SIR – Wednesday, March 25 was without doubt, a truly welcome, memorable day when the WHT was published with page after page devoid of any posed photographs of Mr Shapps. Could this be a sign of things to come? Freeing up more space for news and items

SIR - Wednesday, March 25 was without doubt, a truly welcome, memorable day when the WHT was published with page after page devoid of any posed photographs of Mr Shapps.

Could this be a sign of things to come? Freeing up more space for news and items with 'appropriate' photographs, where necessary, from a wider selection of the community can only be a good thing, worthy of applause.

The MP did make a contribution to the letters page, seemingly trying to ease himself out of the pothole that he had driven his 'crusades' bandwagon into over the new 'open-all -hours' polyclinics about to open at the QE2 Hospital, and for which the local GP network had won the contract, in addition to normal services at their existing community surgeries.

Much of his letter, unfortunately, was yet another re-run of words and phrases he has already plied us with about changes at the QE2 and the non materialisation of the super hospital at Hatfield.

Probably, we all have our thoughts and misgivings over current developments at the hospital and how they will affect us personally. Until recently, I had been making journeys to the Lister Hospital, driving an out patient to periodic appointments of varying lengths of time, with the initial problem of parking the car on arrival.

However, constant repetition by Mr Shapps, at every opportunity, reduces his presentations to nothing more than the usual party political rhetoric, better suited to national dailies rather than the weekly local newspaper.

Again Mr Shapps makes the point that the opposing parliamentary candidate, Mr Hobday, who offered a point of view on the new GP-led clinic, isn't local and doesn't live in Welwyn Hatfield. Until the last constituency changes by the Boundary Commission, Brookmans Park, where the MP opted to live on his arrival wasn't in Welwyn Hatfield either.

The leader of Welwyn Hatfield Council and his wife Mrs Dean, resident in Newgate Street Village, are respectively, ward councillors for Brookmans Park and Little Heath. This is an area adjoining and natural neighbour to Potters Bar. Re-drawing a constituency boundary line to extend Welwyn Hatfield constituency to the south, (whilst eliminating Wheathampstead to the west) does not alter that close affinity to Potters Bar.

From where I am sitting, none of us, over the dividing miles, are that overworked word 'local' to each other, a word that lends itself too easily to prevarication, a fact with which, perhaps, our constituency MP will agree?

Gordon Aitken,

Harwood Hill, WGC.