LETTER: Mary Portas didn’t say anything we don’t already know

SHE came, she saw and, in some ways, she conquered.

Everyone seems to have been enamoured by the visit of Queen of Shops Mary Portas, but it didn’t tell us much more than we already knew.

She is right to say the future of our high streets is very difficult ... we need a boost to the economy ... that Pendle needs a local economy ... that we need to find out what people want done their town ... all age groups must be catered for.

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She undoubtedly said similar things on her visits to Dewsbury and Stockport.

Even Miss Portas does not have a magic wand and those new ideas which emerged from the visit were hardly earth-shattering – a night club, even an art gallery and a Curry Mile!

Coun. Paul White, who leads on regeneration on Pendle Council said he really liked this idea. “It would bring young people and people from outside the area into the town.”

As John McEnroe once said: “You cannot be serious”.

Does Coun. White not realise there are scores of curry outlets in Burnley, Blackburn, Haslingden, Bury, Bolton and others?

It isn’t such a hot idea, is it?

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Many people locally will continue to work tirelessly to bring some light into the murky town centre tunnel. Good luck to them.

But the best thing Miss Portas can do for Pendle is to persuade her pals in Westminster to outlaw on-line shopping. No hope of that, though.

ERIC GREENWOOD

Beaufort Street, Nelson