HANG on a minute (‘Championing the town’s cool independent shops,’ Standard, January 8)... the Standard talks about not enough shops to attract young people, well what about us adults, and especially those targeted at men? It’s not like there are shops falling backwards for our trade, either.

This is one of the problems with Cirencester. While there might be a few niche and independent shops, catering for a small or ‘specialised’ number of our needs, we, too, are left with no other option than having to take trips to nearby towns, to fulfil and meet our general needs.

Perhaps this is one of the problems with Cirencester and its shops, as clearly over the years, the town and its shopping facilities have failed to change to meet local needs, aspirations and expectations, and this has left people with no other option than having to travel further-a-field to shop.

Cirencester’s residents can’t survive on a handful of small independent shops, when other than those, all we have to offer is endless coffee shops, charity shops, estate agents, mobile phone shops and hairdressers.

Where exactly are the shops which are needed to meet growing needs and expectations and to meet Cirencester’s on-going and continued growth and development?

Where are the high street names which we have all come to expect, and why are they based 17 miles plus away, instead of at our door, where we need and expect them to be?

Why are we forced to have to travel to nearby towns to utilise their shops, rather than being able to spend our money in our own town, and help ensure the financial viability and sustainability of our own town?

Why have we failed to grow and develop as a town, and as a shopping hub and venue and meet ever-changing and ever growing needs and expectations and why do we now ask the question, as to how can we survive, if WE (Cirencester) have failed to change and grow?

Why do we continue to fill our town, and our small number of remaining brown-field sites, with yet more and more housing, rather than using these sites to help the town grow and rejuvenate as a necessary and much-needed shopping venue?

How can we really be considering developing still more houses (3,700 to be exact) when we don’t have the town centre and shopping provisions, let alone the infrastructure and facilities, to meet these ever-growing needs and expectations?

When exactly did Cirencester, Cotswold District Council, Cirencester Town Council, and its Chamber of Commerce, actually give up on this town, and simply decide to stick their heads in the sand and leave it be? Because once they decided to do this, then surely, this was the first death-knell against the town’s long-term regeneration, and its future in maintaining its status, as being a key and much-needed shopping centre, and as a market town for the Cotswolds, let alone a venue where shoppers, visitors and tourists alike would visit and spend their money?

Fifty years of tossing and turning on rejuvenating the town centre, and its shops and facilities, let alone attracting more visitors and tourists, is now showing its ugly head. So perhaps rather than just focusing on a campaign for shops for younger people, we should be focusing on and looking at shops for all.

GEOFF SLOMAN

Cirencester