'Support your football team'

SIR - Another month comes and goes and Worcester City Supporter Trust’s planning application, postponed again, recedes into the distance again, like a mirage in the desert.

It is now some 166 weeks since the application was submitted!

Since the statutory period for a decision on a major application is 13 weeks it is a wonder that the Trust have not referred the matter to the Local Government Ombudsman.

In that time the Council’s own application for a swimming pool on the same site has been heard and the project built: doesn’t there seem something slightly sinister about that? Is there is a secret plan to force the club out of business?

Meantime, down the road, the town of Nailsworth (population 6,000) sees its local team Forest Green Rovers promoted to the Football League, whilst our own fair City of Worcester (population 184,000) sees its local side floundering in the fifth tier of non-league football.

So come on local Councillors: stop putting obstacles in the club’s way, have some pride in your local team, push this application forward and give it your support when it comes to the vote.

T Munslow

Lower Broadheath

'Such a good old article'

SIR - I was very interested to see Mike Pryce’s Nostalgia feature on HRH The Prince of Wales’ Visit to Worcester 1932.

 This prompted me to look at a 36-page Souvenir Programme that I have in my collection of memorabilia.  Purchased several years ago at a car boot sale in Worcester this gives a detailed and informative programme for the “Opening of the Reconstructed Worcester Bridge, The Cripplegate Park Extension and the Infirmary Extensions”.

 Priced at One Shilling (5p) its contents include: Photographs of the New Bridge; the Order of Proceedings (for the day); An Address to be presented to The Prince of Wales, with photograph; a photograph of the Mayor Diana Ogilvy; Historical notes and photographs of the Worcester Bridges (past and present), Cripplegate Park and the Worcester General Infirmary; and Explanatory Notes on the Industries to be visited by HRH - (i) J F Willis - Cinderella Shoe Works, (ii) The Metal Box Company Ltd, and (iii) Worcester’s Royal Porcelain Works.   A few months ago I saw some items from this visit on display in the City’s Foregate Street Museum.

Thank you for publishing such an interesting article.

Colin Langlands

Worcester

'Fitness beats diabetes'

SIR - I must congratulate Dave Dewitt of Pershore, who featured recently, for his dedication to beating type 2 diabetes through physical activity and healthy eating.   It has been well known for some time that physical activity can benefit diabetes sufferers....and indeed many any other conditions that stem from being an unhealthy weight.   Coupled with a sensible healthy diet, great strides can be made to prevent the onset of conditions such as diabetes and cardiac disease...to name a few.

I am privileged to be cabinet member for health and well being at Wychavon, and our “ Get Wychavon Active” programme is driven by the many health benefits that being active can bring.

A minimum of 150 mins a week is recommended, but of course we hope that many will aspire to more.   It is getting those who are inactive to be active that is the big challenge, particularly when 1 in 6 deaths in the U.K. are caused by inactivity.   The negative impact of being inactive is both unavoidable, and in some cases reversible....as Mr Dewitt has demonstrated.

Some 36500 premature deaths could be avoided, and 250,000 cases of diabetes prevented if people walked for 20 minutes a day.   That is why Getting Wychavon Active is so important, and has been so successful to date.....but there is still much to be achieved.

Cllr. Gerry O’Donnell

Wychavon District Council 

'Motorway is dangerous'

SIR - The M5 has become a death trap, as with many motorways that have been converted to this new four lane system and having no hard shoulder, it wont be long before someone tragically killed.

The death could be of someone that has responded to an emergency call out to either a breakdown or an accident, does it matter it will be one death to many!

 Last week I witnessed three cars driving in the inside lane, the first lane of four, on the M5 when clearly the overhead electronic signs clearly displayed a red X meaning the lane is closed to traffic, yet some drivers are still driving in the lane, and why? It is down to ignorance! the lack of up to date knowledge.   After a little research I realise that motorway driving is not included in the standard driving test, yes the DVSA (driver & vehicle standards agency) are talking about it! but by then it will be to late!

 The driving test has to be brought up to date, drivers have to make themselves aware of the current rules and regulations.   As a driver, when was the last time you looked and read the highway code? In my case it was in the early eighties, that’s not acceptable!

There should be some mandatory updating of our licence that brings changes to the forefront, that way we would all be safer on the roads.     Otherwise there will be deaths on our motorways, death’s of the innocent, before something gets done!

I hope I’m wrong

Gary Kibblewhite

Worcester

'Spectacular carnival'

SIR - We would like to express our gratitude and congratulate Pershore’s Carnival Committee for all their hard work in putting on a spectacular carnival.

Despite the appalling weather, it was heart-warming to see the town packed with people braving the elements to cheer on those who put themselves out to create one of the best supported processions in years.

True British spirit.

The evening concert was also well supported and very entertaining, ending with another superb fireworks display.

 This event was started back in 1968 by Pershore stalwarts to raise the money to build the town’s first swimming pool and continues to raise much-needed money for local charities each year.  Long may it continue.

Andy & Trudy Burge

Pershore

'Worcester’s special day'

SIR- A hearty congratulations to the Commandery staff and Worcester re-enactors for laying on a splendid Oak Apple week end.  Oak Apple Day (29th May) deserves to be commemorated as it marks the day Charles Stuart returned to be King Charles II in 1660 after the annihilation of his army at the Battle of Worcester on 3rd September 1651.  Charles returned and Britain became the democratic state that we know today with parliament being the key decision makers and the Monarchy having a constitutional role.

And it all came about because of the Battle of Worcester!

Richard Shaw

Chairman of the Battle of Worcester Society (Charity)

'Imprisoned animals'

SIR - It is always an unhappy event when someone is killed, as at a zoo in Cambridgeshire.

However my personal feeling is that it is an unhappy event for a supposed civilised nation to entertain having zoos at all.

If we consider hunting with dogs uncivilised then how much more so is imprisonment of wild creatures.

Wendy Hands

Upton-upon-Severn

'Echo of time'

Sir - Where have the Halcyon days gone, where have the poets, seers, mystics the bringers of hope in all strata’s of  society gone?

Where has the serenity of childhood’s summer days and  magical nights , disappeared to?

Children have no time of  innocent play, safe in their imaginations keep.

Is this the end of childhood, where the darkness never entered. Do we have only the echoes of time from the past as adults now, to take comfort in?

The ethos and the ethics of  this 21st Century  epoch is that of the corporate, capitalism, a new “religion” of monetary supremacy.

Let us hope, there is no “childhoods end” in all of us.

Rob Allan

Worcester