HERE is this week’s selection of letters to the editor.

Thanks for kind shopping gesture

I AM 88 years old and live alone but go shopping each Friday with my sister and sister-in-law.

Last week in a local supermarket I looked for the shortest queue and joined in behind two young women, putting the usual divider between their items and mine.

I noticed my shopping was going through and took my debit card out to pay.

Then the two young ladies started to put my goods into bags for life. I said ‘I have bags’ but by then my items were bagged up and they brought them to me and put the bags into my trolley.

They then told me they had paid for the shopping. Overwhelmed by their kindness tears came to my eyes.

They gave me a hug and told me not to get upset as they just wanted to do something kind.

There are good people left in the world and I just want to say to those two kind ladies.

Thank you so much.

I don’t know you but you have touched me deeply by your kindness I will remember it always.

Back home the post had arrived. In it was an appeal from Alzheimer Research. I passed on the kindness I had received by sending a donation.

Anon,

Redditch

7 per cent council housing rent hike unjustified

I READ on the front page Redditch Standard last week the Conservative Councillors, Independent Coun Brunner and Green Party Coun Thain all voted for a seven per cent rise in council rents which the council claimed in part would go towards repairs.

They did this without having any information or data before them to justify such a rise.

It was good to see at least the Labour Group wasn’t willing to just rubber stamp this rise and called for it to be deferred to obtain the relevant information for scrutiny however the Conservative councillors refused and so Labour voted against the rise.

Nobody could fail to see the pouring out on social media, harrowing stories of council tenants waiting often up to a year to to get repairs done. Often, by that time, the problem has got much worse and tenants are required to pay for their repairs since it no longer appears to be the good old days where the council as a landlord was responsible to keep its stock in good order of repair.

So why should council tenants be paying extra for such a bad service from the council?

It occurs to me that while these repairs are being left by the council and dragging on that it’s making the damage worse. Then more money has to be found by the tenant to pay for the repairs and more cost to the council in paying contractors – something Coun Dormer, Coun Warhurst and their colleagues appear not to appreciate when they’re just nodding everything through.

A Berry,

Redditch

Objection to library demolition

AS stakeholders in the governance of Redditch Borough Council the Redditch Labour Group submit the following comments to be considered as part of the analysis of the statutory consultation regarding plans to demolish the existing library building and to relocate library services into the Town Hall.

Redditch Borough Council has allocated £5.2million of council funds to remodel the existing Town Hall into a community hub.

This is in addition to the £4.2million funding granted by the government for the Town Deal plaza project which incorporates the demolition of the current library building.

As a group we object to the demolition of the existing library building on the following grounds.

1. The library is a purpose built structure which has benefited from considerable recent investment from Worcestershire County Council. There is no identifiable need to relocate the services, which are well-used and popular. The county council has recently invested considerable sums in providing new brickwork paving through the town centre and around the library.

2. To maintain the existing building would avoid unnecessary disruption to library services and avoid potential detriment to footfall figures.

3. We have major concerns the Town Deal projects will not be completed on time or on budget. There are currently no architectural plans available, and it is not clear how the existing library basement area will affect the positioning of a new build. Redditch Borough Council would be responsible for any shortfall in funding. It is feasible other aspects of the Town Deal will require further funding, meaning the £15.6million will be insufficient to complete all projects.

4. Worcestershire County Council has made it clear it will not commit any funding to the relocation of the library. This puts Redditch Borough Council in a dangerous position.

5. We do not accept maintaining the current square footage equates to maintaining all library services. Some of the proposed space is shared with other services. The dedicated library space will be reduced in the proposed relocation. We object to the removal or reduction of Redditch Archive space as poor transport links render those assets to be forgotten. At the January 24 consultation, it was confirmed some archives would be housed in a temperature controlled environment. This suggests as well as the archive storage area being smaller, the Town Hall would not have the same quality of archive space as the current building.

6. The demolition of the existing building is not environmentally sound and seeks to jeopardise work undertaken by both Redditch Borough Council and Worcestershire County Council towards a carbon neutral target.

7. We have spoken extensively with members of the public at several street stall events and have encountered a notable amount of public opposition to the demolition plan. 2,171 people have signed an online petition, with a further number of paper signatures. This petition was presented to WCC on November 11, 2021.