I WAS interested to read the article on page 32 of the October 16 issue of the Star concerning Newton Locks.

Yes, the Nine Arches Viaduct is a bit of a giveaway I suppose.

So what did we have at this location until around the early 1970s? We had the cottage used by George Stephenson during the building of the first ever public railway from Liverpool to Manchester, opened in 1830.

Alongside the cottage was the St Helens Canal, which according to my book on canals, “is said by many to be the first canal on mainland Britain is thus of considerable historical interest.”

What an important and historic area this was and probably in a lot of more enlightened countries it would have been a World Heritage Site.

But what happened?

Well, the cottage was demolished, the canal was filled in with rubbish and the railway viaduct is graffiti ridden.

Says it all really about St Helens and successive councils’ complete lack of respect and sense of history for their town.

Another example of this was the disgraceful demolition of the old Co-operative Society Building leaving a wasteland surrounded by hoardings for at least five years before Wilkinsons store was built. And what a beautiful piece of architecture that is.

To say nothing about the demolition of the nice little library building at Parr and the closure of the memorial library on Clipsley Lane in Haydock. I could go on and on...and this is thanks to those afore mentioned councils over the years.

Martin Olley, Haydock