I HAVE a great respect for Roger Phillips and others who are prepared to work on our behalf as councillors at county level, however it is my concern that the limited nature of their vision of the future may perpetuate the problems now faced by the county.

The reason Herefordshire is attractive to many people is the very fact that we are 30 years behind and a haven of relative tranquillity in a frenetic country. To gamble the county on catching up on 30 years, when the future is likely to be so different from anything we have experienced, is short-sighted to say the least. If we are to be in the front of the new situation we should be taking note of the signs that are already present.

We have an infrastructure based on agriculture, being the most rural of all English counties and, in the future, that may well be far more important than attracting big energy-consuming retail business to the city. If food imports are limited as the world’s populations expand and the developing world grows richer, we need to be in the position to feed our own population and to capitalise on our farming heritage. Yet the council is giving notice to its youngest agricultural tenants so it can sell off its agricultural land to pay for its gamble on a 20th, not 21st century, future. The building of new roads and expansion of the town and city further erodes the land available, just at the time when fertiliser prices and availability are in question. Surely the protection of our productive agricultural land should be our greatest priority? The ability to encourage agricultural entrepreneurs, by providing stepping stones to new business in the production of food, is more important than encouraging manufacturing and retail business based on diminishing resources and, as costs rise, diminishing demand.

We also have huge resources in terms of water, sun and wind energy and, in spite of the objections, we have a duty to encourage all possible responsible development in this direction for the benefit of the community, not just for the land owners wishing to make a killing. Let’s have community-owned wind and water turbines to give priority to those most affected. It’s a mistake to think in terms of cost comparisons with energy from cheap oil. Those days are gone and our children and grandchildren will not thank us for stealing their inheritance without putting something in its place.

If we are to build for the 21st century, for goodness sake let’s look to the future and not the past. Leaving the next generation to sort out our paucity of vision should not be part of the gamble.

J J Glyn-Jones, Newhouse Farm, Almeley.