I HAVE lived in or near Acomb for most of my 67 years and in all that time never have I seen the Acomb shops area looking as bad as it now does.

What was once a clean, thriving, varied area of quality shops is now run down, tatty, with uneven footpaths, numerous closed businesses, among litter, dog dirt and mess. Why has this happened? Why is the area mainly taken up with charity, betting and optical shops?

This area has lost chemists, travel agents, banks, florists, furniture shops, fishmongers, butchers, groceries, shoe shops, clothing shops, cycle shops, stationers and more. The library has been refurbished, Morrisons enlarged, the primary school become a café, but the toilets are grim, and nice comfortable places to sit and rest few and far between. How can this decline be halted and reversed?

David Quarrie, Lynden Way, Holgate, York.