Letters | 2 August 2018

Memories of drought

Sir: I read your leading article with interest as I well remember the hardship caused by the drought of 1976, particularly to the farmers and the tourist industry (‘Troubled water’, 28 July).

I was a director of the South West Water Authority and was deputed to issue drought orders, which included hosepipe bans. The privatised company to which I had been appointed to the board then built Roadford Reservoir, which has a huge capacity, and the company has never had to impose restrictions since.

I agree that the industry is far from satisfactory. The companies, particularly Thames Water, found it cheaper to allow leaking pipes than to repair them. There is also the question of the exorbitant salaries of certain chief executives. But if a future Labour government renationalised water, this would cause chaos. Meters should be imposed on all domestic properties and competition should be allowed in the market. I firmly believe that to take the industry back into the public sector would be a very retrograde step.
Sir Simon Day

Ivybridge, Devon

Pandering to children

Sir: A couple of days before reading Cosmo Landesman’s article ‘Problem children’ (28 July), which talked about how children are now allowed to run amok in child-centric Britain, I visited the National Trust’s Croome Estate in Worcestershire. The estate is home to St Mary Magdalene Church, which is under the care of the Churches Conservation Trust.

Laminated notices for children were attached to the pews and I quote from one: ‘In the past, people were expected to behave in certain ways in church; this meant sitting sensibly in a pew or walking with a good posture. Be mischievous and lie down here! … Take a mischievous selfie and tweet us at the CCT.’ Another notice suggested that they boogie up the aisle.