YOUR front page article last week on the latest plans for the Maltings makes mention, as also was featured a few weeks ago, of including a multi-screen cinema. In a letter to the Journal at that time, I asked if Salisbury really could provide the footfall for two cinemas and suggested that this was ominous for our Odeon.

Reading last week’s article, I really wonder if the proposers of the plan have been to the Odeon recently and, if so, how many times they have seen any of the 5 screens remotely full. Does a new 7-screen cinema make any sense?

What seems to me is that a multi-activity centre (climbing walls, trampolines, exercise park and the like) that will be attractive to and benefit young people would be much more effective in bringing people into Salisbury than another cinema.

I leave it to others to comment on the plans for more shops in the light of the many empty premises already in the city and in the face of the increasing popularity of online shopping now or in response to the planning application when submitted; I hope this is being properly thought through too.

Peter Turnbull

Salisbury