The interesting report in Tuesday’s Gazette on the decline of the retail attraction of Queen Street, St Botolph’s Street, Priory Walk and Long Wyre Street omitted the most obvious reason for this – the decision of Colchester Council to close the bus station.

This has resulted in a massive reduction in the number of people using this part of the town centre.

You did not need a property expert to predict this. In the words of Basil Fawlty, this was “the bleedin’ obvious”!

I warned councillors at the time, more than a decade ago, that this would be the inevitable consequence.

But they were not listening, egged on by various “experts” who were advising the council.

Common sense views of the people of Colchester were ignored and treated with contempt.

We were promised, in Vineyard Street, the best new bus station in Britain.

That promise was not kept. Instead we have bus stops in Osborne Street which are falsely described as a “bus station”.

Over the past decade the council has had several opportunities to admit the mistake and reinstate a vus station on what is left of the site off Queen Street, but a stubborn refusal has left us in the mess we have today.

Councils should provide services, facilities and amenities for its residents, local businesses and visitors – not engage with property speculators in building blocks of student flats.

There is still time for Colchester’s 43 councillors not in the cabinet to tell the eight who are driving this unpopular project that they should abandon it, and reinstate a bus station on the cleared site.

Sir Bob Russell,
Catchpool Road, Colchester