VILLAGE AMENITIES
SIR,—As a villager may I support Mr. Milburn's plea for more con- siderate treatment of the villages by public bodies ? At the centre of the village in which I live is a glorious fifteenth-century church and, sloping down from it, an exceptionally spacious and well-proportioned square, a rare opportunity for a town and country planner. But the square is a bleak expanse of tarmac, relieved only by the village pump (or town pump, as we call it), which could hardly be shabbier. If it were in a town it would be kept well painted, but as it is in a village the local authority apparently does not care. Telegraph and electricity posts and cables have in recent years so obtruded themselves that the photo- grapher who used to make most attractive postcards now says it will never be worth his coming again. We-can only buy pictures of the beauty that has been. The local authority's contribution to housing consists of three pairs of houses prominently inserted between older buildings, their red roofs and recently re-whitened walls emphasising the disharmony. None of this would be tolerated in a town. It suggests that public bodies assume that villages do not matter and villagers do
not care.—I remain, Sir, yours truly, J. H. B. ANDREWS. Chittlehampton Vicarage, N. Devon.
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