I WAS not intending to raise quite so many hares but since my name has been mentioned in three letters to your excellent journal, I feel I must respond if only to make my position a little (not totally) clearer.

It is my lot in life to always be misunderstood. My letter was not to do with the scheme as such but to protest about the simple fact that no matter what is proposed in this little town, it must always provoke a howl of protest from factions that can only see their point of view and are immediately delighted to raise the banners of objection from the narrowest viewpoint.

Why have the anglers and only the anglers seen so big a bogeyman on the horizon? I am an angler and have been so almost since the days of good Queen Victoria. I am a canoeist and an experienced boat owner, although unlike one correspondent I have not been so fortunate as to spend 37 years on a river.

It is all quite simple. I unlike so many others would like to see where this scheme is going before damning it. When I think of my trips down to Bidford in canoes with my then children and remember the river from a river-user's point of view, I have a quiet smile (chuckle) at the whole idea.

But wait a while, dear so-called conservationists and anglers and so on. The time to howl will be when we have fact.

I have merely pointed out that as soon as any suggestion that a scheme of any kind is proposed then narrow sections of the community will object.

And I have proved my point. No-one has yet come forward to even suggest that there might be benefits. Everything is negative.

Think positive Alcestrians! There is money being thrown in your direction. Try to catch some, do not just throw it back without some serious thought.

Norman Barker

Meeting Lane

Alcester