AS A resident who was once very content to live in Winsford, I find myself becoming increasingly disgusted with the way this town is going.

It is clear from other readers’ letters in these pages that I am not alone in my concerns about the way Winsford is heading, so why is there such an apparent lack of action being taken to halt the decline of this once proud Cheshire town?

If things continue I wonder how soon it will be that virtually all Winsford town centre is a “grot spot”.

Thanks to the vandalism caused by a growing group of mindless people – and they are not all young people either – this town is looking more and more run-down by the week.

Winsford town centre has never been renowned as an attractive shopping area – in the last 15-20 years it has progressively succumbed to a catalogue of ill-conceived, ugly mismatched buildings, all of which are totally out of keeping with the characteristic “Cheshire” styles and traditions that other nearby towns have so successfully retained. How ever do the planners and councillors allow such hideous designs?

Winsford looks more and more like the ugly sister of Cheshire, if not the North West of England.

This sad run-down town is not being helped by the unacceptable levels of anti-social behaviour that seem to plague it at present.

The spreading mess of graffiti that seems to be advancing unchecked in Winsford is matched only by the growing piles of rubbish and waste dumped or discarded on every patch of spare land along with an assortment of town centre supermarket trolleys.

My neighbours and I have had our properties deluged by the local graffiti morons and recently I was so embarrassed to walk into the town centre with a visiting relation, that I took a lengthy detour to avoid the disgusting mess of litter, trolleys and smashed glass adjacent to the Queens public house and the main open air, town centre car park. Worse still, the filthy unkempt footpath through to this car park from Dean street.

So many footpaths in Winsford seem to be strewn with broken alcohol boottles, presumably bought from irresponsible town centre outlets who permit people to leave premises with them.

The council seem completely at a loss or able to keep pace with and clear up the debris that is such an eye sore and hazard to the general public and animals.

As if the town centre is not bad enough, sadly some irresponsible's are spreading their anti-social behaviour afield. You do not have to travel very far into the beautiful Cheshire countryside that surrounds Winsford to encounter the filth that is so prevalent elsewhere in this town.

Commercial and household waste, dumped gas cylinders even asbestos sheets, old furniture and rubbish are piled in gateways, lay-bys and hedgerows.

The more vocal back slapping councillors who feel ours is a town of high civic pride could do well to take a walk around our town centre or more particularly along Blakedon Lane at the rear of our new police headquarters, which has become a real ‘grot spot’ for fly tipping.

I have watched with utter disdain and sadness the continual smashing of bus shelters, phone boxes, benches and read of and seen some of the criminal damage to ordinary rate payers property – even parked cars.

All these problems seem to be spiralling out of control. And why should the identity of such mindless criminals be protected and with-held from the press – they should be named and shamed.

Please do not think this is intended as a knock at our police – I personally feel they do an extremely good job – their work is an often thankless task, but their resources are plainly stretched too thin to protect our properties – even though one of their prime functions is the protection of life and property.

I, and many others, would gladly pay more for a better funded police presence, because it is plain for all to see that without any increases in their staffing we will continue to suffer at the hands of the mindless few.

It really does beg the question, if our police do not get more money to pay for more offices on patrol, where will it all end and what will this town and its surroundings look like in another ten years time?

Nigel Hughes

Lower Haight Street,

Winsford