IN reply to your recent article, can we state quite clearly that the question of 'charity' shops in Leigh is only one of many issues that we feel must be addressed in order to regenerate Leigh town centre.

Contrary to the statements made, many of these shops do not pay full business rates or Value Added Tax and certainly do not pay full, wholesale market prices for their stock.

The staff, in the main, are wholly unpaid volunteers. All these factors combine to give them major trading advantages not available to every other retailer.

Of course these shops 'survive' as mentioned in the article and will attract the support of their customers because for the reasons stated: they can offer distinctly lower retail prices. It should also be noted that many of these shops are a guise for sophisticated commercial organisations, who only give a small percentage of their turnovers to the charity.

While we are not against the charity motives, we feel that they should not occupy prime retailing sites. Because of their seemingly unlimited reserves they can and do outbid smaller retailers for prime sites thus starving the town centre of genuine retail mix. They then spend huge amounts of money on shopfitting.

These factors give an unfair advantage to these shops making it almost impossible for the small independent retailers who are the lifeblood of any town centre like Leigh, to compete on level terms.

We must repeat that this is only one factor which we feel needs to be addressed within the framework for the regeneration of Leigh.

Other points include the regular morning cleaning of the streets in the main shopping areas, the completion of the Bradshawgate pedestrianisation scheme, the installation of close circuit television and the establishment of a Lord Street inward bus route. All these helping to make Leigh a cleaner, safer, friendlier place in which to shop.

We would also welcome through your pages any comments from members of the public who have a view on and a vision of the future of Leigh as we approach the next century.

Gordon Jackson,

Chairman

Leigh Business Partnership

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.