MADAM, Increasingly, living in Leominster, one feels the town's interests are being relegated to secondary importance.

We have lost our local Magistrates Court (false saving); the archaeology section, and now the planning department have been moved to Hereford.

With all this 'remote control' intimate knowledge of the district is lost. It is particularly worrying that unsympathetic planning applications will be waved through by councillors without the requisite knowledge of and feel for our town.

At present there is an application for yet another fringe of town superstore on Mill Street. Although such developments are now against government policy, this does not seem to deter developers from trying, developers in this instance from Yorkshire purporting to despoil our little market town.

If allowed, this two-storey shed will spoil a lovely view of the Priory from Mill Street. The riverside path which is an attractive semi-rural walk around the town will be hemmed in by a further stretch of ugliness (sheds, carpark); more cars will pollute our roads and air; and one of our main local amenities and tourist attractions will be diminished.

It is the small market town's close relationship with the surrounding countryside that is so life-giving to residents and visitors. Please let us not litter it with brash retail hangers and their concomitant car parks, rubbish, advertising boards and banners. New jobs will be created on the expanding industrial estate which was designed for that purpose, not by forcing businesses in the town to close.

It is important that people are aware of what is threatened and that they write to the planning department and voice their views before the matter is discussed mid-January.

MAJA STOREY,

Godiva Road,

Leominster.