SIR – I have been reading the correspondence and articles relating to the St Albans Shrove Tuesday pancake race and have been getting increasingly frustrated. It seems to me that everybody is missing the point. I have lived in the area for nearly 30 years

SIR - I have been reading the correspondence and articles relating to the St Albans Shrove Tuesday pancake race and have been getting increasingly frustrated. It seems to me that everybody is missing the point.

I have lived in the area for nearly 30 years and as far as I am aware there has been a pancake race in St Albans each year. I do not remember any accidents and as far as I am aware the entrants were allowed to run.

So what has changed? Certainly not the weather as Britain is famous for its climate, and rain has been around for millions of years. I'm afraid what has changed is the pavement.

Don't you remember the millions of pounds spent on the wonderful new pavement made from Chinese granite? You know, the Chinese granite that St Albans Council chose to import from hundreds of miles away at not only great financial cost but also a huge cost to the environment.

I'm sure that companies in this country would have jumped at the chance to supply the material. And, by the way, look at the Chinese economy now and then look at Great Britain's.

I don't remember the pavements being slippery when we had plain old English pavements. I don't remember the old pavements needing to be cleaned on a regular basis with special detergents because of staining AND I don't remember pancake racers being told to walk!

So please tell me, does this mean that on days when it is raining St Albans residents are no longer allowed to run for the bus? What about the postmen? Recently they have been told to speed up their pace to deliver the post.

What a quandary - when in St Albans should they speed up or should they slow down? Maybe they should check the weather before leaving the depot and if it is raining leave the post until the next day.

What about children? Are they allowed to run? Finally what about St Albans District Council putting up some warning signs for the public on rainy days - just in case the Health and Safety executive are watching.

Surely therefore the point is that if our farcical council had used our money properly when they tried to "improve" St Albans with a new "safety scheme" (safety being the operative word, ha! ha!) then the discussion regarding the pancake race would never have taken place.

Finally, I'll tell you what. What about some people with common sense moving into the council offices and making some cost effective decisions that will put back some pride in our once great city instead of making it an international laughing stock?

Of course that will mean that everybody that is in office now will be down the job centre in May but then they may enjoy the company of the shop workers that have been put out of work due to the enormous business rates so there is an up side to everything, isn't there?

By the way my vote in May will go to "None of the above!"

TONY BUDGE

Wheathampstead