Dudley concerns, boy racers and morality – readers' letters, plus Prince Philip in 1970
Readers raise concerns over Dudley town centre’s decline, call for action on boy racers and praise a much-loved Wolverhampton post office. There are also thoughts on morality in a multicultural society and a complaint about the early arrival of Christmas
Dudley is in a shocking state
I read with interest that Anne Boyd, director of growth at Dudley, needs to speak to traders regarding the shocking state of Dudley town centre.
Remarks are written in this paper about balaclava-clad yobs causing trouble, but they can do this safely because the police station is no longer in the town centre. There are no PC plods walking around to keep the peace.
But it’s deeper than this. Dudley gave permission many years ago to open Merry Hill and offer free rates to encourage businesses to move there.
So they did, one by one, moving out of the town centre that had kept them in business for decades. Who authorised this catastrophe?
Who decided to spend our money – £2 million, yes, the total loss was £2 million of our money – on a cafe in Dudley Town Council offices for staff and the public?
Who decided to spend, I think it was £165,000, on our non-existent town market?
Who decided to spend £24 million? Yes, it’s only a few more zeros, but our zeros, on a new tram and bus station when Dudley has zero regarding town centre experience? And why would we want to visit similar towns using the tram?
Who are these big spenders accountable to?
Anne Boyd should be focusing on not wasting more money trying to regenerate our town. It would be better to incinerate rather than regenerate and save us, the wage-payers of the council members, more hikes in council tax spent on the whims of the failing members of Dudley Council.
Colin Hubbard, Dudley
Point cameras at the boy racers
With reference to Martin Bristow’s letter about pensions in a bleak Britain, which was expertly written and informative, I just wanted to add an incident I witnessed on Stourbridge Ring Road.
This has been blighted by racing cars and superbikes tuned to Isle of Man TT standard. They use the ring road and Birmingham Street as their racetrack.
This usually occurs at night and into the early hours, waking the said pensioners from their lighter-than-normal sleep patterns.
So I was a little dismayed to see one of our fine officers hiding behind the subway railings on the said ring road, opposite the Duke William public house.
He was pointing his speed detection device down the ring road at approximately 11am, when the general traffic would consist of the said pensioners travelling to doctors’ or hospital appointments, or perhaps doing a bit of shopping, as well as delivery drivers and people attending their daily work activities.
Only to be caught out doing 31.5 miles per hour (conclusion).
Did they really think that this was a strong message to the night-time boy racers?
Bev Hull, Stourbridge
Post Office is best in England
If there was an award for the best post office in England, Lanesfield Post Office in Wolverhampton would definitely be among them.
The postmaster and his wife, son and daughter, not forgetting the rest of the staff, always greet people with big smiles on their faces and are the most helpful people you could ever meet. From the post office counter to the shop counter, you are treated with respect and made welcome. They deserve some thanks for all the help they give us.
Kenneth Clibery, Lanesfield
Complications of our morality
What is right and what is wrong? It all stems from where you live and how you were brought up as a child, which goes back to your carers. Some people may argue that morals and ethics determine right and wrong. Morals tend to be personal, while ethics are cultural. With that in mind, if you are from a country where violence against women is considered acceptable and you relocate to a place where it is not, you may enter a state of confusion or cognitive dissonance.
The question then is this: if one inhabits a multicultural society, should one accept attitudes that are morally wrong (according to one’s personal morality) or not? Because ethically, a multicultural society should accept all. Similarly, if one’s parents allowed one to believe that family ethics overrule those of society, should one be blamed if one oversteps the ethical standards accepted by the rulers of that society?
Andy Chetwood, Midlands
Halloween fright
Halloween is over-hyped and commercialised. And now we have Christmas to put up with!
John Scales, Shifnal
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