I DON’T think any new shops should have been built in either Bishop Auckland or St Helen Auckland until the empty shops in the town centre were filled.

Building new shops in either place is bound to lead to closures of some of the main stores.

What is the point of spending a ridiculous amount of money on the Market Place and making the castle a tourist attraction if we have no decent town for people to visit?

Not everyone wants to go to St Helen to do their shopping or owns a car which enables them to do so.

I have never been to the shops at St Helen and nor do I intend to do so.

As for the suggestion that Marks and Spencer should move its clothing department to Bondgate (HAS, Sept 17) – why should they?

Marks and Spencer has chosen to just sell food and no clothes so it doesn’t deserve people to buy them.

There are still clothes shops in the town and we can manage without a firm that doesn’t want to sell its goods.

Kathleen Hadden, Bishop Auckland.