Councillor condemns Andover critics

Andover borough and town councillor Katherine Bird has condemned the negative comments made about the town centre by critics and challenged the local paper to run balanced stories highlightring the good things about Andover's shops.

"I am getting very fed up with people putting down our wonderful Andover. Yes Andover, our Andover. It is fantastic and the sooner people stop complaining about the empty shops and start looking at what is in the existing shops the better! To do otherwise is so disrespectful to the hundreds of people employed in our town centre -many in one off and independent shops, much better than the bland repetition of many bigger high streets" she said.

"Leaving out the charity shops, coffee shops and phone shops (which are all there as people want them and use them), we have at least 14 shops selling clothes (plus two shoe shops, and various places selling accessories), 5 jewellers, health food shops, 3 book shops, various health and beauty salons, hairdressers, opticians, travel agents, card shops, chemists, newsagents, pubs, restaurants, toy shops, plus Waitrose and Sainsbury! And that is not including a whole range of independents offering a huge range of goods and services (Old Traditions, Andover Framing, Craftspot, Penny's, Chantry China, Double Discount, C&M DIY, Lucy's Kitchen, Roots Gifts, Cartridge And Personalised Print World, Stringbrokers Music, Travelling Cupcake, P. Squire, etc.)"

"My apologies because I have missed lots more shops from this list. I would like to invite the Andover Advertiser to do a weekly segment highlighting and exploring some of our independent shops - and am more than happy to help!"

"Like most people, I do a little bit of shopping online, but I almost never go to other towns to shop - Andover has pretty much everything I need."