A heart felt letter from a Stourbridge resident . . .

"When I came to Stourbridge to live from Wordsley in August 1966, although only aged seven, I remember how lovely the trees and gardens were, before the ring road was built and they were all removed from in front of the churches,police station, Carlisle Hall etc. It was a lovely town.

"Jealous Dudley has, ever since, when we came out of Worcestershire County Council in 1974, done its hardest to take, take, take away from Stourbridge: the council, the identity of ruling itself, the glass which should have stayed at the 'Big House' in Mary Stevens Park, and to allow cheap and nasty shops in the High Street, while flying 'Merry Hell' as its flagship - not Brierley Hill's own, but Dudley's."