Poor old Hadleigh. With the Crown pub becoming a second drive-through fast food outlet, Morrisons usurping the Lookers site, another carwash, the fire station’s demise, all the empty shops, another chemist allowed right next door to an existing one, naff new outsize buildings and a glut of retirement blocks, old Hadleigh will have its heart torn out.

We’ve already lost postal identity to Benfleet. All that talk of turning the place into a bustling shopping centre is out of the window.

Convenience kills little shops. Whenever a developer mentions the creation of a few jobs, they never mention how many will be lost.

By their very nature drive-throughs do not add to the local economy, just more litter on streets and hedgerows.

With almost all old buildings demolished, there seems to be no plan at all for a cohesive identity. We have a Grade I listed castle. A Grade I listed church from the time of King Stephen, 1140, stands as an icon in the middle of traffic.

Instead of marking the hub of the village it is going to be a marker for people in transit as they pass through the junk food suppliers.

Now is the time for all who love Hadleigh to make their voices heard.

Change is inevitable, but we cannot simply hand over the future to developers.

Our children and grandchildren deserve better than that.

How can we expect politicians to look after Hadleigh, if we don’t care ourselves?

Robert Hallmann
Castle Road
Hadleigh