I find it very depressing walking through the town centre and seeing empty shops and the plethora of charity shops – a sure sign of a local economy on the slide.

I think radical steps need to be taken to ensure the town becomes more than one giant Tesco with a few pound and charity shops dotted about and houses as far as the eye can see, and at least it appears DDC is doing something about it.

Okay, pods and canals all might seem pie in the sky but if Daventry residents think a few new shops will be the cure to all the town's ills then they are sorely mistaken. Drastic problems surely require a drastic solution.

I live near Kenilworth, a town similar to Daventry in several ways – it's a similar size, has lots of housing estates and is close to bigger and better towns.

Despite being a reasonably affluent area and attracting plenty of visitors to the castle, the high street economy is dying on its backside, with charity shops aplenty – so many in fact they attract coach parties of pensioners on visits to them!

It would appear to many that the answer to Kenilworth's woes is a new branch of Waitrose currently being built. The powers-that-be appear to believe that a supermarket many can't afford to shop in will act as some sort of 'retail magnet' and top brands will come flooding in on the back of it. That has hardly happened in Daventry!

I'm not saying DDC is right and maybe a lot of what is being proposed is a waste of time but at least something is being attempted, unlike where I live. Surely that's better than sitting back, doing nothing and hoping for the best?

Mr J Lee
Via email