I read with interest David Howell’s regular and well-researched articles about the changing face of the retail ‘offer’ in Farnham.

We hear of the comings and goings of various shops and well known brands but what I should like to know is where some of these comings are coming from and where some of the goings are going to. 

More to the point, how many of the units in Brightwells Yard are likely to be filled by established retailers from the middle of town? How many are joining the evisceration of the town centre by succumbing to the blandishments of Waverley and Surrey councils or Crest Nicholson in an attempt to camouflage their blushes at the obvious and predicted commercial failure of the scheme – bribes, it should be said, using our money.

I heard only today of one enterprise being offered two rent free years to make the move, an offer that thankfully was refused. I also have heard that our mayor has indicated that many of the ‘successful’ lets in Brightwells will be to retailers exiting the existing heart of our town. And then the library...? And then the museum...? Will Farnham’s historic heart become a ghost town, leaving the shops that remain with only a ghost of a chance of survival?

Andrew H Jones

Fox Yard, Farnham