It is possible Orpington town centre shopkeepers feel they are losing customers to places like Bluewater and The Glades in Bromley, but I wonder if they are exerting themselves to retain trade.

With this thought in mind, I feel there is a lot more Bromley Council and Orpington shopkeepers could do to make a shopping expedition a more pleasurable experience.

My husband and I are disabled, he is registered partially sighted and I walk with difficulty using two sticks.

Like a lot of other people, we go to Orpington via Dial a Ride and I can't help noticing midweek most of the shoppers are either middle-aged, or elderly but the town doesn't make any allowance for this fact perhaps trade would increase and shops not shut down if they did?

Lack of seating is my biggest complaint. I wonder whether Bromley Council ever consulted the people most likely to use the seats in Orpington shopping centre.

It is true there are seats at intervals in the High Street, and you can sit by the kerb alongside parked cars but there are only a few seats where they are most needed in the Walnuts precinct and none in the covered section.

There is a cafe in this area but you can't drink tea every time you want to sit down, particularly if it is a day like April 13 when the public toilets were shut down.

When this sort of thing happens it is not as if there is an alternative as I understand there is in Bromley where shoppers have toilets in Marks & Spencer and BHS.

Marks & Spencer in Orpington gets top marks for providing a row of seats in its shop.

Sainsbury's does the best it can with three seats for the benefit of shoppers but I have seen elderly people trying to slip in without necessarily shopping there because they are desperate to sit down and get out of the rain.

Then there is the question of automatic opening doors and I certainly feel WH Smith could invest in one.

We have had difficulty trying to open these doors and it is even more of a problem for people in wheel-chairs and mums with prams.

So come on Bromley Council, public seats are needed within the covered area of the Walnuts precinct, and as far as the shopkeepers are concerned automatic opening doors where it is possible.
Mavis Darby
Orpington