WE HAVE just returned from a few days in Shropshire and Cheshire. Our journey of about 165 miles each way, avoiding the M5 as much as possible, took us through some delightful English settlements and countryside.

We were often impressed by the lack of litter, the standard of road verges and the public flower displays.

The city of Chester and the town of Shrewsbury were a revelation. Like Salisbury, they displayed some beautiful medieval buildings but, unlikeSalisbury, they were clean, beautifully presented and the towns did not look “tatty round the edges”. Their pavements and parking charges were also a big improvement on ours.

Our return to Salisbury was a sad return to unkempt verges, litter and lots of vegetation growing in the road edges and out of walls, etc. If those authorities can get it right then why can we not do it here? (Shrewsbury, too, is of parish council status and also complains about its unitary council.)

STEVE HANNATH Dinton