep up the good work.

Cheers and Beers
Dennis
Apprentice boring old fart.

LETTERS
17th January 2006
Brandon Bites

I have had a read through some of the articles posted on your web site. they make interesting reading and i am surprised to have not read them in the open press.
I just wanted to let yo have a some extra information regarding your concerns over a cinema for brentwood specifically. Although some of your quotes and referrals on my comments are not entirely accurate, it is in the cross party agreed planning document that outlines what the council will require as part of any deal for William Hunter way that we will require a cinema as part of the scheme, or we will not sell.
I have also publicly said that we will be looking for an imaginative and attractive design plan that can add extra much needed car parking to brentwood, although we have added 130 (approx.) spaces to town center parking availability in late 2005.
For completeness i would also suggest that whilst i appreciate we are all entitled to an opinion, we also have to bear in mind that if there is something that we want as individuals or as a community then the only way to deliver it is to go out and get it. Brentwood has made it clear over a number of years that it does want a cinema and although the previous administration was unable to deliver one i do feel it is important that we are pro active in going out and looking at options to deliver one, which is partly the reasoning behind WHW, it will not just walk up and land in our laps.
I hope this is of some help by way of information and i also hope that you will be able to put your support behind the idea of improving the facilities for brentwood residents, even if you are not as confident as I of Brentwoods ability to deliver on our future.
Regards,
Brandon

LETTERS (2005)
2nd December 2005
French Letter

Hello,

Just a word to say how much I enjoyed reading through your site. I was brought up in Brentwood but - to add some grist to your mill - moved abroad in 1976. I have only been back a couple of times since (just passing through!), and found the town both smarter and seedier, if that is possible. As a child of the sixties, my favourite haunts were the White Hart and the Black Horse, so I almost shed tears when I saw what had become of the White Hart! What hasn't changed much is the district's fine parks. As a child I spent many a long hour in Weald Park. Apart from being tidied up a bit (no more wrecked WWII tanks) it was still recognisable.

Times move on but I must say I am sad to read your assessment of life today in the town.

Best wishes

Jeff

LETTERS(2005)
8th December 2005
Qui Moi? Not Politically Correct???

What kind of ignorant, ill-informed red neck wrote the words about Warley Hospital for this site? I take it they're not too hot on the concerns of the mentally ill.

What a subjective piece of crap. My stomach turned as I read the line "Yes folks, nutters from all over the county were locked up in Brentwood." Unbelievable! It was so wonderful to be reminded that people still have their heads firmly kept where the sun doesn't shine.

This is the type of us and them, it could never happen to me, Sun Reader mentality that keeps Britain so inward-looking.

Dear, oh dear.

Jan

Thanks Jan! I love you too! When you say "unbelievable", do you mean you don't believe that nutters from all over the county were locked up in the Essex Lunatic Asylum? They do say that refusing to recognise the reality of obvious truths is a key symptom of an impending psychiatric episode....

As for the "us & them" mentality: you're projecting your own paranoia onto my comments. You don't actually know if I haven't already suffered mental illness, after all one in six adults in Great Britain will suffer from mental illness at least once in their lifetime.

LETTERS (2005)
7th September 2005
Stupid Rant

Dear Boring, grumpy, person,

I was a bit dismayed as I wandered into your pointless site. I am moving to Brentwood shortly and ran a search engine about the shops in Brentwood. Instead I came across your site which is just a stupid rant about nothing in particular. I was particularly disturbed to read your interpretation of schizophrenics. My brother has recently been diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic and I don't think he should be locked up in a mental hospital just for being so. His illness is controllable and yes, 'care in the community' does work. If I can live with him and not fear for my life why can't he be in the community? It was interesting to find out about the old Warley hospital but I didn't need your sarcastic and arrogant comments along with it! Please re-phrase or delete what you've written and make your site a bit more informative and worthwhile. Thank you very much.

Claire

Thanks Clare. Some people without appropriate support in the community are lost and desperate. The notion of "Care" in the community, for many, is non-existent: it is effectively abandonment because it saves money on mental hospitals. Your brother is lucky to have you to provide that care, and if his illness is controllable, that's great. But the News is littered with cases of mentally -ill people supposedly receiving "Care in the Community", who have ending up killing and wounding people. Even the mental health charity Sane says this is due to: "the failure of the community care policy, which for years we have been highlighting as a fundamentally flawed system" The Victorian word for mental institution "Asylum" was used advisedly - it was in many cases a sanctuary for people with psychiatric problems to be looked after and avoid the viciousness of life on the streets.

LETTERS (2005)
19th April 2005
More destruction of Brentwood Heritage

Hi
Wondered if you knew about plans submitted to demolish the house Fairholme on the corner of Highland Avenue and Ongar Road.
The plan is to build 10 flats, 4 storeys high. Planning # BRW/215/2005.
Fairholme has a history but one I can't find on the net (which is how I came to your site). The cul-de-sac Treetops was built on land owned by the owners of Fairhome and the land was once known as the Fairholme estate. I don't quite know how old Fairholme is but I'm guessing late 19th century.
Just thought you'd be interested.
Ann