Dear Editor, So it appears that the breakaway Black Country bid for a local enterprise partnership has failed, whereas the Birmingham, Solihull, Tamworth and Lichfield proposal has made the shortlist.

Wouldn’t it be a good idea for the leaders of Wolverhampton, Dudley, Walsall and Sandwell to remove their heads from the Black Country sand, or wherever their heads are to be extracted from, and join the Greater Birmingham party?

The good folk of the Black Country need to know that their elected leaders are doing their utmost to attract the maximum investment and that can only happen if the Government sees a professional, serious and collective city region at work.

This is not the time for petty and parochial inferiority complexes, so please, for the good of our urban metropolis, come inside and get around the table.

Ian Wood

Small Heath

Birmingham