UPON reading the headline: Water Place 2000 (BEN, February 8), I immediately thought April had arrived - wrong!

Could it be a Comic Relief stunt? - wrong again!

I soon realised that they are serious about their development proposals.

If the proposals reflect the Leisure chief's thinking, then Heaven help up when the Leisure indians become involved. Could somebody please get these people back to the reservation and quickly before they do any more damage. We all know that the Water Place has been a complete white elephant and that the surrounding area is in urgent need of renewal.

Surely though, it would be better to re-develop the area sensibly.

Who, in their right mind, would pedestrianise the only possible approach road to Newport Street Bus Station? Who, in their right mind, would site a cinema, shops and other developments directly over a main railway line? I am not saying it cannot be done. It is just prohibitively expensive and would be a foolish thing to do, particularly since the line may at some stage in the future be electrified for inter-city use.

General Custer

(name and address supplied).

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.