Can the High Street recover after lockdown?

AHEAD of the re-opening of nonessential shops next week, town halls have been ordered to overhaul High Streets with queue zones, car bans and barriers to widen pavements (Mail). I have run a second-hand CD and vinyl shop since the Seventies. The once vibrant, cosmopolitan town centre was struggling before the virus due to the council’s anti-car policy. No one will now want to cram onto buses, trains or trams to go to the High Street. It has been made so inconvenient compared to internet shopping. Unless there’s a rethink, many town centres will die.

DUNCAN BARNES, Croydon, Surrey. I REALLY want to go into a shop, choose something to buy, hand over cash to a friendly assistant and leave with my purchase. I am fed up with internet shopping where I have to accept cookies, set up an account, which means giving lots of personal details, create and confirm a password, accept email sales shots, prove I am not a robot and find my age and address on a drop-down list. DAVID EDWARDS, Leighton Buzzard, Beds.

SHOPPING wardens in my town will order people around when stores re-open for business. I will never visit a High Street where people going about their daily business are subjected to Orwellian policing. Most people have observed the social distancing rules, so don’t need to be bossed about. Such a draconian approach will be the death knell for the High Street.

Name supplied, Penzance, Cornwall. THE High Street was already on its knees so the new rules will finish it off. People will go to out-of-town shopping centres offering free parking.

C. NEWTON, Irthlingborough, Northants.

IF COUNCILS are deterring motorists from town centres and we are being encouraged to use public transport only when absolutely necessary, how are we supposed to get to the shops?

W. PURVIS, Newcastle upon Tyne. BEFORE lockdown, most shops, including M&S, had left my local High Street. This was due to exorbitant business rates and car parking charges. What has the council proposed to help businesses and the High Street recover after lockdown? Banning vehicles and putting in more cycle lanes. Retail businesses will be dead in the water. All that will be left on the High Street will be fast-food outlets.

P. C. COOK, Huddersfield, W. Yorks.