M&S have to look to future markets

I agree wholeheartedly with Elizabeth Tweed regarding the Ashford Marks & Spencer (Call for M&S revamp to breathe new life into the High Street, KE, October 23).

It is very sad that it has remained more or less the same as when I moved here from London in 1998.

I have to drive 48 miles or so to Bluewater to get decent M&S clothing for my taste and I am in my early 50s. The food hall is good but it could be fantastic and I also drive to Bluewater to get the whole range of food available from M&S as I favour their food above any other supermarkets or food outlets.

They could increase their turnover by about 85-95% if they were to revamp and open up the upstairs as a café.

I fear there is definitely an ulterior motive as to why they don’t/won’t extend the store and this needs to be taken up with the overall head of M&S as to why they don’t/won’t do it.

I heard in 1999 that they were going to extend/revamp and that has been rambling on for years and still nothing. Perhaps this could be taken up by the Kentish Express with the head of M&S.

The town centre in Ashford has gone down and down and down since I first moved here and it is a very sad situation, it is because of high parking charges especially in the NCP car parks and also because the rents on the shops are far too excessive for a town centre that has eroded like this one. Ashford Borough Council need to do something about this. Everyone used to shop on a Sunday when it cost 50p in parking for the day. Also there are far too many charity shops (all for good causes I know) and £1 shops and that is all I see when I go there, that and many boarded up shops. Very sad. Tracey Pruce, Ashford

I agree entirely with the article last week relating to Elizabeth Tweed’s comments about the Ashford branch of Marks and Spencer.

As a lady of “certain years” as Elizabeth, so delicately put it, I have to search carefully for clothes and look at M&S clothing advert currently in the national press with interest.