AFTER 50 years of living away I have recently returned to live in my home town Shildon.

Since my return I have visited and noted the developments in the neighbouring towns of Newton Aycliffe, Bishop Auckland, Spennymoor and Tindale Crescent.

These visits have highlighted the lack of significant development in Shildon (the one exception being the world class railway museum – alas even this brings virtually nothing into the corporate coffers of the town).

The main shopping area of Church Street resembles a dilapidated 1950s street now populated with an alarming number of fast food outlets and is in no way a shopping destination. The effect of this being the general population do their shopping in the neighbouring towns which assists with their development and to the further detrimental development of Shildon.

There has been a haemorrhaging of services and institutions eg banks, the Job Centre etc. which means that the population requiring these services must pay increasingly expensive bus fares in order to access these necessary services.

It’s almost beyond belief that a town of this size does not have a supermarket or a school which can take the children to the basic GCSE level. Without these basics, this town will never be able to induce young people, who are necessary to further development issues, to reside in the town.

Could someone please explain how this situation has been allowed to develop and what plans – if any – are in place in order to prevent this important historic town from becoming a soulless ghost/dormitory town?

W F Langley, Shildon