Letter: Bus station demolition may have hit town's shops

I wonder how much the demolition of the old bus station has affected the footfall in the town centre shops.

I know many, especially older, people who no longer go into town by bus because it is so inconvenient.

For them walking from the new bus station or The Drapery often in pouring rain or snow and ice is just too much.

If they do go they then have the struggle of returning to their bus stop with heavy bags and waiting at dirty overcrowded fume filled bus stops, etc.

Of course, this council has made so many poor and wrong decisions that they won’t admit to another one. But they should swallow their pride admit they were wrong and rebuild the bus station in its rightful place and connect it to the Grovesnor Centre as before. But we all know they won’t. They would rather let the town and its people suffer than eat humble pie.

The other point I would like to make is about our out-of-town shopping centres. Have you noticed how full their car parks are and all the customers that are in the shops?

So they are the stores that people obviously want. So why doesn’t the council offer incentives to get those stores back into town. Offer free parking so that the customers don’t lose out and still have the convenience of out of town.

It would also mean that all those customers without cars would also be able to use the new store easily, whereas at the moment they are out of reach of many people.

We have several empty large store places in the town now and they would easily fit.Possibly one upstairs and another down.

It is just a suggestion, but I wonder what other people think.

Graham Burke, by email