Learning how to take instruction

I READ with horror that Herefordshire Council could close Out To Grass Mountain Boarding Centre within the month.

This would be an absolute crime against the young people who use the centre to pursue not just a healthy enjoyable sport, but learn to accept instruction from adults, a skill I know from experience as a social worker is at the top of the list for most parents.

The young people are safe, very important these days, and do not vegetate in front of their video game consoles for hours on end. The instruction is second to none and the proprietor and his staff team are very professional in encouraging those who attend to respect the countryside.

Please motivate the kids, don't close a much loved and needed amenity.

KEVIN GRAY

How Caple, Hereford

Simply the best centre in the UK

I WAS at Out To Grass mountainboard centre for the final round of the ATBA UK series.

I've made the journey there several times simply due to the fact that it is the best centre in the UK.

It provides entertainment for people of all ages and helps encourage tourism in the area. The government are trying to persuade farmers to diversify so as to make more money, so why, when an idea that is taking off comes along do they try to shut it down?

TOM HAYCOCK

East Deam, West Sussex

Great asset to the area

I READ with dismay that Herefordshire's Planners want to close a friendly club operating in the county (HT, August 7, p3).

It's hard to see how activity at "Out To Grass", the county's grass board centre and remote from residential property, could be construed as anything but a great asset to the area. Rural kids have precious little in the way of amenities and only the prickliest of individuals could find nuisance with this venue: their objections should be ignored.

Councillors should support innovation of this sort and encourage greater diversity in rural activities for the good of the children and the local economy.

MARTIN WYNESS BVMS, MRCVS

Colwall

Worcestershire

The future for a 15-year-old

OUT To Grass is not just a centre - it has a team of riders competing at the highest level nationally and now internationally. They inspire us all and provide a brilliant example of maintaining all this whilst retaining a respectable sense of small community and business.

What message does it send the country - small group of passionate friends work day and night for years to build up something to add to tourism and youth culture (if nothing else) and the council punishes them for it?

Please listen to the numbers speaking against this action, as they represent many, many more

I'm 15 and I'm getting up and saying this, this sport is the future for people like me, and this centre is the future for this sport.

THOMAS SPENCER

Dorking

Surrey

Putting Cradley firmly on map

I THINK it would be a great mistake to shut down Out To Grass. The centre provides a valuable resource for young people both locally and from further afield.

It keeps the kids off the street, out of town and out of trouble, in the fresh air and exercising and away from television and video games.

It also has one of the few skateboard half-pipes in the region and a trampoline for practising jump manoeuvres.

The centre itself is in one of the most beautiful parts of the country and the people who travel to it from other parts are introduced to the region, plus they spend money in the local shops and garages.

They have just hosted the final round of the ABTA national series, very successfully, for the third year running, putting Cradley firmly on the mountain board circuit map.

WENDY PARRY

Suckley

Worcs