Sir,
Last Friday's Observer generated considerable interest in a point of concern by which many of your readers are clearly disturbed, both by ways of your own reportage and again by the forthright views expressed in 'Letters to the Editor' on page 4. I refer of course to the hideous monstrosities produced to comprise notice boards - apparently at a cost of £7,000 and largely funded by ratepayers' cash, then sited in what are generally considered to be singularly inappropriate and sight demeaning sites within the town.
It was interesting to see my earlier views on this particular subject so strongly reinforced on the front page of your paper and even more so on turning to page 4, where the views of Andrew Lowe and Roscoe Howells were so extremely well ventilated. The numerous poor souls striving to run a business in Tenby - and in doing so having to satisfy the financial demands of the local authority by way of council tax - are not likely to have a happy Christmas!
The forthright views expressed by Roscoe Howells relative to the signs and, more particularly, the council members are in my opinion well-founded, although on reading his views on councillors generally, I was at first inclined to the view that he had perhaps tended to over-ice the cake a little. But then I recalled that prior to my retirement (from working for payment) almost 30 years ago I had held comparatively high office alongside the town clerk in the City of Manchester, by which I was in daily contact with the hundreds of councillors, and aldermen, representing that city. And on carefully thinking it through, I must confess to finding myself in agreement with the views expressed by Mr. Howells!
By strange coincidence, these views were again supported later on the same day by the BBC TV news at 6 pm when a report on the recovery of Cockermouth from the flooding disaster to the point where they had managed to set up their Christmas lights was given and included the actual first switching on of the lights by no lesser person than the Mayor of the town. At the point of execution, the Mayor delivered a speech, with somewhat embarrassing difficulty, to the hundreds of the local residents assembled in the streets for the occasion, which he capped by wishing them "A prosperous Christmas and a happy New Year."
I am looking forward to next Friday's Observer!
Frederic G. Morton,
Kilgetty.