Don't let Plymouth grab all our local parishes

AS a resident of Wembury, I thought I'd better see what Plymouth City Council has in mind, should it succeed in its plan to annex 13 South Hams parishes.

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Looking at the proposal on the city council's website, I was dismayed by the poor standard of English.

As well as the odd rogue apostrophe, the document posed the question: "What is the Government's criteria for Unitary Government?" It went on to say that proposals were expected to "... achieve the following criteria".

The council official who wrote those words doesn't appear to know that criteria is the plural of criterion. What is worse is that the writer evidently doesn't even know the meaning of the word. Criteria cannot be achieved. What the writer probably meant was: "... meet the following requirements".

This is not mere pedantry; sloppy writing is indicative of sloppy thinking. Sloppy thinking results in poor decisions. We only have to look at the destruction of Plymouth's city-centre trees to know what happens when councils make poor decisions.

As I do not wish to be governed by a collection of muddle-headed tree choppers, I hope our parishes can avoid becoming part of a Plymouth unitary authority.

Sewage smell was also known back in the 50s