I TEND to agree with Mr Nesbitt regarding Colwall being in Worcestershire but for different reasons.

A few weeks ago I was talking to visitors to the village and they remarked how untidy and scruffy the village was and I agreed with them. As a result of this encounter I wrote to the Parish Council passing on the visitors remarks and also pointing out that I had not seen or heard a road sweeper in or around the village since the early part of the year. I also pointed out that 13 out of the 15 road drains between the Schweppes factory and Chevenham at the lower end of the village were full or nearly to the gratings with silt and I had not seen or heard them being emptied in the last year. In my letter I also asked what if any plans had been made to celebrate and advertise the re-opening of the bridge at Colwall.

I received a reply to my letter from the Chairman of Colwall Parish Council and also attended their meeting at the end of April. In her letter and at the meeting the Chairman of Colwall Parish Council told me that since August 2008 the Parish Clerk had repeatedly asked Herefordshire Council to sweep the roads and empty the road gullies and had been told that we were on the rota but nothing has happened.

With regard to the re-opening of the bridge, I was told that the Parish Council had not planned any opening ceremony, but that a Herefordshire Councillor was investigating such an event but the Parish Council had not been consulted. I got the feeling from the meeting that if an event was organised by Herefordshire Council it may be boycotted because of Herefordshire Council's attitude towards the village and the villagers wishes with regard to the layout of the bridge when it is opened.

As Mrs Williams lives at Lugwardine on one of the main routes into Hereford and nearer to Hereford, I wonder if her village gets a better service and more attention than the people of Colwall. I would also question if Mr Morton living at Evendine, the other side of the closed bridge to the village of Colwall, has been into the village since the bridge was closed completely earlier this year, or does he go to Ledbury instead.

It is my belief that the residents of Colwall may get more attention and a better deal from Worcestershire Council than they are getting from Herefordshire, it would also bring both our telephone numbers and post codes in line with the county we lived in.

I have heard that the new bridge at Colwall is lower than the old one to such an extent that steam trains can no longer go under it. This means that there will be no future steam trains coming through Malvern.

MR G A LEWIS, Walwyn Road, Colwall.