Wish them well

Let's get a few things straight. There is no such things as 'the old Woolworth store in Cinderford.' Let's all get over it.

Woolworth, the company running the high street stores, went bankrupt and closed the store years ago, folks!

There is only an internet presence now at, http://www.woolworths.co.uk ">www.woolworths.co.uk ; so go there if you really want to hark back to the 'good old days'.

The building they vacated after going bust is large and therefore expensive to rent and to pay council rates on.

From conversations with the local small business community,  I do not get the impression that owners of these rented properties, nor the councils setting the rateable values are falling over themselves to help regenerate the area by reducing rents and rates for small businesses to help them with setting up to bring a variety of trades and retail outlets to this area.

The two young people who have opened up the store on the Triangle are at least showing some initiative.

Originally the idea was to open one store, but even I could see that there was not enough income being generated to cover the unsubsidised outgoings. The present lessee took over a large empty space and did the best he could in the circumstances.

I  think he deserves credit for not abandoning the area altogether. He has stayed within a few yards of the centre of Cinderford, selling a selection of reasonably priced items, that in my opinion, have done the job they are designed for. This is not an example of  'junk, and hair-brained ideas' and I question the anonymous writer's qualification for making that statement.

There are, other low cost outlets in the area and I have not heard anyone calling them full of 'junk and hair-brained ideas'.

There is room for all. Let's not be 'nimby' in what is a basic, honest, hard working and fair community.

If the writer of the anonymous letter (in ' Review March 11) had bothered to make inquiries he would have found that within business circles a promise to take over a lease can fall through. People can be let down.

Having now moved back into the space, it makes more sense to halve the store and increase the variety of goods on sale by bringing in other traders to share punitive rents and rates.

Instead of sniping at this initiative, what about making an effort to talk to the traders involved, buy their goods and then wish them well. Let's hold back on harsh comments for a while, particularly in such a public forum.

They have only been in the space for about 10 days and there are now two traders and a space for a third. It is not a fair statement to say that 'what Cinderford has been left with is a disgrace to be honest.'

There are grubby, shabbily white-washed windows of other closed stores with old, disintegrating 'For sale' or 'For lease' signs all over Cinderford. Why pick on a couple of people who are making an attempt to bring business to the area?

I would ask that we all make the effort to shop locally and particularly with small traders unless you want to end up with an empty ghost town. Help them generate income and they will be able to increase the variety and value of their goods and the attractiveness of their premises.

The young people attempting to make a living and provide goods and services locally deserve to be supported and encouraged.

I will support these young people even more, and wonder what the writer of the original letter hoped to 'gain' by putting such spite into a public forum.  No-one profits in the end  by 'bad-mouthing,' especially anonymously.

– Gennie Stone, living in Ruspidge, Cinderford, and proud to live and shop in this neighbourhood and the Forest..