Compare and contrast with Swedish complex

We have just come back from visiting our daughter and family in Kungalv, Sweden (a town half-an-hour north of Gothenberg) which is about the same size as Maidenhead.

They have just built a wonderful covered complex in the town surrounded by high-rise blocks of flats.

It is built on three floors, the bottom floor being all parking (free for three hours!), lifts up to two other floors which are retail with escalators and in the middle of one floor there is a food hall with outlets selling worldwide cuisine and comfortable, help-yourself seating.

There is also an O’Leary’s Irish pub with a bowling alley and snooker tables.

There is also the main bus terminal with buses coming in from all directions.

There are free lockers to store your shopping so you don’t have to cart it around with you, and a doctor, dentist and family play area on the top floor.

Maybe there wouldn’t have been space for all these things in Maidenhead but I feel that the council have missed a big opportunity to build something that people would really want to visit.

I appreciate that Sweden has worse weather for longer than we do so this complex is completely covered but the open precinct planned for the Nicholson Centre seems to me to be a backward step.

SUE MORRIS

The Avenue Maidenhead