I AM in business, and, like many people, have very little time, and greatly benefit from all the services offered to me in Cowgate, which I can quickly reach by car, and then get away.
This is a flourishing area of town for people similar to me. I am greatly dismayed that it is going to be meddled with and destroyed, to be replaced by a large, useless open space, which is already a collection place for large groups of the unemploye
d, and fast food vans feeding them.
It is no asset to Peterborough, and we certainly should not be enlarging and enhancing this.
There are many people, such as me, needing practical, useful shops such as the post office, which is indispensable, a large stationer's in Colemans, a newsagent's and the banks nearby in Cathedral Square, all with quick access.
All of these serve me in one swoop, and within the period of time that my car is parked on a meter.
Like many people, unless I am looking for clothes, I cannot waste time tramping around an enclosed shopping centre.
Individual shops, with quick. easy access with a car are every bit as vital for a city, for busy people, such as myself, and dindispensable for disabled people because of the easy access.
The city centre post office is much in demand, and often has queues out on to the pavement. It is always packed out.
There is no other city post office.
Also, there is no other city newsagent's which is so easy to get to. You either have to drag down to WH Smith, which is becoming ever more remote, or otherwise you have to go to the far end of town.
The newsagent next to the post office does very good trade, always having queues at the tills. There is no newsagent in Queensgate.
Across the road, Colemans must be worried about the effect closing the post office would have on its business. It is a very successful business at the moment, but many customers are drawn there by the post office.
It does not make any sense at all to knock down this building, when all over the city there are numerous offices and businesses which have failed.
As this situation increases, with the ongoing recession, it seems incredulous that Peterborough City Council is planning to rip down those successful businesses that are flourishing, only to replace them with a wide empty open space to benefit no one.
M A RANDALL
Manor House Street,
Peterborough
Heads must roll over GCSE fiasco
I WRITE regarding the shocking GCSE results that the city's schools have produced this year.
It's all very well for the city council to say that there are reasons for this, but why hasn't it done anything about it?
Millions of pounds of our money have been spent on education in this city, and we are still not giving our children the education they deserve.
It seems that, like most jobs in the public sector, there is no accountability when things go wrong.
The full article contains 522 words and appears in Peterborough ET newspaper.
