What is going on?

ANY avid Echo reader will be asking the same question after reading the last three editions. What is going on with the management of Loughborough town centre?

The ongoing debacle with cycling access is the tip of the iceberg. The county council said in your last edition that in fact Charnwood Borough Council had agreed to their proposal to allow cyclists through the pedestrianised Market Place before it was made. A batty and dangerous idea, even for a keen advocate of sustainable transport like me.

But then we had other bad news. Geoff’s Toys is to close.

Reinforcing many of the comments I have had from traders, that the town and our treasured market is being mismanaged. And then we have the behemoth student development at Leicester Road!

A lesser noticed transport proposal covered in a recent edition was the installation of two speed bumps on Loughborough High Street. A laudable proposal, but one that completely ignores the official guidance that such speed bumps would increase air pollution in our busy town centre by making vehicles accelerate.

All of the above shows that the current county and borough councils are not doing their job in promoting a healthy, safer and more prosperous town centre.

Stuart Brady, Labour’s Parliamentary Candidate for Loughborough at the next general election