There was a reader's letter in the Warrington Guardian a couple of weeks ago about the ugliest buildings in town.

While I accept there was an attempt at humour in said letter, the author did make what I believe is a valid point – the cladding on the new town centre market car park is hideous, absolutely hideous.

And to make matters worse, the car park is huge, dominating the town centre skyline.

I look forward to the car park finally opening – we need the spaces – but I really can't get over the fact it is now a seriously ugly building – more gangsta bling than Stirling Prize for Architecture.

I realise that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and I'm sure there are many people in the town who like the brown with gold hexagon design.

I'm not a fan.

A little research reveals that architects are as much fashion victims as some of the town's young women. Cladding your buildings in metalwork seems to be the equivalent of buying a pair of skinny jeans that already have rips in them.

We as a town are not alone.

There are plenty of examples of garishly-cladded buildings around the country.

There's a particularly unpleasant cladded car park in Sheffield city centre that makes it look like a cheese grater and the award-winning Birmingham Central Library takes the avant-garde, colourful metalwork vibe to a whole new level.

As bad as the new market car park is, sadly for Warrington, the piecemeal development of the town over the years has left us with some real monstrosities.

The two that spring to mind are those classic examples of brutalist architecture – the telephone exchange on Stanley Street and New Town House on Buttermarket Street. No one could describe them as pretty buildings.

I concede they are of their generation and perhaps they were cutting edge back in the 1950s, 60s and 70s.

But this is the 21st century and we should know better.

I wonder then, who gave permission for those two blots on the landscape on Winwick Road known as Decathlon and Orford Jubilee Neighbourhood Hub.

You'll go a long way before you come across two such uninspiring buildings sitting so close to each other.

And it's not just because they are modern I don't like them. It's because they are ugly.

You only have to look a little bit further along Winwick Road to see what can be done with a little thought and imagination.

The buildings on the Warrington Collegiate campus are really nice to look at and I think the developers have done a good job with the new units at the Junction 9/Alban Retail Park.

I take some consolation from the fact that we do have examples in the town where the architects, developers and planners can get it right and have done so.

Let's just hope the same is true for the market redevelopment, despite the fact it's going to be overshadowed by that massive brown and gold car park.

It is a perfect opportunity for those who are in charge of the town to make a statement, to show how modern and forward-looking we are.

At least when the town centre has been redeveloped and we have a shiny new, family-friendly, cafe culture, cinema-going night life, we will all be able to find somewhere to park.