SIR – May I thank John Phillpott (Saturday, October 24) for putting into words what so many residents from St John’s would agree with but find no such eloquent way of expressing.

However, John, the village in the city could, in certain areas, be described as the slum in the city.

Our roads and paths are clogged with parked vehicles, the hedgerows and gutters strewn with litter, bins overflowing on footpaths, and for those who walk, it is a case of tip-toeing around pools of vomit after certain nights of the week.

Are any politicians interested? They may be but seem powerless to make a difference. The university says they encourage good practice but the problems go on.

Only one local politician, Richard Udall, had the courage to write in your paper about 12 months ago that St John’s was blighted, and what happened to him? He was berated at length in your editorial column and by our local MP.

It may be sour grapes, nimbyism and so on, but the lives of so many in St John’s is a daily grind and their quality of life ruined. Sadly the village in the city is no more than a university-dominated conurbation.

MRS B M LORD
St John’s