I WAS pleased to read (July 31) that Warren Fox agreed with the ethos of my letter about the town centre but we will have to disagree about two points he made.

Firstly, the town centre does need larger stores/shops. Why do you think they have all left the town centre and gone to the Trafford Centre and Middlebrook? It is because there are larger units there to display their goods, something which is lacking in the town centre. The public go to those places, not only because of the free parking but because that it where those shops are. Taking all costs into consideration, it is in fact more expensive to run a car to and from the Trafford Centre and Middlebrook than it is to pay for parking in Bolton. Manchester has a thriving retail shopping centre despite the extortionate parking charges controlled by NCP.

Secondly, the Market Hall was a vibrant place in the last century but the world has moved on since then and it gradually declined like other market halls. The decline started with the rise of factory outlets, mill shops, discount stores and pound shops. Stockport had an excellent market hall when I was younger which was much better than the one in Bolton but it is now a shadow of its former self. Bolton Market hall simply became an area to walk through to get to the shops beyond and Debenhams and that was noticeable by the fall in the number of people actually shopping there. The shops which were opened there have failed mainly because there is nothing else to bring people to them without a vibrant retail town centre.

Smaller shops will only thrive alongside larger shops in a successful town centre.

I rarely go into town now because the experience is so depressing.

R Swindells

Bolton