IT IS no surprise to many of us that Mr Campion and his colleagues have been able to achieve their ultimate goal of selling off Vale Road car park for housing. The claim originally that all residents of Wyre Forest must be treated equally and therefore places must be charged for was nothing more than a smoke screen. It seems they always intended to sell this parcel of land off once they had claimed ownership. Everyone in Stourport was aware of this gift from the Vale family, including current family members, but strangely no-one in Kidderminster appears to be.

If they are so adamant that this action must be taken to achieve the best investment for all residents of Wyre Forest, may I ask what they intend to do to treat the residents and business’ in Mitton fairly too? What alternative are they going to offer or maybe large reductions on our council tax?

Many may not know that this area is the original village of Mitton and contains over a 100 houses, two public houses, a Chinese takeaway and until recently a shop.

All of these premises were built long before the motor vehicle was invented and therefore either have no suitable access wide enough or are restricted by the traffic flow in Gilgal and Mitton Street. The lanes leading to them are footpath width only and very steep. There are already three vacant building plots. One virtually next door to Vale Road car park on Vale Road, and two in Mitton St. One of these has been available for many years so why is the car park needed?

Over the years, every little bit of available parking has been removed from the area, even Severn Road has had what little it had reduced by over half in order to facilitate some very infrequent buses.

Our community is being destroyed by the battle over the too few parking places and God forbid we should ever expect to have a visitor. My own family and friends have to park in Vale Road now and with children and bags this is already difficult. Once it has gone or places greatly reduced there will be no facility for them at all.

There is no alternative parking nearby for this or customers of the businesses, so is it the councils intention to shut them down and clear the area of historic buildings? My own home is one of the oldest in Stourport and it has cost a fortune over the years to restore and try and keep in good condition. What is going to happen to it if there is no-one willing to take on these old buildings in the future? Do we leave them to rot? Do we pull them all down and build modern day apartments?

The people of Mitton voted overwhelmingly Conservative so where are these councillors now and where is our MP when we need them most.

Maybe they are sitting in their gilded cages with their private drives with no real thought for the public who put them there once they were voted into power.

G Harman Mitton Street Stourport