LAST week, the Daily Telegraph did a City Spotlight on Hereford in its Property Section. First - the good news: Their "What we love about it" included the surrounding countryside, Cathedral/Mappa Mundi;one or two upmarket stores; some European-style cafes; elegant period buildings; open spaces.
Now the bad news: Their "What we hate about it" stated and I quote: "Away from the historic centre, Hereford is a curate's egg of a city,with the odd attractive enclave cancelled out by ugly modern estates, rundown1930s' streets and charmless superstores. In planning terms,the city is a mess, with little sense of structure or purpose. It always seems to take longer to get from A to B than it should.
"As a cultural centre, Hereford feels like an underachiever, considering its many natural advantages. There is no university and, despite pockets of bohemian loucheness, no great sense of intellectual vitality. Other, similarly- sized cathedral cities in Britain pack more of a punch. It is hard to dislike Hereford, but the city has an air of complacency."
That sums up the woeful job done by our so-called City Fathers - no bypass, a hospital undersized and in the wrong part of the city, traffic that cannot move at a sensible speed, no sensible housing policy which takes into account the expected increase in traffic, money thrown into a city centre that looks second rate, a preponderence of charity shops (I'm all for charity but this is ridiculous).
It is not only the city that has an air of complacency but also the duly elected representatives of the public whether at local or national level. If the councillors or the MPs were employed in a commercial business they would have been dismissed within a very short time for their gross incompetence.
Ralph Keme, Pippins Lodge, Rectory Road, Hampton Bishop.
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