I MUST reply to your article on the proposed youth drop-in centre that is to be opened on The Rock. The article raised two points: the assumption was that the traders on The Rock are against this centre and are also fighting for survival against the Millgate Centre.

Firstly, in principal we are not opposed to the opening of this centre. What we do not approve of is the positioning of it. The Rock is the last prime retail area outside the Millgate Centre, and we feel that this drop-in centre should be positioned in a less prominent area as in other towns.

The shopkeepers would like the area kept for retail use, as we feel there are already enough non-retail units on The Rock; banks, building societies, and insurance companies already occupy one-third of the premises.

I have seen two of these centres in Accrington and Leyland and they are both well away from the main shopping areas; and judging by the appearance of them it is just as well. They are both rather untidy, with hand-written notices in the windows, promoting details of the information available from them.

They certainly did nothing to "enhance" the area - as Mr Kevin Brady suggests this "shop" will. On the second implication, I would say that - contrary to what the Bury Times stated about the retailers fighting against the Millgate Centre - we feel that we complement the Millgate, as in the main we are independents as opposed to the multiples in the majority there.

We can supply that mix of goods that multiples cannot, as one store is exactly like a dozen other stores in the group. If we are fighting for survival it is against a council that would appear not to want to encourage retail use of an area.

At the end of the day, it is the retail sector in the town that employs people, that makes profit, that pays business rates, that keeps people coming to the town, that keeps Bury alive.

If retail is eroded bit by bit, eventually the town will die. It has happened all over the country. Let us not allow it to happen in Bury.

One last point I would like to mention is about the article on Bury Council wanting to work together with the people of Bury on a steering group to develop a Bury that the public want.

Why then did that same council ignore the hundreds of signatures from members of the public who did not want the loss of a shop on The Rock? The planning committee did not take into account what the people want now, so will they bother in the future?

R. ECCLES,

Paraphernalia, The Rock.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.