Regarding Gunnels, as a Fairview Road resident of over 30 years, I have been following with some bemused interest the correspondence regarding Gunnels which has appeared in your newspaper over the past months and I would like to comment on some of the poi

Regarding Gunnels, as a Fairview Road resident of over 30 years, I have been following with some bemused interest the correspondence regarding Gunnels which has appeared in your newspaper over the past months and I would like to comment on some of the points raised in the letters published on June 29.

Some letters refer to Gunnels as part of the history and heritage of Stevenage. Gunnels is no more historic than any other private house of its age and it is arguable whether the building is either beautiful or of particular architectural interest.

There are comments about the local councillors who make up part of the planning committee. I would ask just who voted these people into office? It is said that there were 1,200 signatures on a petition against this proposal, but I do not think that this number of objectors can be referred to as the people of Stevenage. How many of these objectors live in the vicinity of Gunnels?

A couple of your correspondents make reference to the present owners of Gunnels making a profit, as though this were some sort of crime against humanity. This is a privately owned building, as are the majority of dwellings in Fairview Road. If the present owners wish to explore the possibility of capitalising on their asset, then that is their prerogative, subject to the existing planning rules.

Finally, if I or any other Fairview Road resident wants to develop their property and the Fairview Road Residents' Association or any other group of local people object that strongly, then they should do what they should have done when the Gunnels scheme first came to light, club together and buy it.

NAME AND ADDRESS WITHHELD

* If the Stevenage Council go ahead with their plans to demolish the beautiful house Gunnels, then it should be regarded as legalised vandalism, no more, no less.

Why not the Manulife building? It is an eyesore and from what I have read, a danger.

Could it, I wonder, be a question of the root of all evil - money?

Mrs ELIZABETH BOWMAKER, Valley Way, Stevenage