LETTER: Only entrepreneurial spirit can save town now

Also I discovered independent, unusual shops such as a vinyl record shop and geeks game shop. A breath of fresh air.

David Wright and other inward looking residents are, in my view, so backward in their thinking it beggars belief. I feel the town is going to the dogs due to a lack of entrepreneurial spirit and moaners.

I suggest you borrow a camcorder and create an exciting “come to chesterfield” video, for uploading onto YOUTUBE instead of hoping others will regenerate the town for you. We must embrace the global digital / internet age by creating “experiences” within the town, open independent shops and get the rich educated middle class Indians’ Chinese, and East Asian tourists to come here.

Also the Markham Road corridor, multi-storey car parks are desperately needed on the Old Queens Park site and adjacent to sorting office, to persuade the “Peak District rat running day trippers” to stop and spend money, rather than as now, see our town as an inconvenient bottleneck to their journey.

We can’t go back to grinding metal in our little factories, so you better embrace tourism and “event” experiences now. Did you see the sheer scale and energy in Bakewell for the retro cycle Eroica event. It was huge.

So in summary:

1) Parking,

2) Experiences not just “shopping” —festivals of all kinds, 3) Dancing fountains – my kids always want to go to Sheffield because of these.

Wake up guys, there is no job security anymore and people move for work.

Labour and Tory philosophies are almost meaningless now, only entrepreneurial spirit in our own town will save us.

Geoff Knight

Holme Hall
Chesterfield