Nothing in town to draw people

In response to the letter from A Kirby (March 17).

You have expressed concerns over the lack of people in the Lowestoft town centre, and yes, you’re right, there is a decline in numbers in the town.

As a regular visitor, I mean a daily visitor, I have seen the numerous amount of changes within the past two years.

We do not have big names in the town centre, we have two and that as you rightly said is Marks and Spencer, and the other Iceland.

There is nothing in the town drawing customers in, apart from a lot of phone shops, coffee shops and charity shops.

The big names are all on the industrial estates now which take away a lot of the shoppers, also the constant traffic congestion getting into the town centre puts people off.

I hope this helps with your question.

J JONES

Lowestoft

Shoppers head to retail park

In reply to the letter from A Kirby, with regard to: ”Do people not choose to shop in their own town?”

Had A Kirby been with me last Friday, I could have provided him/her with the answer. The shoppers were at North Quay Retail Park. The large car park was full. Folk were parking free, rather than paying £1.20 per hour. They could shop in a leisurely way and the stores there provide almost anything they may want to buy.

JOAN SMITH

Reydon

Bus station needs makeover

It’s about time something was done about the bus station in Lowestoft. It is appalling, has rubbish strewn around, and there is nowhere to shelter from rain or wind if more than six people are waiting for a bus.

I regularly catch the X1 from Gorleston to shop in Lowestoft. I find your town centre a nice place to visit and browse, but the nearby bus station is beginning to put me off. There is not enough space on the footpath at the sides of the shelters, so people taking a shortcut through have to reply on waiting passengers to move out of the way, but often there isn’t anywhere to move to.

Lowestoft council, do you own the land? If you do then you should be spending on making it better for travellers to your town. It wouldn’t cost a lot I suspect. Perhaps the bus companies could contribute?

V KELLAM

via email

Action now for third crossing

I read with interest the letter in Your Opinions (P34, March 17). Home territory as far as I’m concerned with family still living in the area – Lancaster, Morecambe and Heysham.

Both hubby and I worked at the power station for several years, so does our son-in-law. Traffic is sometimes congested there heading up to Strawberry Gardens on the way to Heysham Power Station plus along with the Carlisle Bridge in Lancaster which can be congested; nothing compared to Lowestoft.

Lowestoft however, is a completely different kettle of fish. We have been told 2022 for the new bridge completion - is that before they do away with the Bascule bridge?

The times when on the telephone I’ve been asked to spell Lowestoft because people have never heard of it. East Anglia can sometimes ring a bell.

At the moment traffic in and around Lowestoft is horrendous to say the least with constant traffic works of one sort or another. Buses having to wait for four or more changes of lights before they can move, despite signing the hatched areas there are still cars blocking them because people are getting impatient at the long journey to return home. In some ways traffic lights are more of a hindrance than help – some lights allow three r four cars through, then some a dozen cars through.

There has been mention of Great Yarmouth and a bridge, do councils’ know of Lowestoft and the problems in the town? Many people now go to Beccles to shop as it is much easier and parking is easier.

Lowestoft is heading for a ghost town – businesses one or two, coffee bars plenty, pubs plenty, charity shops plenty. Parking is horrendous with another car park doomed to close because its unstable. Do the councils’ realise what is going on or do they in fact care?

More consultations are mentioned, but for what, action is needed now and not in five years time. The situation about traffic has been with us since 1904 according to locals, apparently 1960s was a possibility, now its 2022.

By this time what will there be of Lowestoft? Once a thriving seaside town when I was growing up in the 50/60s together with a family of fishermen from the Lowestoft area, now its almost dead.

When will those in power take action, earn their salaries and take some definite action? The time has long since passed for discussion after discussion. The consultants who spoke three years ago were patronising to say the least, they didn’t have a clue. Now again they are talking of more discussions, but for what? Action is needed!

JACKIE CHEESMAN

The Fairway

Lowestoft

Foodbanks need more volunteers

With more cuts and austerity from our politicians, the work of the foodbanks has become more important to the increasing number of people who need them.

Locally the distribution centre is in Lowestoft, serving Beccles, Bungay, Halesworth, Reydon, Leiston and Framlingham. The foodbank needs volunteers in the warehouse to box up the food and van drivers to distribute the food to these outlets – or maybe you have other skills to offer?

If you have the time, energy and the will to help, please contact Philip Riley on 07896 736 085.

GRAHAM NORGATE

via email

Fascists met in Southwold

An interesting, though hardly edifying, light is thrown on the political activities of Southwold residents almost a century ago, in notes by historian Ian Bunting recently published in the Southwold Railway Trust’s Members’ newsletter.

It seems that on August 27, 1924, the Constitutional Club (at that time at 16 South Green) in Southwold hosted a meeting of the British Fascist Movement, and that at that meeting, “thirty-six members were enrolled”.

This bizarre activity in what has always been considered a non-political town does not seem to have been widely reported. I now begin to understand the reality behind my father’s belief, as he told me, that support for fascism was quite widespread in England during the decades leading up to the Second World War.

It is perhaps more than ironic that the club building was totally destroyed on November 8, 1940 by enemy (fascist) bombing: one wonders if the Luftwaffe knew what they did!

JAMES HEWETT

Stradbroke Road

Southwold

Give Southwold harbour back

I am calling for a rent strike to make Waveney District Council honour their promise to give Southwold our harbour and caravan site back. I will put my ground rent in a holding account, which will be released when the council set up the Charitable Trust they have been promising for ten years.

The town motto is “defend thy right” and we have had enough of their shenanigans. I am calling on other harbour users to join this rent strike. The council will not listen to reason, so we must hit them in the pocket.

• Waveney milk more than £1m a year from the harbour. We don’t know the exact amount because, unbelievably, they cannot produce accounts.

• By their own admission, it will cost £7m to restore the facilities that have been run down under their management.

• Their project manager is costing £40,000 a year but has done nothing to further the project since appointed in July.

• They charged us £250,000 for project management on the harbour wall contract. The contract was “design and build”, so they only had to sign off the project as complete. They even got this wrong, as the wall is not fit for purpose, fendering and ladders are missing and it is going to cost another £500,000 to put right.

Waveney have got away with this for too long, it is time for Southwold to make a stand.

DAVID BEAVAN

Southwold Liberal Democrats

Victoria Street

Southwold