Solihull Council is extremely good at letting local places of architectural and historic interest be lost to the community. At the airport there is near Coventry Road Elmdon the original amazing looking Elmdon Terminal building with its wing features, It is now not being used and risks being allowed to decay.
There is a petition that can be found by googling ‘Elmdon Airport petition’ requesting that it be preserved for the future. People can also contact Solihull Council or their local Solihull councillor asking for the building to be officially listed as a building of architectural value.
These days almost every building that goes up is devoid of any architectural merit so we cannot afford to keep losing buildings of visual worth. Lets all speak up now to the powers that be.
Dan Hartley
Solihull
The recent destruction of the woods in Dorridge Park can only be explained by one of two things: either the contractors were incompetent or the council did not oversee the work.
If the former, why were they chosen? If the latter, why is no one from the council aware of the damage done – the felling of healthy trees (presumably for sale) and the destruction of the walkways. A lot of money has been spent and we now have woodland that we can’t access.
It is difficult to understand how a council department can be so inept.
Yours faithfully
Carolyn Travis
I agree with Lionel King (Letters 5/4/18) that local government needs radical reform. Local authorities are far too large, remote and unaccountable. Real local government should be comprised of councils no more than three wards in size so that residents can easily contact the councillors who make the decisions for their area, and consequently feel properly represented.
Council Tax (CT) should be reformed or preferably abolished because of its inherent unfairness. Why should empty properties genuinely for sale attract full CT? Why should two pensioners living in a large property pay more CT than two or more salaried occupants of a smaller property? If you extend or improve your property, why should you have to pay more CT?
Ideally, CT should be levied on the cost of services used, not the value of property owned or rented. But this would be a nightmare to assess and collect. A fairer system would be to finance local govt. from income tax. Since about 75% of local govt. spending already comes from central govt., it’s difficult to see why it shouldn’t all come from this source.
J.R. Nurcombe
Here we go again – Potholes. Having experienced the maze of potholes between Shirley and Wythall via Dickens Heath this weekend I am becoming a better rally driver by the day. Heaven knows what it would be like for a stranger at night.
So let’s get it right. If you were a business manager with a set budget you would then prioritise where that money would be most effective. Firstly Fire, Ambulance and Police. Then you would consider the rest….Well all the above need decent roads to do business on so next spend would be repairs to the network.
So why squander money on Cycle ways (Lode Lane) Street programme around Olton and certainly NOT Speed bumps – we have already got enough pot holes to slow any traffic down. So who wants to get up and take responsibility and get the job done? Council will blame central government for under funding, no doubt central government will blame Europe for legislation etc etc and the excuses go on.
We all deserve safe and sound roads – damage to car wheels and accidents must be on the increase which we the public have to pay for…If it’s cash then raise it through council tax It will save us all money long term on car repairs.
Graham Quiney, Shirley
