FREDERICK White (Your Letters, March 21) raises so many baffling points about the planning problems to do with the Crown Inn in Cradley, I don't know where to start.

Public houses are now recognised as having a crucial role to play in the development of village life in the 21st Century and Cradley is now the only village in the county of its size not to have a pub.

Mr White says there are two pubs 'just down the road'. There are not. There are two pubs at Stiffords Bridge on one of the more dangerous stretches of the main Worcester/ Hereford road.

No one in their right mind would dare to take a casual stroll down there for a quick noggin. You have to take a car, thus adding to the traffic problems, and one of your number will have to be alcohol-free, to drive.

The whole point about the Crown is that it is in a central location in the upper part of the village and is within reasonable walking distance from just about anywhere in Cradley.

Mr White declares he has lived in Cradley for over 30 years and recalls two other pubs that had to close up.

I've lived in Cradley off and on for nearly 60 years and can only recall one, the New Inn (later the Stable), and both bars were so tiny you couldn't swing a cat-o'nine-tails in either. That was why it closed.

When I used to come down from London in the 1970's to visit my parents, the Crown was a flourishing pub. My uncle Hubert, then editor of the village newsletter, used to hold court by the fire in the lounge bar and the public bar was usually stiff with customers.

Mr White's point about supporting local businesses is obscure. It doesn't really matter where the support comes from so long as it's there.

There is certainly an argument for social or 'low market-value' housing for the many young people who wish to stay in the village but whose salaries wouldn't even buy them a garage in some parts of Cradley.

Happily there will soon be plenty of room for such projects: e.g. the old Cradley school site when the new school opens, and the 'Dragon-wyck' site on the Bosbury road and I look forward to Cradley Parish Council taking a positive attitude towards this matter in the near future.

But there is no room on the Crown site for the amount of low-cost housing this village so desperately needs.

CHRISTOPHER LOWDER, Cradley.