It’s sad to see the decline in visitors to the town and also the number of closed shops. I believe that an important barrier to visitors is the combination of parking charges in town plus the inviting free two-hour parking at the Northgate shops. The carpark there is generally very busy and the more shops open out of town the more attractive it is to people. There needs to be free parking for the town, not unlimited but at least an hour preferably two as there is on Northgate. — I. TURNER, Coddington.