A few years ago a large arcade of shops was opened on the site of the former Bobby's store on The Parade (latterly Lee Longlands). Many of these units were never occupied and the whole complex currently stands empty.

A new street of shops variously called Livery Street/Regent Court has in recent times been added to the stock of town centre retail units. One suspects that the high rents and the seeming absence of human beings in this part of town does not bode well for the commercial success of these particular units.

Recent full page advertisements in your newspaper promoting musical 'diversions' in this street serve only to reinforce my pessimism. And now, we learn that what the town most urgently needs is a bright, new, indoor shopping centre on Chandos Street.

The business pages of The Times newspaper have in the last week carried news of a recent CBI survey which indicates that retail sales have fallen to their lowest level for a quarter of a century.

Another article in the same newspaper reports that much of the trade of the larger retail chains has been stripped away by the internet and concludes that one in every four of the larger stores could be shut.
I seem to remember that internet trading was one of the reasons cited by the owners of one of Leamington's oldest established retailers for its recent demise.

I wholeheartedly agree with your correspondent Ann Piper (Postbag, July 25). The last thing that Leamington needs in is a white elephant retail development of any shape or size. Like Janet Alty, I have yet to speak to anyone who thinks that this proposal has any merit.

The burgeoning of the internet has led to a fundamental change in the ways in which many of us now purchase goods and services.

Whether this is something to be approved of is entirely irrelevant. It is a fact of commercial life and you ignore it at your peril. - Alan Griffin, Victoria Street, Leamington.