WE constantly read about the new town centre south, but what about the north?

The market for years has struggled. Let's hope that it is not forgotten when building on town centre south starts. For without investment, the traders and retailers will not survive.

If only those in authority had kept up the vision for Harlow, the town would not now be looking in dire need of a complete facelift. It's no good paying lip service to the town centre.

Constant investment must be made, maintenance regularly carried out, new projects drawn up.

It's obvious that communication between the local council and private sector is scarce because the local authority would have remembered that it was one of the first to join the Association of Town Centre Managment.

Or is it that it can see it has let the town centre return to practically its original state in 1987, so perhaps it's best to keep quiet?

Anyway, good luck to the new town centre manager Alistair Theobald. I hope he gets more than lip service from Harlow's town centre steering group and the local authority's commercial and enterprise committee.

He is going to need finance and co-operation from all involved to clean up the town centre and make it a place that shoppers and retailers want it to be.

HELEN KENNEDY,

Town centre manager from 1987 to 1997,

East Park,

Old Harlow.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000.Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.