Contempt for our past is worrying

DEAR Editor, I agree wholeheartedly with James Collins’ letter regarding the proposed demolition of the offices on Smallbrook Queensway ( Birmingham Post, August 4)

In the last 10 years or so there has been a worrying trend in the UK of politicians treating our heritage with contempt, and the plans to partly demolish the Smallbrook Queensway offices are just the latest instance of this in Birmingham.

Around the city centre many examples of 1960s architecture are being lost due to council indifference.

At Sarehole Mill in Hall Green nearly all references to the mills and millers of Birmingham have been removed in favour of promoting the mills’ association with JRR Tolkien.

And in a leaflet advertising the new Acocks Green Heritage Trail the early village is dismissed as being nothing more than ‘a rural backwater’ prior to the Industrial Revolution.

By showing some contempt for our past, what are we saying about ourselves?

What will our children and grandchildren make of this as they look back on this period of history?

And will they be able to learn anything about Birmingham’s past with so much of our social and architectural heritage being cast aside?

Our politicians would like us to think that we live in an enlightened age, but if they pursue their policy of airbrushing out great swathes of the city’s heritage then our age will be forever known as the Indifferent Age.

Andrew Norris, Acocks Green