I HAVE spent some time looking at some town and village centres. I decided to do the same to Andover.

A visit to the high street gave me a dispassionate view.

There are a few buildings along our high street that have distinctive features; however, three sensations were dominant.

Firstly, I noted the smell and mess of pigeons and human mess from the ‘night economy’, and secondly, the decay and poor state of some the buildings. Thirdly, overall, the street felt boring.There is perhaps a simple answer to the last sensation.

Tewkesbury has embraced its War of the Roses past (the battle of 1471) and enlivened its centre with the flags of the participants in that conflict. Such objects are comparatively cheap to produce, have such wonderful colours and a fluttering form that made the place feel friendly and lively.

Could Andover not do something similar?

We have a Saxon town origin, had a Battle of Andover, it was a coaching town and had a World War II history. Surely there must be some flag theme our council could adopt, and it need not stop there. Why not have a week of activities based on those flags? Talks, concerts, plays and a re-enactments are events that instantly spring to mind.

David Beeson, Andover Down, Andover, via e-mail

 

WHAT do I think of Andover town centre? Well, I actually quite like it.

Am I in the minority?

All I here is people moaning about what we haven’t got. Well what we have got is a nice range of shops, from the likes of Waitrose and M&S to the budget stores, there aren’t that many empty units and there are some lovely independent stores.

We’re never going to be Winchester or Salisbury, but does that matter?

They’re both less than 30 minutes away.

Andover town centre has some delightful secrets and several tasty places to go for a coffee and cake.

Yes Basingstoke has a greater variety of shops and all the big name brands, but the downside is the rest of the town. I’d take Andover any day.

We also have a wonderful local paper in the Andover Advertiser. It contains a great range of articles for what amounts to about 10p per day. Keep up the good work folks.

D Wilson, Andover