Madam

I can't believe that the council doesn't listen to the requirements of the local people.

The creation of open space within the town centre is the least requirement at this stage. What we need is to build accommodation, ie apartments. This would generate income for the town centre. To create green space in this location will only encourage more places for anti social gathering.

When the eye sore building was demolished a few years ago in the town centre it was supposed to be opened up for a green area, but this doesn't seem to have happened.

The local council need to think on how to improve the inner town centre to encourage growth and a sense of the wants of the community.

David

Madam,

Our MP’s recent Letter From Westminster came out on the seventh anniversary of the Brexit vote. I had hoped we might get an update on anything that is secretly going well. Instead it was about licensing builders.

Our rivers are awash with sewage. Food price inflation here is running at over 14% and mortgage payments are going through the roof. We now have much higher inflation and interest rates than other major economies.

Instead of working out how we can trade more easily with nearby countries to help drive down prices we have our Bank of England deliberately trying to cause a recession.

I had also hoped for an update on how our MP voted on the latest report on Boris Johnson. It turns out that despite seeming frustrated with Johnson’s behaviour, Mark Garnier abstained…

So the idea of licensing builders just felt like a bit of a red herring. It has taken 13 years of being in power to work up to the idea. It may be a good idea, but at the moment it feels like fiddling while we burn.

Clive Wood

Madam,

I read an article in the Shuttle June 22nd which I find confusing. The council is going to demolish the former Woolworths, Megavalue, Poundland and Sigma Aquatics and replace them with an outdoor green space and is being funded through the governments Future High Street Fund and will help regenerate Worcester Street.

I thought the government fund was there to help bring business back to the High Street not to fund the demolition of shops and replace them with green space, this seems to me acceptance that Worcester Street is dying so demolish the shops and grass it over.

The article also says this green space will provide connection with Bromsgrove Street and improved access to the new Creative Hub currently being created in the former magistrate's court which is at the other end of Worcester Street, as it is a steep climb from Worcester Street to Bromsgrove Street, which anybody who has walked up the step entry will know, that is not an improved access the easier route is straight down Worcester Street.

This article reminds me of the councils plans for the Bull Ring area with the demolition of Crown House, which was a high-rise eyesore, it was going to have a piazza lots of hospitality establishments and people would enjoy meeting there, it is now a flattened eyesore that is used as a carpark.

I have no confidence that our town planners or councillors have the ability to plan and spend wisely.

Paul Dakin