DID you hear that there's going to be a nursing home built right in the middle of Piccadilly Circus?

I'm lying of course, but I felt a similar feeling of incredulity when I heard of plans to build senior housing on the bus station site in town. At a time when local businesses are closing and Salisbury residents are heading elsewhere for shopping and entertainment, we need to make the most of our city so that our residents want to stay, and other people want to visit.

The covered market which has also been suggested seems a much better idea.

Of course affordable housing is important, but surely it would be much better-suited to the outskirts of town?

Additionally, would senior citizens feel safe and comfortable in the city centre?

I lived in town for a while, very near the bus station, and in just eight months I saw a violently resisted arrest, countless fights, karaoke pub lock-ins blaring until 3am, people knocking on my door in the middle of the night, an angry girl snarling: “All right Rachel, you're not pregnant then… so I can beat you up, yeah?”, and so many screaming, wailing drunks I felt like I was living above a medieval tavern.

Even though there was no large swinging sign reading ‘The King's Head’ above my door, small groups often used my doorstep for a drink and a smoke, and several times when I came home after dark there were drunk men hanging around, so I would walk around the block until they’d gone.

One neighbour told me that the alleyway running down the side of my house was used by pub-goers to do drugs, and on more than one occasion another neighbour left her house in the morning to find sick on her front door and doorstep.

This is the reality of any city centre at night, but especially since the bus station is ringed by three pubs, I know I wouldn't be happy for my grandmothers to live there