Page 64 - Phonebox Magazine November 2014

The Perimeter of Living
He is fat, indeed he is obese, stand too close awhile and decide he’s had no bath for a week or more, he is unsteady
on his feet, his speech is slurred and his language is unsavoury. We sneer and we walk on, we’ve no thought that we might be wrong.
She is fairly young and certainly pretty, she is dressed to be only too obvious. “Come with me, I can make it very interesting”. We snarl and we walk on.
The card carton in the doorway is damp and grubby. Within, half asleep in a shoddy old coat and blanket is a fellow half dreaming aloud, he speaks of a people we do not know, he speaks of being let down and kicked out from a life we do not know. We scarcely look as we walk on. Presently we drop a few coins into a collecting can and feel somehow comfortable for doing so. Three times I’ve retraced my steps, three times met a person, three persons each wanting a life worth living and an ear to listen to their problem. All three, and I’ve met many more, were receiving some form of benefit but were suffering most from loneliness. Their lives are spent on
the outer edges of a community which most of us find satisfactory, from the middle we treat them as too far out to be worthy of any everyday conversation. We tell ourselves that they are outsiders and somehow foreign, aliens, drop-outs and born losers. Certainly they are lost at present but we too are losers; we lose by not even knowing what they might contribute to the value and interest of our own living.
For people thrust out from normal connections and conversation the grimmest times are Christmas and New Year when just about all others spend particular time among family, friends and lush living. At just such times sheer lonely desperation drives several to just give up on all hope, they just lie down to die in a drunken haze. Many church based groups and other charitable organisations (I have the Salvation Army very much in mind) find opportunity in precisely those mid winter days to rescue lives which might otherwise have been lost.
Drawing them in to soup kitchens and to welcoming no questions asked temporary shelter we frequently get to meet people who soon show their true worth once given
guidance and a new start; which is more some of them reveal hidden talents.
I met with the pretty prostitute I mentioned earlier about two years after that unsavoury encounter, she was now living among a family she had come to see as her own. Frances had got her talking at a Sally Army soup kitchen and had fetched her home to occupy the spare room. Little Chloe now has a job in the office of a family law firm and studies three evenings each week to catch up on things she might have learned at school if only she had enjoyed some encouraging interest from her parents. The parents were heavily into drugs for which they had each seen the inside of prison life, it was no surprise then to learn that she is changing her name by deed poll so she is now settled with two sisters and with honest hard working parents who care.
Church is not just for Sunday, faith requires us to look about us at all times. One of my own recognised the obese drunkard I mentioned from a previous parish. He had enjoyed an excellent career but sadly that same career had led him among a group of heavy drinkers and a mixture of ale and whisky had destroyed his work and his family life. When last I heard he was receiving treatment for his addiction
Sainsbury’s site hampers plans for Olney railway
Bedfordshire Railways & Transport Association
The proposed Sainsbury’s site on the outskirts of Olney could hamper any future railway station for Olney, according to the Bedfordshire Railway & Transport Association.
The supermarket submitted a planning application to MK
Council in September, outlining a proposal for a food store and petrol filling station; also Duncan Investments have applied for the erection of 33 dwellings and associated works on Warrington Road.
However, the BRTA have discovered that the proposed build would site on the track bed of the Bedford to Northampton railway – one that the group is hoping to be re-instated.
A spokesperson for the group said: “Develops of this kind can go anywhere, it does not have to block the Handley alignment, which is carefully drawn to show how a new railway could serve the town of Olney as a major asset.”
The local group want the Bedford-Olney-Northampton line to be re-instated as a part of the Thameslink Birmingham-Northampton- Bedford-Luton Airport line. Previous independent studies have shown that it would have a positive impact on the community and transport links, offering peak time traffic reduction along the A509 and A428 in both directions.
They added: “A corridor for it should be planned, protected and retained with adequate lands for parking included for commuters, principally London, as well as airports and local towns.
“It would also free-up capacity at Milton Keynes Central Station, 64 Phonebox Magazine
Midland Railway Station, Olney
allowing more trains to bay there from places like Bedford, Watford, West London, Aylesbury and Oxford.
“The Sainsbury’s development can go anywhere, it does not have to block the Cobbler Line (as it is referred to).”
The BRTA will hold a meeting to discuss the proposal on November 29th from 1pm at The Two Brewers, Olney. All supporters are welcome. Blog-spot is eleanoretrain.blogspot.co.uk and Twitter: @BRTABON - For more information call (01234) 330090.