LETTERS – Time to act in town’s interests

I should like to endorse the comments by Magdalena Podsiadly in a previous edition of The Voice.

Spalding seems to be in the worst state I can remember since moving into the town over 40 years ago when it was an attractive market town with a vibrant atmosphere.

Now the market hardly exists, thanks to SHDC making the stallholders feel unwelcome, reducing them to a dwindling band, forced to bring their own stalls.

If towns as different as Stamford and Skipton can nurture their markets, why can’t ours? I do not think that the couple of stilt walkers/street entertainers I saw at the market recently are any sort of answer to this problem.

The number of empty shops in Spalding will only grow, thanks to the wrong-headed prioritising of what was originally touted as an outlet shopping centre at Springfields for reduced-price goods.

When the new expansion encompassing the old NFU site takes place, however, SHDC has accepted that full-priced goods can be sold there.

Why, then, would any retailer considering this area want to open a branch in Spalding town centre if they have the possibility of more customers and new purpose-built shops at Springfields?

The suggestion that the water taxi, although a pleasant journey along the river and channel, between the town and the mall could help solve the problem is naïve.

SHDC may claim credit for keeping weekly refuse collections here which have been stopped elsewhere but until the Spalding Wombles began to clear the litter around the town and its environs the overwhelming amount of it had been infuriating and disgusting residents and visitors alike.

Yet when the Wombles made great strides and collected countless bags of rubbish they were criticised by someone from SHDC for causing too much work for our council.

Isn’t it time our council started acting in the interests of Spalding residents and took active steps to improve both the look of our grubby town and the retail offer available instead of putting in a few cosmetic touches like stilt walkers?

Olivia Knipe
Stonegate
Spalding