Newark Advertiser reader letters: No longer an attractive town
I read Jonno Lee’s letter in the Advertiser and would like to reply to his question about anti-social behaviour in the town.
Unfortunately, these days I spend little time in the town centre, and seldom go there for social evenings.
Why? Because with a handful of remarkably good exceptions, the town centre pubs I spent my younger days in have become such shabby and aggressive places that I stopped going there.
It just isn’t fun.
It seems to me that over very many years we have tolerated a decline in the behaviour the town is prepared to accept so that many, like me, have decided to go elsewhere.
Deprived of trade that expects and wants better, and faced with a clientele that thinks little for the impact their bad behaviour brings, the town has adapted and become a place people who want a safe and enjoyable night out don’t want to go.
You just can’t take the risk.
Why is that observation connected to Jonno’s question? Because the people that have caused that shift not only don’t invest in the town, they degrade it without thought, and they don’t report their exploits to the police.
The people who would report don’t go there anymore so it’s no surprise to me that reports of crime are down.
The real challenge for those who accept public office — whatever their political stripe — is not to talk rubbish about the benefits the upgraded ring road will bring (they are many — it has to happen) more it is about how to encourage people who have forsaken the town whilst its ‘leaders’ spent time on their own agendas, to come back so that businesses can grow healthy (and pay tax and rates) by offering an experience of being in Newark that is satisfying, affordable and makes them want to come back.
Many more people spending time and money in the town is the only route to its health and growth, and the various councils seriously miss their duty to the people of the town if they don’t deliver on that. I see no evidence that they will. — RICHARD KELLY, Balderton
