Daft idea

SIR, — As a local resident may I ask whose crackbrained idea it was to erect a basketball post smack bang in the middle of Bernards Heath, St Albans? Apart from the fact that it looks incongruous, it also looks rather dangerous. When I asked the three men

SIR, - As a local resident may I ask whose crackbrained idea it was to erect a basketball post smack bang in the middle of Bernards Heath, St Albans?

Apart from the fact that it looks incongruous, it also looks rather dangerous. When I asked the three men it took to "plant" it why it wasn't sited behind or at least in line with the children's playground, they said "it has to be seen from the road".

If this is in order to avoid the post being vandalised, I think whoever thinks that is living in cloud-cuckoo land.

It's a pity the council aren't as quick to replace the badly-bent bicycle rack - bent nine years ago - or the empty post from which the parking sign was ripped more than 10 years ago and no longer indicates the position of the parking lines anyway which are outside Sandridge Road post office. These are just the width of the pavement from the road.

It is bad enough that the Heath is being turned into a park by the regularly-spaced rows of cultivated daffodils planted each side of the paths. Very pretty - but please let us keep the wildness of the Heath as it has been for so many, many years.

I think it is a great idea to add play equipment that older children can enjoy, but please be just a little more thoughtful in siting it.

AUDREY TEARLE,

Sandridge Road, St Albans.