Dear Syd
I see in your article headed Community Shop Closes that “This in preparation of the demolition of the whole block, including Churchill House, in the New Year” I gather that you were not certain enough of which new year, as this is already four years behind the schedule issued to the residents in May 2008.
This part of the regeneration was scheduled as Phase five August 2009 to September 2013!  The whole debacle seems to be four years behind schedule as the ramp, which was Phase three, was due to be demolished during 2009 and has just been removed this year.  The Town Centre Management, among others, keep telling us that the work is on schedule, perhaps they are using a different calendar to the rest of us!
I am sure your readers were however delighted to learn that they are contemplating demolishing Churchill House at long last but I suspect that they dread any more upheaval as demolishing the old Health Centre gave us piles of rubble and dust for months and this was a fraction of the size of Churchill House and units 64 to 84 Beveridge Way.
I just hope that for the shopkeeper’s sake this is not the thin end of the wedge for their customers as the disruption will surely yet again result in the decrease of footfall on the town and loss of trade for them at a time when The Town Centre Management have hiked their service charges to what would seem unreasonable and unmanageable levels.
Gary Hale, the then agent for Freshwater, stated in 2008, “This area is one of an expanding population and economy”. “The opportunities afforded by these proposals will allow us to upgrade the entire centre to attract shops and create a new environment”.  Most of the shops are small units and if they are really struggling now, many seemingly contemplating closure, who are they going to attract to replace them?  We could end up with a ghost town!
It is time the centre management came clean with the shopkeepers about the hike in charges and came clean with the residents about the obviously revised schedule for the work. They did state in 2008 that the work would be completed in seven phases and that due to the then current shop leases the completion of the scheme could be beyond 2014.
I don’t expect anyone realised that Phase 5 which should have been completed in September 2013 would not have even started by then.  While I realise that regeneration on this scale does not always run to plan the slippage in this instance seems a bit extreme and an honest explanation is overdue.
Andrea Bergg
Lascelles Avenue