Reader letter: Our town needs more than pretty paint on shops

Our town council has been awarded a Market Town Initiative grant to improve and brighten our town centre.

Would it not have been courteous to have asked Fakenham residents their ideas and views, on how our market town can best move forward?

Instead we learn that £26,000 is being spent on refurbishing four 'cherry-picked' shop fronts.

How many retailers, especially those who have just opened up a new business and painted their premises, would have liked some help in funding their outlay?

I am all for the town presenting a brighter image, but unfortunately painting a shop front, will not bring shoppers to the centre, it is the content of the shop which is important, and goods that people wish to purchase, not whether the building is a pretty colour.

Somehow we need to encourage retailers to invest in our town, which, at the moment, mainly consists of charity/coffee shops and estate agents.

As a previous letter has stated, the land where Cox & Wymans office stood, could be given a make-over, as it is situated at the top of Norwich Street and looks rather untidy.

Do you think our town council has acted in the best interests of Fakenham rate-payers, in spending £26,000 on four shops?

MRS DAWN GIBSON

Sculthorpe Road, Fakenham.