Fulfilling access arrangements

Mr Raven (Opinion, March 10)) need not fear: it is not an urban myth that Boots accepted that, for its store to be built on the site of the demolished St John’s Church, it must facilitate access between Sudley Road and London Road.

I’m very old. I remember the time when you could walk the footpath beside the church between the roads. And I remember the reassurance from the town council that there would always be that pedestrian access.

In the meantime I’ve been rude about elderly drivers driving their cars along the shopping precinct when there was generous disabled parking just outside Boots.

Now, though, when I need a stick to hobble along and roadside parking in London Road and Bedford Street is taken up by taxis and Morrisons customers, I am wondering whether I shouldn’t try the same thing.

So if your readers are hassled by a little whitehaired man in a little blue car nosing between them and the shops, can they try not to swear but instead complain about Boots, which has made millions over the last halfcentury, to Bognor Regis Town Council?

Or (since the Local Government Act of 1972 juggled responsibilities between district, county and parish councils) to Arun District Council or West Sussex County Council.

And they might suggest councillors politely ask WH Smith to let me into the town’s Post Office through its back door, opposite the Bedford Street disabled parking space.

It used to. But whether it was just being kind to customers, or fulfilling an ancient contract, I can’t say.

COLIN CROUCH Fernhurst Gardens

Bognor Regis