THE NEWS that the Market Place works are running behind schedule was never going to be welcome.
The project has been causing untold misery for our wonderful independent retailers and there is no end in sight.
With Broad Street not due to reopen until March and Denmark Street due to close again, it looks like the project will drag on into the summer.
It is disappointing – and disrespectful – to our independent retailers that the statement from Cllr David Lee last week did not include a single word about our wonderful retailers.
Free parking and rate reductions are an immediate must.
The onus is on us, Wokingham borough residents and workers. We have a duty – a serious and real duty – to keep calm and carry on.
Yes, getting around the town is a pain.
Yes, the traffic is enough to give even the purest nun words that would make a sailor blush. Yes, the work is a nuisance.
BUT, we must all get out into the town centre, go shopping and spend money in the wonderful, unique and special mix of independent retailers that you won’t find anywhere else.
If we don’t, they won’t be here when the regeneration is over.
What we have is special, we must cherish and nurture it. No one else will.