High tax to blame

I HAVE been following with interest the recent issues of the Ludlow Advertiser dealing with the closing of De Grey’s Café and others in the High Street.

Having grown up in Ludlow, attended the grammar school and worked in the town as a teenager, the slow disintegration of business life in the High Street seems to me to be more to do with high taxation politics than a lack of local support.

None of these ‘intelligent’ politicians can really have thought through the effect of these draconian tax levels. The typical gross profit margins obtained by these small stores because of their limited market is more than wiped out by their overheads and labour bills. These smart people need to wake up before all the local retailers give up and enter the unemployment queue.

Realistic expenditures on service by these ‘smart’ politicos and a realignment of the VAT funds to subsidise property taxes at a realistic level on an ongoing basis might be a start.

When one is choosing who to vote for, a good question to ask might be “Where does all our tax money go, and can you justify its expenditure?” Tax levels in most western societies are way too high and much of the time the income is lost because of unbelievable administration expenses that achieve nothing.

DAVE PRITCHARD

Apex

North Carolina

USA

 

Closure is a blow

READING sadly about the closure of De Grey’s in your online edition recalled some of my treasured childhood memories of visiting Ludlow in the 1950s and 1960s. My grandfather owned RV Sweetman’s optician and chemist immediately outside the church. It was a magical, untidy old shop with phials of coloured liquids for medication, lenses and frames scattered about, and a weird vacuum-pipe cash system that sent customers’ money from ground to second floor, and returned their change in a shuttle packet.

My uncle Ken and grandfather pottered around in white coats.

More or less a daily ritual and for me a treat, my grandmother Margaret Sweetman would roll grandly up and take me down the street to De Grey’s. Wooden panels, posh drapes, plush chairs, sharply starched tablecloths, smart serviette rings and all strongly smelling of coffee. While she held court and smoked John Players, I could have cheese on toast and hot chocolate with irregular crystals of brown sugar. For a small boy used to refined white sugar cubes, De Grey’s was indeed the height of luxury.

STEVE BRIGGS

Blofield

Norfolk

 

Help welcome

MY car broke down on a very dark and lonely B road and all power went so I was in total darkness – very scary indeed. I had to use the torch on my phone to try to warn drivers I was there as even my hazard lights didn’t work.While waiting alone in the cold and dark a lovely man called Paul stopped to help, in no time he had jump started my car so I had light and heat. He stayed with me until police and RAC arrived and he is now officially my hero.

I’d also like to thank the police who were very kind to me and another lovely Paul who was the RAC rep from E A Downes Garage in Shrewsbury. They all made a scary and horrible experience so much better.

Thank you all so much.

FAY VASS

Clee Hill

Ludlow