Dear Editor,

Having read the article in last week's Gazette and on the back of the successful visit in November of Prince Charles regarding the Gilpin 2020 and also the ‘Then and now’ of last week can I make one or two points.

The articles mention all the things that visitors (and locals) can do in the area of the ‘Wye’. Tourism has always been a major thing for the area but it seems to be getting more difficult to stay in the Ross-on-Wye area.

In last week’s then and now article the older photo shows the Swan Hotel and Valley Hotel, both of which are now closed as hotels. Amongst other places you could mention is Raglan House, Vega House, The Rosswyn, Pengethley Hotel, Riverside, Chasedale, Hunsdon Manor, Pencraig Court and lately, The Chase Hotel. The Brookfield House is applying for change of use as well. Not yet 60, these have all closed in my lifetime and memory.

Nobody can deny that on a nice summers day, there is nowhere nicer to sit and while away a couple of hours than by the river (with backs turned to the Riverside and flats across the road).

We often have family visiting and they are finding the only place available, in their price range, is the Premier Inn at the M50 roundabout. But with a restaurant and bar next door there is no reason to come into the town during the evening, so the town itself does not benefit.

The Chase Hotel, for example, could reopen under new ownership as a distinctive boutique hotel which could also hold local events such as weddings, fairs, parties, meetings, etc (much as it did in its heyday). Instead the owners of The Chase seem hellbent on making a fat profit by building a small housing estate on the, once, beautiful grounds.

Promoting tourism and Gilpin 2020 is a good thing, but unless the visitors have somewhere to stay locally, it seems, to me, a little pointless.

Mr R Burton

Ross-on-Wye