Town would be scarred by barren barn

I know from experience how wearing it is when others constantly oppose your actions so they must have inhaled a satisfactory breath of fresh air when receiving praise from locals for their decision to refuse permission. But that was only a practice run. They must now start pumping iron in earnest in readiness for the return of Clarendon Arcade if their pleasure is to be repeated.

I do not know if current planners are those who turned down the previous application but they must be steadfast again and refuse any plans which simply tinker with Wilson Bowden’s original proposal for an old-fashioned 1980s style monolith.

In The Courier on 12 October 2012 David Butler, acting town centre manager for Leamington, said: “We are aware that there are vacant units in Leamington as there are right across the country, but Leamington performs better than the average”.

And Gerry McManus, manager of the Royal Priors shopping centre added: “As a town centre, we have weathered the storm quite well. It has been a tough five years, but because of Leamington’s uniqueness, we have stood out from other towns”.

Never were truer words said yet this mindset evaporates when the opportunity arises for egotists to ‘leave a legacy’. Were this project to get the go-ahead Leamington would be left scarred by a barren barn long after the bureaucrats responsible for it have vanished to pastures new. It must not come to fruition. - Anne Piper, via email.