MY heart goes out to the shopkeepers of Bolton Town Centre, with many shops and quality products which are second to none, also very good presentation. So why are there so many shops folding up?

The answer in my mind is such extortionate charges on car parking. People will not pay for this when they can go to retail outlets and park for nothing.

Our council in my mind are giving our shopkeepers an uphill struggle, with some car parks charging £10 for nine hours parking. Do they want our markets and shops to keep open?

They ask for city status, a joke when you look at Bolton against Liverpool centre or Manchester; it's like a postage stamp on an A4 sheet of paper.

At the weekend I saw so many premises empty in Bolton centre and my heart went out to the existing ones. And to the ones in Horwich centre, who also have been robbed of so many jobs and local shops. Where is it all going to end? Why create 300 jobs to lose 500 jobs, nothing stacks up. Building retail outlets and destroying communities is not the answer.

Bill Collison

Bolton Road, Kearsley.