THE bus station is a joke.

What was wrong with the original bus station where Iceland now stands?

What was wrong with the bus station opposite Lidl?

The new one has one good change – in the winter you won’t get a cold wind on your feet. Most of the ridiculous cost came from the cafe, pipes for gas, electric, water, etc.

Who in their right mind wants to sit and watch buses come and go? Anyway, this town is full of coffee shops in and around the Chantry Centre where you can sit and convene with people.

There is still no overnight parking for the buses, no information booth or complaints booth.

Now my second point. Has Test Valley gone completely mad? Headlines in the Andover Advertiser read ‘Revamp is given the goahead’.

Apparently this is to encourage shoppers. Why when there are no shops of any note? One shop in Bridge Street is still owned by a local man. Andover now consists of empty shops, cafe shops and charity shops and a few banks.

A lot of people think as I do.

People go to Basingstoke, Winchester or Salisbury to shop.

Our market is a joke but I do not think it is funny.

Why the ugly concrete balls in the lower High Street?

Test Valley again.

I could go on forever. I am by no means stupid, my profession is a legal rep, I have a degree in psychology and one in philosophy, which is why I often quote: ‘Today is history, tomorrow is a mystery’ and ‘Sail your own ship in life’.

I am not going into the overspill estates, Augusta Park, etc, nor the proposal for even more industrial estates! Nor why a person asked me how you spell ‘Nostradamus’ and ‘The Desiderata’ (they work in the library).

The only place I visit to get some peace is by the River Anton looking at the Baptist Church and the Town Mills.

I have worked all my life, but I have also travelled extensively to Europe, Barbados, Brazil, etc.

This town is now more foreign to me than the countries I have visited and worked in and people wonder why I am, like the late Maxie Lane (a man I am proud to have known), anti-establishment, anti-authoritarian.

People now are afraid to be honest, I am not.

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