I was surprised to read the deputy editor's comment in this week's Journal.

His assessment that Salisbury feels like a city 'on the up' was at odds with my personal feelings.  

Wiltshire County Council seems to be unaware of our existence here in Salisbury. 

Our police force is determined to build on a nonsense site, inaccessible to the people who need to reach it.

There is no central PO. We have not planned for today's high street shopping, and have totally decimated traffic flow in the centre by modernising Fisherton Street, damaging many of our surviving indie shops.

At the same time, we are re-developing the waterway through the centre of our city (destroying in the process, habitats and ecology which will take decades to recover).

Developers have been allowed to build on green field sites on Netherhampton Road totally ignoring the local advice of experienced residents who pointed out that the water table would cause real problems.

We may be above average in footfall statistics, below average in shop vacancies and gradually replacing some of the chain stores that have been lost over the last few years BUT it still seems to me that we have lost more than we are gaining.

Many of the independent shops have been forced to close or relocate following the combined effects of Novichok and Covid. Some of our long-standing private businesses such as Greengages Café, Harrisons, & Pritchetts Family Butchers have been driven out of business or out of town.

'On the up' doesn't really summarise it for me.

David Willoughby,

Burford Avenue,

East Harnham

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