Stourport soon to be a ghost town

Madam,

Yet again we have another shop in Stouport throwing in the towel and shutting up shop, Stouport after years of Tories in control we have a town that is struggling and will soon became a ghost town, the streets are littered with rubbish, it seems to me that our local councillors don't care.

Still when the next local elections take place we the voters can hopefully change things, but to be honest our town is behold repair, the damage has already been done, our local councillors should be ashamed of themselves and our district councillors should be to.

Name supplied

Council house is a white elephant

Madam,

Rather than shouting from the roof tops WFDC announces it has finally managed, to secure another commercial tenant for this cavernous and previously largely empty office space in this building.

Surely, it would have been better to admit the whole building project was an ill thought out and costly white elephant, plagued with heating problems and being massively oversized for it original intended purpose.

Just mentioning that there is still over 1300 sq ft of office space available, years after the building was finally completed, really just goes to prove the point.

Apparently, this is all in the best interests of the residents, but I doubt any of them will see it that way.

Robin Pearson

The private sector may not be better

Madam,

Firstly, although I wholeheartedly support Mark’s view in relation to the importance of aspiration, I must take issue with his perceived premise that the public services must be ‘the equal of the private sector’, as implicit in his statement is that the private sector is somehow better.

Royal Mail is now a third class service charging first class prices. The privatised rail industry is in crisis. The increasing encroachment of the private sector into the NHS is clearly not paying dividends for patients although relevant shareholders will take their cut.

Hardly something to ‘aspire to’. Are all private schools so much better than the many high quality state schools that take pupils without entry requirements? Does private education allow you to aspire to a better education or a better social circle?

Secondly, I also take issue with the not so subtle move to blame individuals such as consultants for the ongoing crisis in the NHS.

Rather than blaming staff and sidestepping the key, critical NHS issues of the last 10 years or more, it is time for our governing MPs to engage in teamwork, consultation and strategic change to mend our broken healthcare system.

This is what we pay our taxes for. The move by central government to send out each of its MPs to spout out the mantra of the week to their constituents, is certainly not the answer to solving the crucial challenges facing us all.

Tim Gulliver