SIR - Nearby towns get new shopping developments so it seems that Worcester must have one too.

How many mobile phone, greetings card and trendy clothes outlets does a city like Worcester need?

People in and around Norton are upset about a proposed waste processing plant and rightly so. The place to build such a plant should be right in the middle of where most waste is produced and the employment is needed.

Currently our rubbish is carted about a dozen miles to a site near Pershore.

The green waste is composted there and brought back to Worcester in thousands of plastic bags so we can buy it for our gardens.

How many lorry miles, wasted refuse collection staff hours, road repairs and therefore tax could be saved by simply taking the waste to Lowesmoor? Why not turn Lowesmoor into a state of the art waste processing plant for composting, sorting of recyclable materials, and a retail area for selling off reusable products.

Assuming there is enough residual rubbish, heat could be piped to local homes and businesses and power fed into the national grid from a combined heat and power plant on the site.

CH PARSONS, Worcester.