DEAR EDITOR - Nothing has demonstrated the arrogance of the local authority more than the recent letters from members of the town council giving vent to their petulance over being questioned regarding the dramatic changes to the town centre.

Do we have the right to question the destruction of the magnificent Worcestershire Hotel and the proposed site of the new Waitrose supermarket/industrial warehouse?

Should the oft-repeated assertion that the demolition of the hotel was "inevitable" go unchallenged?

It certainly became more likely when the owners were not forced to pay business rates and allowed to let the place rot for 20 years.

Dare we ask why the town's finest building and its best potential asset is now being taken away by the lorry load?

Of course not, because what the town centre needs most is a block of flats. The loss of a large slice of the town's heritage was a sacrifice Wychavon were willing to make if it made room for another 96 dwellings.

What are we to think when the will of so many of the people has been ignored and when their right to question the planners and councillors is ridiculed?

It is "the good people of Droitwich" who will have to live with the damage caused in order to meet the agenda of Wychavon in packing Droitwich with as much housing as they possibly can and turning our historic town into an amorphous, soulless, housing estate.

J Evans, Ledwych Gardens,

Droitwich Spa (by e-mail)