IN an issue of the Gazette a couple of weeks ago the Mayor claimed Dursley was enjoying an exciting time because of, among other things, several 100s of houses being built on Listers old premises, a library, with which no one agreed and which very few people used, plus a supermarket which no one wanted.

As some one born and bred in Dursley and enjoyed it in its heyday, I realise you can never bring back the past, but when even charity shops fail, something's wrong!

The time was up to probably the mid 50's. I could start off at Blueboy Robinson's (Oxfam) and take a 20 minute stroll up Silver Street and Parsonage Street without seeing a single empty shop, a building society, an estate agents or a charity shop, ending up at the old Co-op building (Warehouse).

The moral is that in that 20 minute walk, there was everything I needed from the cradle to the grave without taking a single step out of Dursley.

I'll be accused of living in the past, but no one will be more pleased if an effort is made to clean up Dursley and fill the empty shops.

Ray Harris Nordown Road Cam