Natives don’t want bland shops mall HEREFORDSHIRE Council is to be admired for its ruthless restructuring of the planning committees to eliminate opposition to the Edgar Street Grid.

Councillors representing city wards will now have no power to refuse planning permission for anything, let alone the Grid. Its claim that removing most councillors from the planning process represents an increase in democracy is a spin the present Government would be proud of.

Why not be honest, and admit that the cabinet does not give a fig for democracy? Pursuing the Grid is now a face-saving exercise, since the cabinet has already squandered millions (of our money) on this ill-considered enterprise. It dares not admit that yet another disaster is looming.

This cabinet reminds me of colonial governors, well-intentioned but autocratic, and knowing what is good for the natives better than the natives do.

Its outdated plans promise a rich harvest for building consortia, with identikit shopping malls, bland plazas, plus some costly fantasies such as a county headquarters (which will not include a council chamber as councillors will obviously no longer be necessary).

All this to drag local shoppers back from nearby cities.

It does not realise that the future of Hereford lies in tourism. The unique treasures of Hereford are the cathedral and the river; a sensitive and imaginative plan would have included them both.

The views of the natives are different from those of the cabinet (though unfortunately irrelevant).

The natives like the sociability and compactness of a central town square. They think shopping malls are dated, even dead: if they wanted shopping malls they would use the internet. They like neighbourly quality shops with staff whose success is their livelihood. They are local suppliers supplying local needs.

They would like local councillors who would work with them to lift the planning blight from the city centre and make every street vibrant with activity so that Hereford’s special qualities become a magnet to attract travellers from all over England.

LANCE MARSHALL, Whitecross Road, Hereford.