Re “Boots to close 200 stores as online shopping trends rise” and “WH Smith ‘worst retailer of the year’” (29 May). Sad news for many high streets, especially given the prominence of both WH Smith and Boots for more than two decades (from the end of the 1980s) in working with the Association for Town Centre Management, other retailers and local authorities, to improve our high streets as safe and enjoyable places for shopping and leisure. Boots, in particular, worked hard to improve understanding of the qualities required of public streets in order to make the best of retail with town centre leisure activities. Chris Hollins, during his time at Boots, was instrumental in supporting the establishment of courses to achieve a new breed of town centre managers who understood the value of the public realm as a place of gathering people together beyond just increasing footfall for retailers. The decline in the ability for retail to meet the unwavering rental expectations of town centre landlords now threatens more than local shopping.
Richard Hayward
Professor emeritus, University of Greenwich and former Co-chair of the Joint Centre for Urban Design, Oxford Brookes University
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