Bosworth defeat

SIR – A planning application for a Japanese company, Horiba Mira, to build a test track, control tower and associated buildings on the western part of the battlefield of Bosworth (Letters, September 27) has been allowed by Hinckley and Bosworth borough planning committee.

This will seriously damage the battlefield for presentation purposes and make its acceptance as an Unesco World Heritage Site very unlikely, as it will then be impossible to present the deployments of the winner, Henry Tudor, in 1485. It would mean the loss of a heritage asset comparable to the site of the Battle of Hastings.

Horiba Mira’s test track is to be welcomed – but not on part of the battlefield. This Trust has written to Horiba head office in Japan and to the Japanese ambassador outlining the heritage significance of Bosworth.

To attract Japanese inward investment, a heritage asset is being sacrificed for a test track that can be located (more expensively) elsewhere.

The application was allowed after three minutes’ defence by a member of the Richard III Society selected by the council. The Battlefields Trust was not permitted to speak at all.

Kelvin van Hasselt

Founder and Honorary Vice President, The Battlefields Trust

Cromer, Norfolk