SIR – In ‘Readers’ outrage at plan for homes on beauty spot’, May 20, you say ‘Worcester City Council... points out the need for more homes, particularly affordable homes, and that planning guidance encourages developments to go ahead if deemed ‘Sustainable'. What utter cobblers!
We are concreting over our country for development and growth. More than 10,000,000 people have been poured into our country since 1998, 600,000 foreigners came here least year.
We simply cannot go on getting ‘growth’ by pouring millions more people into our country and concreting over our farmland to house and employ them.
Moreover the council’s use of the word sustainable is laughable.
Children are being crammed into our schools.
Our hospital and medical services are collapsing under the weight of our rapidly increasing population.
Our roads are gridlocked.
And pollution has reached illegal levels.
Despite all this, our politicians are going to add another 100,000 people to our local population, by building another 30,000 houses here. Once they can all hide behind The Inspector that is! Sustainable? Our politicians wouldn’t recognise sustainability if it bit them on their gluteus maximus!
The Worcester News is packed with new housing schemes. Where are the major new road schemes to cope with the increase in our traffic from 3420,000 car journeys a day to 600,000 car journeys a day on our local roads?
Where are the schemes to double our hospital and medical services?
Where’s the schemes to cater for a doubling of the children we shall have to educate? And where’s the plans to deal with our illegal levels of pollution?
There aren’t any, apart from a pathetic widening of Carrington Bridge! And that illustrated how start raving mad our local and national politicians are!
It’s not more houses we need it’s millions and millions fewer people.
N TAYLOR
Worcester

When 15 were killed in Peterloo massacre
SIR – GB Dipper’s most recent letter clearly demonstrates a lack of awareness of this country’s great history.
In August 1819 a crowd of between 60,000 and 80,000 gathered in St. Peter’s Field, Manchester to demand parliamentary reform. Local magistrates called on the military to arrest the ring leaders – instead the cavalry charged the crowd, killing 15 and injuring up to 700 attendees. This was, of course, the Peterloo Massacre. Parliament’s response to this popular meeting was to pass six gagging acts, the introduction to each read “every meeting for radical reform is an overt act of treasonable conspiracy against the King and His government.”
One hundred years later, despite repeated government attempts to prevent demands for radical reform being promulgated across the land, the franchise was eventually extended to all men and women aged 21 and over.
When GB Dipper applauds the government for tackling radical ideologies by attempting to silence their proselytes he appears to have forgotten that it is because previous governments have singularly failed to prevent the popular support for radical ideologies that he has the franchise himself.
Perhaps that concept is a little too ‘lefty’ for him.
ROBYN NORFOLK
Worcester

Heads should roll over the Ketch fiasco
SIR – Heads should roll for the total mess and cost of the Ketch road works. Worcester highways agency should be held accountable to all tax payers for the embarrassing design and proven (after only a few days) of a road system that does not work.
Worcester will be laughed at as the bottle neck city.
Error one was not continuing with the slip road from junction 7, excuse from highways agency was pipes underground prevented them from continuing further! They are considering the yellow brick road, what are we auditioning for a film set now?
Error two was the short sightedness of these road improvements that will always be useless without a dual carriageway Carrington bridge and of course this is down to cost too!
So what do they do spend huge amounts of cash on? The most useless piece of asphalt in the West Midlands. Council you should be ashamed.
J WYATT
Worcester

Can't we have some different topics?
SIR – It never ceases to amaze me how your online community, the commenters, are so negative and small-minded. I feel sorry for these people who, very pompously, comment on the same old dreary subjects that seem to dominate their very existence. And yet, if their real names were exposed, rather than using an alias, then they probably wouldn’t have the courage to write such things.
At present, the main point of interest amongst your commenters appears to be about the road infrastructure or the delays caused by such problems. Indeed, I agree that this topic is an issue; but when you see the sheer number of negative comments left by these people, compared to absolutely no comments left on recent stories about heart donor patients, the dangers of the sun, charity events, artwork and local events then you begin to wonder what motivates the minds of these people! I agree that the roads and the traffic are terrible but there’s no need to keep going over the same, boring subject. One man’s opinion will not change the world!
If that is the main concern amongst local folk then God help us! Gone will be the days of walking and cycling to work and just enjoying the great outdoors. No stress. No anxiety. No pollution. Just good old-fashioned recreation, instead of the panic of trying to negotiate the sheer mass of commuters at rush-hour.
My main point really is that people have become so reliant on these deadly, polluting machines that they can’t seem to find light at the end of the tunnel. And ironically, I think that they’re right...
SIMON MCCULLOUGH
Worcester