Letters: What has happened to Peterborough city centre?

CITY NOT A ‘DESTINATION’

Instead of the city council loaning £14 million to a hotel which no-one is going to stay in, they would have done better to loan it to John Lewis to have encouraged them to stay.

As the letters page reader said last week, without John Lewis, M&S, Next, Lakeland etc no one views Peterborough as a destination city to visit and shop anymore – and if they think a revamped station quarter will attract people they are mistaken.

Sadly the city centre is a grubby place with uninspiring shops; the road leading up to Waitrose is strewn with litter and Westgate is disgraceful.

Why on earth would anyone venture from another town, and pay to park in Queensgate?

That’s why Brotherhoods and Hampton are packed and the city centre is dead.

And there is no real immediate pace of change to deal with this. Face facts, John Lewis was the 'pull' and without it currently Queensgate is dead.

Yes next year another store is allegedly coming but John Lewis it is not.

I've lost count of the times we've been told about the Westgate improvements which I truly hope will happen. We all know shopping habits have changed but that's no excuse to have allowed the city centre to have deteriorated in this way.

J Tibbs Peterborough

HOW HAS THIS HAPPENED?

I couldn't agree more with your recent correspondents Nathan Merryweather and Judy Jones.

The Peterborough bus station is indeed a shabby, uncomfortable and poorly maintained place with no comprehensive bus times and destination displays.

A most unwelcoming facility for visitors arriving in the city and for locals negotiating public transport services.The sad abolition of the Peterborough General Market by the council after a thousand years of trading is perhaps an even greater disgrace.

How have these municipal failings been allowed to happen and how best can things be put right?

David Jost, Peterborough

A MISSED OPPORTUNITY

The planned redevelopment of the Peterborough station quarter is a missed opportunity to build a transport hub for the city.

The existing bus station now rains inside and it's poorly designed for the purpose it is supposed to serve. Along with that it is somewhat bizarre that there is still no easy step-free access from the railway station into the Queensgate shopping centre. Ideally there would be an undercover entrance as in other cities.

Of course, the other mystery is how Peterborough is most probably the largest city in the UK without a regular park and ride service. Your first impression on arrival now is car parks. So much for being an environment city.

We could do a lot better

John Airey, Peterborough