I WRITE as a soon-to-be-extinct breed, a High Street retailer, to compliment the Council on their remarkable persistence in continuing to stifle the town centre.

Not content with changing the expensive but useful Westover Road parking bays into an additional taxi rank – thereby denying the few remaining diehard shoppers the opportunity to park and visit the town centre relatively swiftly without being accosted by persistent transients – but they now propose to close the East Overcliff to cars.

This road provides pleasant and easy access to the town centre from the East Cliff and beyond and I have little doubt that its closure will drastically increase traffic on the alternative route. Except of course for cyclists.

ROGER BENTLEY

Manor Road, Bournemouth