Since I moved here 16 years ago I have read so much about the proposed "development" of Braintree town centre.
Pedestrianisation of the High Street has been the death of Braintree.
Go to Sudbury where you can park for short periods outside the shops. Sudbury is vibrant and busy.
Go to Hertford. I remember the busy covered market 40 years ago, the department store and many others.
Then the centre was redeveloped. Now it is a empty ghost town. Waitrose and other leading shops have closed. So now it is to be redeveloped again.
Braintree town centre is dead as people cannot park outside the shops and pop in.
Older folk cannot carry shopping back to a car park hundreds of yards away.
Younger people do not have the time to walk to and fro to shops a distance away.
Let cars park in the High Street for 30 minutes or an hour like Sudbury.
Why does Braintree need a hotel in the centre of town? The traffic flow is appalling so access will be dreadful.
Far better to have hotels on the outskirts where two hotels are already. Are they over-subscribed?
Is anyone doing joined up thinking or do we just have a couple of dreamers with ideas and no common sense?
Don’t get me going on the cost, where the money is coming from and what else it could be spent on.
Mary Brace, Braintree
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