It seems people are keen to concoct expensive structural edifices and throw them to the lovely village - whether the lovely village wants them or not.

When Vale Royal's engineers gave Hartford a Millennium garden, it wasn't right.

Neither were some steps which Railtrack saw fit to carve into the hillside near the railway station.

And neither, we were shocked to hear, were a set of railings, installed to keep people safe as they cross Chester Road.

There's a breakdown in communication going on somewhere, and either the people of Hartford, or Vale Royal, or Railtrack, or the County, should do something about it.

Each of those improvements was important in theory - but no-one seems to have been consulted how to go about them properly.

My only fear, as an impartial observer watching from Rudheath, is that similar baffling mix-ups of intent could happen elsewhere.

But the next time I want a bit of meaningless sculpture, or some useless steps, I'll know who to call.

Joe Peckham

Rudheath.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.