REGARDING the letter from P Rees (HAS, June 17) about Darlington town centre, Councillor Bill Dixon may recall the petition signed by several thousand Darlington residents who didn’t want the pedestrian heart at all.

The council decided to go ahead and impose it on them, making it worse by the massive overspend on the project.

Pedestrian safety was highlighted during the public consultation, particularly buses speeding through Priestgate and Crown Street, but wasn’t given due consideration.

The overspend may have been recoverable if vital construction documents hadn’t disappeared leaving the council taxpayers to pick up the tab.

When we look around the town we can see that the tacky-looking project will go down in history as a fine example of “value engineering”, meaning barely acceptable on completion and guaranteed to crumble shortly afterwards.

What would Joseph Pease think of his High Row if he could see it now?

L Hume, Darlington.