Big Issue: 'Short term fix to detriment of Gloucester long term'

WHEN I saw all the dignitaries and developers in King's Square having their pictures taken, I thought "another nail in Gloucester's coffin".

I think it will be a rerun of the disastrous 1960s, the problem this city has is both councils do not learn from past mistakes.

Why are they going to build yet more shops on Gloucester's only open space, this should be kept to benefit all, not make great profits for the developer.

We have very many empty stores in the centre, plus whole sections in malls empty. One has to ask the question why both councils are not pursuing Government and the rail operators to get a mainline station here in Gloucester?

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This is far more urgent than more shops, it is a known fact that first-class transport links are a must for the travelling public and tourists, this would appear to be lost on our current administration. Letters to the Government have proved fruitless as they hand you back to the county council as transport authority. We need a total rethink before yet more mistakes are made.

You only have to look to the past, Gloucester was a prosperous city and the decline started with pedestrianisation. Fine in theory, disaster in fact, with no easy way for shoppers to get what they have brought back to their cars or public transport.

Then both councils allowed the loss of the cattle market, this in turn lost all the trade that the farmers brought with them. You only need to look at the decline of Westgate Street, gone are the small general shops, vegetable, wet fish, butchers, Co-op, Post Office, furniture plus much more, add this city-wide and you can see how the big supermarkets have decimated the trade for the small shopkeeper, and yet planners have given the go-ahead for another supermarket that this city does not need.

This is all down to poor planning, the short-term fix, without any long-term vision

It is time for our MP and both councils to listen to what the electorate want, and stop wasting many thousands of pounds on pointless consultations, the only winners are those paid to do the consultations, and the losers are the public of this city.