FOLLOWING the front-page article in the Crewe Guardian dated January10, describing the proposal to scrap the plans for Crewe's much-needed new cinema and instead build a discount store, I would like to highlight the following issues.

Crewe is already overburdened with discount stores. What the area needs is a leisure development that will increase the prosperity of the area by encouraging local people and people from outside the area to spend their leisure time in Crewe.

Crewe currently lacks both places to eat out and entertainment facilities. The paucity of restaurants and bars is presumably directly linked to a lack of demand, as people do not see Crewe as a place where they wish to spend their leisure time.

Most people who live in the Crewe area, that I have spoken to, travel to Stoke and Newcastle to visit the cinema, eat out and socialise; they would far rather have these facilities in their own town so that they could have a night out without having to drive long distances.

With a cinema, ten-pin bowling and the associated facilities, more people would choose to spend their evenings out in Crewe. The demand for restaurants, bars and public transport would then increase, and the development of the town centre would be self-perpetuating.

If the demand for a cinema is being judged using the current attendance figures for Crewe's small cinema, this will be very misleading, as many people travel to the cinemas in Stoke, Newcastle and Manchester, which offer greater comfort and choice.

I do not know anyone who attends the local cinema, but I know plenty of people who make the 30-mile round trip to Stoke regularly. If these people are prepared to travel to attend a modern cinema and the nearby restaurants, they would certainly regularly use these facilities if they were available locally.

The lack of facilities currently available for teenagers in the town must also be considered. Younger teenagers are not able to drive to surrounding towns and cities and so are totally reliant on what is available locally.

Everyone I have spoken to wants a multi-screen cinema in Crewe and feels that the building of one is long overdue.

Nobody seems to have similar enthusiasm for another discount store.

Even if economics demand some retail development on the proposed site next to Morrisons, scrapping the plans for a cinema on the site is very short-sighted and can only have a further detrimental effect on the ailing economy of Crewe.

Mrs Gill Bellamy

Bowkers Croft

Winterley