I enjoyed the very interesting piece on the 1970s town centre revamp, but I think you missed the point of the 34,000 name petition (and that was a massive number of names in pre-internet days!)
They weren’t merely “anxious to preserve the town’s historic building” (the Market Hall), they were protesting that the plans involved bulldozing the entire town central area and replacing it with a huge concrete mall.
The late Roy “Cheesey” Davidson was one of three people who took legal action, at great financial risk to themselves, against the proposals and the council eventually backed down.
As well as preserving the Market Hall, one of the outcomes of the change of plan was that the historic frontages of buildings on Low Pavement were preserved - under the original scheme they would all have been demolished.
John Smith
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