SEVENTEEN years ago I was involved in regular meetings as a member of Hale Business Association. We were planning how Hale could best celebrate and mark the Millennium.

One of my ideas was given front page coverage in the Messenger with a caption welcoming my idea. I had sent in a photo of an iron arch with a clock over the road.

Another idea was to put a pitched roof on the bowling green cottage with a clock depicting the year 2000.

Somehow we ended up with the clock tower opposite the Railway Pub and the Hale Millennium Mosaic designed by a local artist, outside what is now Costa Coffee, at the entrance to the main car park.

Last Wednesday I was shocked to see the mosaic being bulldozed.

Love or hate the mosaic, I never liked it and thought it should be a flat pavement mosaic, not the brick structure that it was, a danger for people to fall off when climbing on it.

I understand it may have needed some repairs? But to destroy it!!?

Who has taken it upon themselves to move in with a demolition team, without a thought of consideration or consultation to the Hale business community, who hold Hale so close to their hearts and spent so long in those meetings, planning the best future for Hale in the new Millennium?

Michael Peckett