Reader letters: the bridge, the bins and a plea for the old clock

Our postbag has been full this week, and three themes keep recurring. As ever, letters have been edited for length, and we have kept correspondents’ names to their initials at their request.

The bridge and the bins

Several readers wrote about the state of the old railway bridge, where the railings have rusted and one panel now wobbles alarmingly. More than one letter pointed out that the council keeps promising to look at it and never seems to arrive with a spanner.

Bins were the other running grievance. Complaints centred on:

• Overflowing bins by the recreation ground after busy weekends
• The missed collection on the lanes above Corn Hill
• A shortage of dog-waste bins along the reservoir path

Bring back the clock

The warmest letters concerned the market clock, silent since a fault last winter. Readers described missing its quarter-hour chime, one noting they had not caught a train on time since. A campaign to fund its repair appears to be gathering pace, and we will follow it in the coming weeks.

Keep the letters coming. We cannot print everything, but we read all of it — and the council, we suspect, reads more of it than it admits.

Related: more Valley Life · council road proposals

Further reading: Letters to the editor