SIR: Once gain Silver Hill is set to be redeveloped but do we need it now (Chronicle, November 12)? Winchester has evolved for some 2,000 years and now our current leaders are being expected to make radical changes to the centre in just 25. Perhaps they have failed to notice that Winchester has quietly moved forward successfully during the previous 25 years without this development and its introduction at this time could critically upset the balance of the city. I think it is fairly well structured with its different parts efficiently serving our different needs at different times.

Hindsight has proved that it was good that the previous scheme was abandoned; time has shown it would not have been a success. Judging by the vacancy signs there are already more than enough retail and office units available so why develop now and the land is too expensive for housing.

If Silver Hill is the city’s dirty linen then it has hidden it with a certain degree of success and the changes to the bus station and the street market have proved beneficial. At this time we should be taking little steps; sort out the station approach, the doctors surgery and see where we go from there; perhaps creating an exit from the bus station directly into Silver Hill and improving some of the bland facades in The Broadway.

We cannot under estimate the combined affects of Covid and the internet; they have radically altering our habits in work and recreation; life will never be the same. This is not the time to gamble with the city’s development; let’s wait and see what happens in the near future. Now is the time to sit back, relax and take stock; don’t get obsessed, it’s not going anywhere.

On a lighter note there is one thing the city lacks, a red light area, now I know it’s not very big area but it’s a thought; it’s in the right kind of place and perhaps a couple of antique gas lights could be installed to add atmospheres.

Roger Malyn,

Goring Field,

Teg Down,

Winchester