Leigh’s community centre and police station should be protected from the developers if we are to preserve the character of Leigh, but is the cause already lost?

What is its real character now? Our library is losing its personal touch with the installation of self-service terminals. There are more than a dozen cafe/restaurants, eight charity shops and a limited choice of grocery shops.

The pavements are crowded and shops and cafes encroach on to pedestrian space.

There are awful car parking problems and, too often, people have to drive out of town in exasperation.

There are fewer and fewer reasons to go into the Broadway to support struggling independent “quirky”

shops which must lose trade because of the lack of sufficient parking spaces.

However, are those cafes and restaurants now the true character of Leigh?

Perhaps some prefer a “cafe society” if it had easier parking, rather than the preservation of what some may regard as a few old fashioned buildings.

I hope not, and I would not like to see the demolition of those buildings.

Leigh Broadway will obviously survive, but it may not be as we have known it. I know Leigh Town Council has limited powers, but it does need to look closely at what our “village” has become.

What a shame the site of the apartment blocks currently being built couldn’t have been bought for use as car parking.

A solution to the parking problem has to be found if Leigh is not to lose more trade to Southend, or even to Hamlet Court Road which offers more street parking, two car parks, broader pavements and a wider choice of shopping trades.

S Askham
Elmsleigh Drive
Leigh

...The interest surrounding the future of Leigh Community Centre, prompts me to add to its history.

Leigh Camera Club has used this building for the past 82 years Just a small part of our history in a wonderful building that should remain for the people of Leigh to use.

Jane Winfield
Vice chairman, Leigh Camera Club
Westborough Road
Westcliff