Another voice

J' Accuse

Auberon Waugh

Fro all those tempted to come and live in 1 the West Country, or even to visit it on their holidays, I give a warning: avoid Taunton for it is the privileged haunt of the most powerful 'criminal milieu' in the West of England; a milieu with which even old age pensioners can find themselves con- fronted. Drugs, corruption, multiple burglary, violent assaults, crumbling public buildings and official neglect go hand in hand with public contempt for the police, flouting of court orders, disease, deer poaching on a vast and organised scale, persecution of old age pensioners and a sinister attempt to politicise the villagers of west Somerset. Money, as is obvious, is at the heart of all this corruption. And justice is powerless in unravelling this web when it allows itself to breathe in the whiff of temp- tation. But first the facts ...

Persecution of old age pensioners is pro- bably as old as the human race. The reasons are obvious. They are poor. They are a nuisance. They are a burden on the rates and have no money to spend in the Space Invader arcades and lurid entertainment centres of Minehead. On the front page of the West Somerset Free Press for 22 January a small item was tucked between the big news of the week — that Bealeson's Stone was up for sale ("Another blow to Minehead's ailing economy') and that a special flying squad may have to be set up to fight deer poachers in the Quantock Hills. Its headline was deceptively unsensa- tional: 'Watchet councillor resigns'.

'Watchet Town Councillor Mr Reg Cog- gins has resigned in protest at the council's decision to raise "rental" paid by a pen- sioners' coffee club (of which Mr Coggins is a member) for use of the Council Chamber in Swain Street.

'In a letter of resignation read to members on Monday, Mr Coggins said he felt it unreasonable for the council to raise the rent from £1.10 to £1.50.'

The council chairman, Mr Malcolm Brown, pointed out that this charge was not really a rent, but paid for the electricity consumed by the average attendance of 60 members, who required three convector heaters, an oven and a kettle in constant use for their coffee morning pleasures. Moreover, the council had just spent money on an additional 12 chairs for these occa- sions.

Taken in isolation, the council's case might appear to be a reasonably strong one. Why then did'Councillor Coggins resign? A glance through the other pages of the same newspaper may give a clue. Williton is another village a few miles west of Watchet. An inside-page headline reads: "Williton OAPs afraid of darkened streets'. Four whole areas of Williton including Watchet Road had been without street lighting for six weeks. Councillor Russell Hill revealed that the South West Electricity Board quite simply refused to reconnect them. 'It is disgusting,' he claimed. 'There are pen- sioners who are imprisoned in their homes at night for fear of the dark. They dare not leave, particularly in the recent bad weather because they are likely to fall down and have serious accidents.'

Significantly enough, it is also in Williton that a 71-year-old barber has just been refused permission to use his garden shed for hair cutting, despite a petition from 400 satisfied customers and the support of the Parish Council. Yet we read nothing of the strange things happening in west Somerset in the Sunday Times. Its editor (who is a member of the executive committee of the Great Britain-USSR Association) has not, for some reason, seen fit to send down his Insight or Focus teams of Dons, Rons and Jons to investigate. Perhaps he feels that everything is under control down here. A letter to the editor of the West Somerset Free Press from Mr Sean Kennedy of South Molton is headed 'OAPs- and Poland'. quote it in abridged form: 'I was shocked to read last week the letter stating that OAPs cannot afford to buy the Radio Times. I knew pensioners were hav- ing a hard time of it, but did not know it was that bad.

'Perhaps some of the people who are busy organising relief for Poland should start something for our own pensioners. Most charity should start at home.

'In my opinion, too much time is devoted on the TV, radio and newspapers to the in- ternal affairs of Poland. We have enough problems of our own to sort out ...

'With ten million employed in Western Europe alone, it is clear that Western capitalism is bankrupt. Yet it was the young men of Britain, the United States and Russia who gave their lives forty years ago in order to rid Europe of fascism. We should not forget that, and let the young men of today butcher one another at the command of Reagan, in order to save so- called freedoms in Poland. I write as a Cath- olic, with a desire to see a truly progressive Church flourish ... and as one with a Polish wife ... Things have gone wrong in 'I had no idea it was in Greeneland.' `Meanwhile, we should concentrate nn helping the OAPs who can't afford 25P far the Radio Times.' Another letter announces a meeting 1,° discuss the nuclear arms race in St LtIke,,s Church Hall, Roadwater, summoned IV P. Horrobin who has 'found, not surprisinglY. that there is a great deal of concern over this issue, and particularly from young mothers.'

Meanwhile, the law is openly defied often with impunity. Holiday-makers have been leaving sacks of rubbish out on then! proaches to Porlock Hill where the suryi`,.. ing dogs of the area have scattered then'. 7 man who broke into the Wellington Hotel, Minehead, compounded his crime by riding his get-away bicycle the wrong way doval3 one-way street. He was put on probationj An 18-year-old Watchet youth who pleaded guilty to three charges of burglary and the' explained that he was under press be through being out of work. In February planned to get married. His girl friend OA expecting a baby, and thus would be an au. ditional responsibility in the spring' Sentence was deferred. Of two people ar prehended for possession of hashish, 011e'e Mr D. A. Lerondu of Minehead, said, `I :v smoked hashish for 23 or 24 years. I lee this is really trivial.' A man sentenced to 80 hours of '0,111; munity service' — light gardening work 1°'0 a disabled lady — simply did not turn uP td do it, saying he had since been apPoirlteA manager of a frozen food firm. e Minehead youth of 21, whom I recognise from the newspaper as being a former tbee- nant of mine in the village of Corn, Florey, when apprehended by the police for making too much noise, replied: 'IT%

,

leave me alone, pig.' To a 1'11'4 warning, he riposted: 'I'll be

you.' oid

Where will it all end? The eight-year" g multi-storey car park in Taunton is crackin: up. Tiverton police club has been closed °,71 orders of the Chief Constable of Devon an Cornwall, the controversial Mr John Alder' son, because of 'past mismanagement ' man called Mr Vile, from SainPf°' Peverell, assaulted another man frcl'e , Bampton and Holcombe Rogus 0°,4 Hall in the course of a conversation ah°' the relative merits of Tiverton and 13a111,13; ton, giving him a bloody nose. Allow villain stole £80 from an electrical meter's

Lower Meadow, Alcombe. icial

As if this were not enough, 0.–fr three figures just released show that in the thr months up to 31 December 1981 there veer; seven cases of whooping cough Somerset. if the libel laws of this countryallowed it, I would name all the guilty oleioc Unfortunately, they don't. Drugs, Pe01)t being beaten up, police mismanageMe'oi bad language, extra-marital sex .. • it isAlita a pretty picture. To all those tempted visit the West Country this spring and su'a mer, whether by car, caravan or 0110 campers' hitch-hike, 1 give a warning: st away, stay away.