'Reader argues case for village housing developments' – your letters, plus Granville Colliery farewell march – a 1979 throwback
From rural housing and council road signs to local shops, school gatherings, hay fever concerns, and celebrating the River Severn, our readers share their thoughts on life across Shropshire.
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Give go-ahead to new homes
Charles and Amanda Bathurst who spoke in favour of small housing developments in smaller villages in the Telford area are absolutely right.
Not only in east Shropshire but the rest of the county needs more rural homes for local families, as Liz Truss who was environment minister in 2015 said, but her scheme was rubbished by older nimbys who thought their properties would lose value.
The old Atcham Rural District Council demolished 700 beautiful country cottages in the 1960s calling them “rural slums” and did not allow replacements to be built.
One whole village, The Bog in Minsterley, was razed to the ground in 1970, and should be rebuilt, but no, the planners know best, and this suits the multi-millionaire builders who now monopolise the housing market with their shoddy little boxes.
W F Kerswell, Picklescott
Road signs are a blight on county
Chris Ellis has a point about road signs. They keep putting more up, but even the ones we have are never cleaned or maintained. Driving around I see many signs including speed limit ones hidden in hedges, and most of our signs are covered in road grime and moss.
We should mention after the scrapping of North West Relief Road the amount of taxpayers’ money paid to consultants - it is eye-watering. Now some in Shropshire Council have raised the madcap idea of 'rebranding' the A5 west of Wellington as the M54, when the only difference is that the A5 section has laybys.
Chris Smith, Horsehay
