ELY will never grow as a city while councils and trade associations stop the evolution of the city. Ely has stood still with regards to shopping over the last 20 years, and has very little to offer the buying public. When it comes to Christmas shopping,

ELY will never grow as a city while councils and trade associations stop the evolution of the city.

Ely has stood still with regards to shopping over the last 20 years, and has very little to offer the buying public. When it comes to Christmas shopping, I would guess that at least 80 per of people who live here go to Cambridge or Peterborough to get the majority of their presents. Why is this, because there is more variety of shops and a better quality of shops in both places. Ely is swamped with card shops, bargain shops and general tat shops, nothing to attract people.

Ely should be looking at trying to attract the likes of Next, PC World, Burtons and Homebase and housing them all on the business park. I can already hear the cries of 'this will take people out of the city centre and kill the small shops'.

That view is short-sighted, what it would do is attract people to shop in Ely, business park or not, and once they are in the city they are more likely to pop into the centre as well. There has to be something to attract the consumer market to the city in the first place. How many men looking for clothes would shop in Ely? Very few as there are hardly any shops for that purpose, so already you are missing out on a huge market. A free bus service running between city centre and shopping centre could be provided to encourage those on the business park to venture to the city centre. But planning on this matter has to be open minded and of a forward way of thinking, and of the current age we are in, not stuck in the 70's and 80's.

ROGER WADGE

Witchford

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