Babergh has acted in a way which I’d expect from an oppressive dictatorship. They have neither listened, nor taken us seriously.

Developers have been the one-time pest of our town, especially in the 1960s. I wouldn’t call it improvement, just needless vandalism.

Belle Vue House is Sudbury’s Westminster Abbey, on a more local level. This kind of proposed demolition would never be allowed to happen in Lavenham, and just imagine the national outcry if they even talked about putting Westminster Abbey, or the Houses of Parliament up for demolition. Belle Vue is part of Sudbury's history and identity.

I’ve seen on the Stead and Simpson shoeshop building a carving which looks quite a lot like that one which you can see on the grandiose porchway into Belle Vue – which leads me to think that Belle Vue was one of a few buildings in Sudbury to have been built by the same architect – something worth looking into.

We can still have modern retirement flats and a new health centre, and keep Belle Vue. There are options which Babergh are seeming to refuse to consider, and they make more logical sense.

The site of Belle Vue would have to accommodate car parking, which given that not particularly safe crossing near Belle Vue, wouldn’t be a bright idea, not to mention the pollution it’d bring into Sudbury.

If Babergh were as fair as they make themselves out to be, then they’d explore the other more sensible options and actually encourage us to preserve our heritage and parkland.

I for one most certainly support Michael Irwin’s protest. But money speaks, so the onus is now on us, the ordinary people, to save Belle Vue.

One thing is certain, this episode is bound to blacken Babergh’s reputation as the fair and democratic servants of the people, with the more apt one being foolish men in suits, who ignore the people and turn scandalous ambitions into a “once-in-a-generation opportunity”.

I’d also like to voice my support for People’s Park. We should fight equally as hard to save what’s left of that.

Mark Joiner

Glemsford

l See On the march to save Belle Vue, Page 11