SIR - Here we go again, deep in cuckoo land. This is “the realistic picture “ of the proposed football stadium, I don’t think so.
No stand, no terraces, no car park, spectators looking over the four foot wall. Let’s be honest, you can fool some of the “good people” of Worcester some of the time etc.
P.S. Look closely and you might see a cuckoo’s nest.
Mr R Wallace
Worcester


Don’t print these rants
SIR - I think you’re giving Carl Mason the “oxygen of publicity” which he needs by publishing his letters. His most recent letter about the “indigenous people” in Britain was wholly racist.
Please don’t publish his rants; you know they’re not acceptable.
Gerry Taggart
Powick


Stop denying disabled help
SIR - The Mid Worcestershire MP Nigel Huddleston is quoted as saying that disability benefits should not be a no-go area. Has he the experience of being disabled and having to rely on the government for financial support as thousands that are disabled have to?
I myself have been disabled all my life, but fortunately, I am not totally dependent on government financial support. 
There must be thousands if not millions of people having been born with a disability which is not their fault, and they have had to rely on families and friends for support in helping them to come to terms with what nature has given them.
 I was taught at an early age if you cannot afford, go without until you can, and being quoted ‘look after your pennies and the pounds will look after themselves’. Very sound advice which helped me in the past years. 
At one stage I even denied my family a TV (black and white) set until it was shown that TVs were available to convicts in prisons. 
Mr Huddleston should be helping the disabled of this country and stop trying to deny them the financial help that most of them so desperately need.
N M Dunkley
Worcester


Buses are just too unreliable
SIR - I have now found a way of getting to Worcester from Lower Wick.
Instead of waiting ages for a bus I shall go to my local shoe shop and by several pairs of shoes.
I can rely on my feet more that the buses.
Jasper Farr
Worcester


New shop has lost its soul
SIR - I have to concur with your correspondence re the new Lidl store.
The parking is inadequate; cars even park on the approach road by the side of the store. The road system needs marking.
Service and supply lorries are unable to reach the goods entrance without forwarding into the old car park and reversing across Blackpole Road.
I have been a regular and very satisfied customer since Lidl opened on the Blackpole retail park.
Having been to the new one three times I find it has lost its soul.
I have now given up and go to Aldi in Droitwich which has similar merchandise, and although I know it is German owned, it feels less Germanic and cold.
Mike Roberts
Droitwich


PM speaks up for England
SIR - David Cameron, our excellent PM, is not “running scared” (GB Dipper, March 18) – he speaks up for England. Bravo Dave!
GEORGE COWLEY
Worcester


A victory for local people
SIR - As a member of the Middle Battenhall Farm Land Action Group I was delighted to hear that the developers, who wanted to build 200 houses on this wonderful and historic landscape (it is not included in the approved and agreed South Worcestershire Development Plan), has withdrawn its appeal. 
This is a victory for local opinion. I would like to thank the hundreds of people in Battenhall, and far and wide, who have supported the campaign. Well done everyone.
It is an aspiration of mine to see greater weight being given to the views of local people when such large applications are considered. 
The planning process, from my observations, has slipped too far in favour of the big developer and away from residents who often do not have the available skills and resources to fight back.
Dr. David Tibbutt,
Battenhall


Citizens put at risk by EU
SIR - With the loss of local police stations, and neighbourhood police officers, residents have suffered an unfettered rise in criminality. This has not just happened over recent weeks or months, but years. Cut upon cut by governments to our police services has altered the landscape of local communities, and seen a dramatic rise in burglar cameras and CCTV.
It’s not just this – we are seeing local hospitals staffed by short term locums, resulting in lack of continuity of care, overcrowding in schools where in some 80% do not speak English as a main language and translators hired at £65 a day, our armed forces cut, cheap labour hired from Europe to keep wages down and much more.
Our politicians are failing us at home, yet continue to spout that we must remain part of the EU. 
They have not done enough to safeguard the citizens of this island yet continue to open the door to increasing numbers of migrants from federal European states.
GB Dipper
Leominster


Refuse meat to fight plans
SIR - As a group which is very much concerned with animal protection, we were interested to learn about the drop-in session for Upton Snodsbury residents to discuss a proposed intensive poultry farm in the village (“Poultry opinions”, March 21).
If approved, these plans would condemn hundreds of thousands of chickens a year to a life of misery and suffering.
The best way the public can oppose such appalling places is to refuse to eat chicken altogether.
In fact, there is no need for any creatures to be reared and slaughtered for human consumption, as we can live perfectly well on a diet free from animal products, which would also benefit the environment and our own health.
Ronald Lee
Communications Officer
Worcestershire Vegans & Veggies


Tory ignorant over repairs
SIR - Worcester City Cabinet member Councillor Andy Roberts showed himself, in The Source of 25.3.16, to be woefully ignorant both of Worcester’s recent political history and of one of the main divisions between political right and left.
Apparently, he said that a necessary £360,000 repair to a Perdiswell culvert was caused by neglect in the 1950s and/or ‘60s, and that he did not know who was in charge then, but that it was probably  “Socialists”.
There was no Labour majority (some of whose members were, in any case, then as now, not socialists) in The Guildhall until 1981; no sharing of power (with the Lib-Dems) at County Hall until 1993 and no Parliamentary representation until 1997.
Rather, it was Cllr Roberts’ Tories who were in charge, and it was them who, as ever, spent reluctantly and thus badly, “on the cheap”. 
It is always surprising that the Conservatives have a wholly undeserved reputation for sound financial  management, when they consistently demonstrate a lack of understanding of the financial (and socio-cultural) benefit of prudent public investment in the future.
David Barlow
Worcester