IN THE splendid film Shadowlands, the Golden Valley plays an important role as a place of repose and tranquillity for CS Lewis and his mortally ill wife, Joy.

In the film's closing credits the people of Herefordshire are thanked for their part in making the film. The Golden Valley evidently had a special place in Lewis's heart, and the film makers recognised this and splendidly recreated it.

Now comes news Estech proposes a multi-million pound waste treatment plant just a few miles from this valley, surely one of the area's most beautiful and most valuable assets.

Quite apart from the questionable sense in treating waste in such an area (where there's muck there's rubbish), are the narrow roads of the valley, and the plain adjacent to it (where the plant may be constructed), really up to the many daily lorry movements that would inevitably be involved?

I petition Herefordshire planners earnestly to consider whether they really want to change this area, a jewel in the county's crown, forever, and turn it into a real 'shadowland' by allowing this development.

SIMON WRIGHT,

Moreton-in-Marsh.