LETTERS

1:14pm Thursday 20th March 2008

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How to preserve one of our loveliest valleys THE Stretton Valley, one of the loveliest in England, is the highlight of the rail journey from Hereford to Manchester. Thousands enjoy it every week. It can stand very little more development. The best views of the hills around the Townbrook and Carding Mill valleys are obtained just after the train leaves the northern end of Church Stretton.

Correspondingly, looking down from those hills it is where the unspoilt countryside of the AONB begins.

The winning of planning permission does not mean development has to take place. Schemes are sometimes withdrawn at the application stage or even earlier.

Given that this is probably not the end of building in the Stretton Valley there needs be a generally accepted agreement in advance as to how best to accommodate a limited further amount without destroying the very thing the place is noted for, and of which the present location of this latest scheme forms a significant part.

Your photograph (Advertiser, March 13) reveals just how much space within the town is taken up by the two playing fields. So why not transfer some of these facilities to the edge of the town and use most of their present site for housing, with a modest amount being kept for park land and small scale recreation.

Richard Watkins, Park Lane, Craven Arms.

Planners can pay a visit to Aldi in Leominster MY first reaction to the news of Aldi's planning application (the Advertiser, February 28) was "Does Ludlow need another supermarket?" With Tesco, Somerfield and the smaller Tuffins (and perhaps another new store at East Hamlet) for a small town it seems adequately supplied.

As Philip Dunne points out (the Advertiser, March 6) "For it to succeed there needs to be a clear demonstrable need ... ". It is a two-way situation. Ludlow cannot afford to either jeopardise its existing balance of small businesses and larger stores or to have valuable space within the town used for unnecessary development.

As the original articles made eco-friendly claims and gave fairly glowing comments about Aldi I went to look at its "successful venture in Leominster". It was not as I might have imagined and I would urge the planning committee members to look themselves.

In addition, I do not know how a supermarket judges success, but mid-morning on a weekday there was only one check-out operating, there were four customers in the queue and two people looking around the store.

Pauline Mackintosh, Stanton Lacy, Ludlow.

Mystified by claims over village schools I THINK Philip Dunne MP and I must use a different dictionary. Clunbury and Lydbury North schools must be mystified by his latest leaflet, in which he claims that they have been "saved", when they are actually to be "amalgamated". To me that means joined together, so one will close.

He also seems to have a different calendar. The funding he refers to from government was obtained long before he and his colleague MPs decided to get involved in the primary schools issue and some of it has already been targeted at other areas of education.

Perhaps he would like to look up the word "misleading" in the Oxford English Dictionary?

Pat Stokes-Smith, Woodgate, Wall Bank.

Exploring battlefields I AM an organiser for the War Research Society, which supports a number of causes including the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Normandy Widows and Veterans and other charities.

The society runs coach trips to the First and Second World War battlefields, cemeteries and historic sites of northern Europe. In 2008, places to be visited include: Ypres and The Somme, Normandy and Arnhem.

I would welcome enquiries and ask for a medium sized stamped addressed envelope so that literature can be forwarded.

Ralph Watkins, 51 Princes Road, Tivoli, Cheltenham. GL50 2TX.

Too late for Town Hall OH what a pity the conservation of Victorian buildings in Ludlow did not come into effect before the Town Hall was knocked down.

Clive and Dylis Pickles, St John's Road, Ludlow.