SIR – The article in Wednesday’s paper by Tom Edwards made interesting reading about Alan Amos’s concerns about overflowing bins and litter coming from KFC in Worcester attracting gulls.

How times change. Back in 2008 before KFC was built the local residents tried to explain to Mr Amos about their concerns about both noise and litter pollution around the site of KFC.

Nearby residents even presented him with a petition against KFC opening on its current site because of this.

At that time he was very dismissive about the issue. Despite our fears of litter, noise, anti-social behaviour and air pollution he ignored all of this and gave his 100 per cent backing to the project.

Residents were told that KFC would be a wonderful addition to the area.

There was no chance of a litter issue as KFC would ensure street patrols to keep the area free from litter in the surrounding area and they would provide plenty of bins for the public to discard the rubbish.

They promised special filters to remove the smells of the cooking, trees and shrubbery to hide the drive- through cars from the road, and none of this has happened. As reported in the Worcester News (January 14, 2009) planning permission was given but KFC were to invest £50,500 in improvements to transport in the area.

I wonder what happened to that money between then and now? Not a single thing has changed around the area of KFC. The traffic is chaos, there is no traffic calming or improved crossing facilities.

There is no fencing/trees etc to stop the headlights of queuing cars beaming across the Windermere roundabout.

All in all, Mr Amos let the residents of Blackpole down when he said that they had nothing to worry about when KFC was coming to town.

I am sure many people enjoy the food from the store, they are not interested in the fact that the waste that they discard around the area provides food for gulls, rats cats or dogs in the area and something needs to be done. However, it is really not good enough for Mr Amos to paint the picture of himself as the person that has got to take a stand, when five years ago when we told him that this would happen and he said that there would be no issues and totally disregarded our feelings.

I am lucky I was able to move away from the area last year, but I know residents still have to put up with the constant smell in the air and the litter left behind – all with the smug face of Colonel Sanders grinning back at them.

Steve Layton

Worcester