LETTER: Centre of Nelson has improved

I have waited to see how many other letters have appeared in the Leader to comment on this but have only seen one. I am a great believer in complaining if something is not up to standard or needs attention but I also believe that if praise is due it should be given and I think praise is due this year. It is the best Nelson Centre has been decorated that I can remember for quite som time and not forgeting the return of a real Christmas tree which was another bonus.

I would also like to mention the opening up of the road through the centre. Like many others, when it was announced it was going ahead I had my doubts as to what it would be like and found it hard to visualise how the centre of Nelson would look once it was completed. The sweeping course of the road looks far nicer than a straight line drawn on a map, the parking is good, not many if any parking spaces lost and for the people who have complained about parking spaces being “too small” and not being able to get in them I can only think the person parked in front or behind has been on one of the popular “How to abandon your vehicle” night school courses.

I also had doubts as to how the traffic would be “managed” at the top of Carr Road and pedestrians would cross the road either going to or coming from the Pendle Rise or the “Arndale” but everything appears to flowing quite nicely and it does look very nice when it drops dark and the trees and the clock over the bank are lit up.

I do not mind The Shuttle and it is a reminder of Nelson’s past cotton industry and heritage (and we have lost a lot of that). I do not wish to sound a defeatist but I do not think it will drag shoppers in by the “bus load” nor will it attract major stores and retailers, Nelson is what Nelson is and we will have to accept it but all in all the look of Nelson Centre has improved.

V. LANDON,

Barrowford