• ANYONE who thinks HS2 will prove to be worth the hell of its construction, because Birmingham will be a few minutes nearer, had better know their way around that city.

I spent two hours trying to locate a tourist information centre in Birmingham, only to find there isn’t one. The number given on­line is for a defunct office in a building – rather a handsome building – that has been demolished.

The librarian, who confirmed the city really had closed all its tourist offices, was helpful; but it was beyond his remit to recommend hotels and, not surprisingly, he couldn’t provide detailed information about local trains and buses.

The idea that a bunch of politicians, blinded by ambition, are spending and destroying lives, landscape and properties, in order to get a bit faster to a city that doesn’t know how to deal with the visitors it already has, is beyond belief.

As for directory inquiries, it provided the same “unobtainable” phone number that I had been getting myself – at a charge of something like £2 a throw (which is being refunded).

ESTHER WHITBY
Harmood Street
NW1