Ernie was
a tireless fundraiser
Alyson Wort
Wheatfields Hospice
I
am saddened to report the death of Ernest Oddy, longstanding
fundraiser for Wheatfields Hospice. Ernie collected scrap
metal (lots of it!) from the University skips, often for
example painstakingly removing brass fittings from a discarded
radiator before returning the radiator to the skip, or
spending hours stripping cable to get at the wire it contained.
He then sold all this to a scrap metal merchant and gave
the proceeds to Wheatfields.
Over
the years Ernie raised just short of £5,000 for the hospice
and on behalf of all the patients who were cared for as
a result of his efforts (and the University's many refurbishments)
I would like to say a very big thank you.
Chippy to
curry house to car park
Richard Martin
School of mechanical engineering
The
sight of 'Curry Corner' inspires all who pass by to endeavour
to do better but to improve the site as Mark Nelson suggests
would be a task indeed! (See letters, Reporter 465).
For
myself, perhaps a multi-storey car-park to help alleviate
the abysmal facilities at our neglected corner of the
campus, where every post-60s new building came with the
provision of adequate parking facilities, with in some
places more than adequate security, to the detriment of
encumbent University staff.
The
battle for the annexe against local planning permission
and the car parkers of the adjacent land provided great
entertainment over the years - neither have won.
The
rubbish is strewn from the ever increasing growth of 'take
aways', to service the needs of our student population
- truly a growth industry.
We
who observe, truly mourn the solitary 'Sweaties' fish
and chip shop of old. Evolution of one's surroundings
is a true reflection of one's lifestyle. After all, we
only come here to work - we don't have to live here.
So,
pull the whole edifice down and build something useful.
But for whom? The students or the staff? Or both? Perhaps
the staff could suggest some longer term, more worthwhile,
project?
