EVER since the council, spearheaded by the indefatigable and omnipresent Andy Kay, decided to close an unremarkable, but very useful, thoroughfare to traffic and replace it with a Parisian boulevard; anything that could have gone wrong, has.

Notwithstanding that the whole concept was a folie de grandeur, the way the council has gone about fulfilling its dream would be laughable but for the public money that has been and is being squandered.

Now it is the cobblestones that are faulty. One hopes there will be redress from the overseas contractors who laid them?

Whilst the public have to be protected, the thought of covering and then uncovering the stones with tarmac, trumpets more and more expense.

Unless one wishes to visit ones bank or building society or maybe join the Army, or, much less likely, view the arcane "works of art," there is little reason to visit Church Street. Why then not just close the bulk of it until work on the faulty cobbles is completed?

KEITH REYNOLDS.