Pedestrianisation is a disaster

Sir, – I think that pedestrianisation of the centre of Elgin has sounded the death knell for what used to be a busy, buzzing city.

Alas, Elgin needs to be revived; remember when there were cars, bikes, vans etc moving and parking? Now Elgin often resembles a ghost town, with the odd event on the High Street, but not enough to justify zero traffic 24/7.

Elgin is no longer lively; quite often the number of people in the High Street can be counted in single figures, it would have been easy to to make the main thoroughfare one-way, which I think would have been better for the businesses that need passing trade from vehicles; passengers see items in windows and stop to purchase and use other facilities.

I was in business in Elgin for many years, but would not want a business in a pedestrianised street. I passed through Forres this week; it was full of independent individual shops, selling what looked like very interesting items, so a trip to Forres for some retail therapy is definitely on the cards! Window-shopping from a vehicle is not an option in Elgin.

Why did the powers-that-be not learn the lesson from America, where the mistakes had already been made and many towns no longer have a heart, just a sprawl of out-of-town sites. When Elgin banned traffic in the centre, the blueprint of mistakes already made was available in the USA.

With regard to safety, I doubt that the number of people injured in High Street and Batchen Street justifies these streets to be closed to traffic.

I think the traffic department made a mistake in coming up with a pedestrian scheme for a little town like Elgin. The world is full of busy shopping streets, and when I say busy I mean manic: Oxford Street in London; Fifth Avenue in New York; Nathan Road in Hong Kong. They do not feel the need to pedestrianise, so why, oh why, do we need it in Elgin? We have jumped on the wrong bandwagon, and Elgin is suffering. – Yours etc,

Henrietta Jobling,

Linkwood House, Elgin.