Give us a real pub back

This historic coaching inn is a landmark in the local area and deserves far better treatment.

While I agree that the building has fallen into disrepair in recent years, I for one don't feel a lick of paint and some fancy seat coverings can mask the new owner's shoddy treatment of the building's history.

This is just another example of big business riding roughshod over our cultural heritage.

The new name of this building is apparently Arizona Crossing, a nonsensical moniker that has presumably been dreamt up by some pony-tailed advertising buffoon based in London, who has never visited the property or the region.

How this building is in any way related to notions of the Wild West, small cantinas on the Tex-Mex border or some kind of mythical, dust-filled cowboy lifestyle I do not know. More to the point, where was the consultation with local people? I feel this is just another example of the inevitable, grinding Americanisation of the British way of life.

Having recently returned from a trip to my homeland of Ireland, I am in a good position to comment on what I call the plastication of local traditions.

I visited my local pub set in a small village only to be greeted by the horrifying realisation that it had been transformed into a deli-style café, complete with a faux-Italian name.

The welcoming, smoke-filled tavern where I used to while away the hours with local farmers has been replaced by a tacky, brightly lit box resembling a toilet cubicle, populated by youngsters with ridiculous haircuts twittering loudly and inanely into mobile telephones.

What do these faceless brewery chiefs have in store for our area next? Perhaps they will turn our local church into a surfer's café, complete with an artificial beach that conveniently covers the unsightly graveyard?

You may laugh, but it seems that where money is involved, anything is possible.

Johnny Maher, Queen Street, Kingswinford.