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In-town supermarket will save us from internet [Herald Express (UK)](Herald Express (UK) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) SUE Dawes (HE, December 12) says that Brixham may be facing a catastrophe. There's no 'maybe' about it; Brixham is facing a catastrophe but, in my view, for the complete opposite reason she gives. The catastrophe will be Brixham not getting the town centre development. Nobody, but nobody, can be unaware of the devastating toll the internet is taking on Britain's high streets and Brixham is no exception. Practically all services now seem to be done online. Being in my 60s, I'm no spring chicken but I can easily visualise the day -- if it's not here already -- when the only goods people will need to go to the shops for will be for their day-to-day groceries; just think what it will be like in a few short years when we will have a generation who will know of no other way after being born into the latest red hot age of internet technology. If there are people who think the internet can't make things any worse for the high street then they should think again. The internet hasn't even got out of first gear yet. Town centres are set to shrink. Period! Given the undoubted power of the internet it is strange that Sue Dawes and her BRATS never ever even mention the word internet, let alone acknowledge the devastation it is causing to town centres. Why? Ignoring the elephant in the room and not daring to mention the 'i' word will not make it go away. The one thing that could help these towns is if they are fortunate enough to be able to bring out-of-town supermarkets back in-town and so increase footfall for any retail outlets that survive the internet. She would appear to be quite happy to see Brixham crash and burn by suggesting we should turn down this Pounds 20million investment in favour of something she calls a 'carbon neutral' car park. Pardon? Yeah, I hadn't a clue what it meant either but I remember Sue Dawes mentioning in a previous HE letter the purveyors of such things was a certain company, so I contacted them and asked if they had some magical device that turned cars' CO2 emissions into fresh air as soon as they enter one of their car parks. No, the lady said, it's just that we use wood to build the car park. You build a car park out of wood? I asked. No, she replied, we just use some wood in the building of it. Some years ago, we knocked down the ugly old multi-storey car park and so paved the way for this Pounds 20million privately financed development consisting of its town-saving supermarket with its ability to form a concentrated shopping area but Sue Dawes says we should abandon all of this in favour of... a multi-storey car park. Without this development we won't even need the parking spaces we have now, let alone any extra ones. JOHN HADLEY Berry Head Road Brixham (c) 2013 ProQuest Information and Learning Company; All Rights Reserved. |