AFTER reading your lead story on the front of the Wiltshire Times, July 7, I am not at all surprised that the town was rated so low by Harper Dennis Hobbs.
I and my wife went into the centre of Trowbridge to do some shopping on Saturday (July 8) and we were disgusted with the state of the whole area. It was strewn with rubbish, cigarette butts, weeds growing between the block paving and loose block paving adjacent to WH Smith.
There is nothing to encourage people to shop in this area – it just felt dirty and unkempt.
If the council can afford to employ people on salaries of £150,000 then surely they can find a few thousand to employ someone with a mechanical sweeper to clear up this area and make it more welcoming for shoppers.
The area behind Costa in Red Hat Lane is particularly bad as the rubbish bins for this business are allowed to overflow and the rubbish blown about.
Perhaps the people that are on these high salaries should get out of their offices and see for themselves the state of the County Town of Wiltshire.
When they let the town centre get into this state it is no wonder that the rest of the town is in such a mess: pavements in disrepair; trees being allowed to overgrow footpaths, making it difficult for people to walk on them – more so for mothers with pushchairs and people on walking aids or mobility scooters; the age-old problem of grass cutting not being done on a regular basis; and gutters not being cleared of weeds and other growing matter.
R A Naish
Trowbridge