'Reader argues case for village housing developments' – your letters, plus Granville Colliery farewell march – a 1979 throwback

​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

Furniture shop is going strong

I would like to point out an error in the article by Peter Love regarding the imminent closure of Shrewsbury Furniture Scheme, it states that this will be the loss of the last independent second hand furniture retailer in the town.

The House Clearance Emporium are a shop in Shrewsbury selling antiques and second-hand furniture as well as many other antique and second-hand items.

It is disappointing that he is unaware of our existence as we are a reasonably large emporium and been trading at Coleham Head for the last 12 years.

Brian Taylor, Proprietor

Hay fever fear is just madness

Whatever next? Are they really going to change exam times because some pupils suffer from allergies? If so does that mean outside workers will also have to do their harvest, for example, when the allergies have gone?

What a crazy world this has become.

Carol Prince, Craven Arms

School planning reunion party

The spring get-together of the Wellington High School Old Girls' Association takes place on Friday, May 8 at Wellington Methodist Church (rear entrance) at 7.30pm. Any previous staff and pupils welcome. Admission to include supper and a soft drink £10. A lovely time to catch up with friends you haven't seen in a while.

For more details, email [email protected].

Pat Hayward, Secretary

We take Severn for granted

I read the article about Shrewsbury applying to become the first ‘town of culture’.

I can’t argue with anything Alex Wagner said in the article bigging up Shrewsbury or with any items on the list of Shrewsbury’s cultural identity. I love Shrewsbury! However, the article didn’t mention the River Severn. Severn winds around and all through our beautiful town and Shrewsbury wouldn’t be here without the river.

Its unfortunate we have taken our river for granted to the point where its importance to our lives and our town doesn’t even get a mention. We need to notice the river! Many of your readers will have watched the recent Channel 4 ‘docudrama’ Dirty Business detailing the trouble our rivers are in. The water companies (like Severn Trent water locally), are corporate monopolies run for profit. They benefit faceless private equity companies certainly, not us or nature. Our beautiful river is dying.

For those that would like to get involved there will be a procession through the town for the river on World Water Day, March 22 (meet at Abbey Gardens from 11am for 12 noon start), to celebrate Severn and pressurise the water company and government to get their priorities right and Save Our Severn.

Claire Kirby, Shrewsbury

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