An impromptu survey this week confirmed what I would never have believed before the late Margaret Thatcher came to power.
Not only has Grantham’s industrial heart been ripped out over the years, but also most of the typically English small shops which once made the town centre such a retail attraction.
Walking from St Peter’s Hill down High Street, round the concrete desert Market Place, along Westgate and into the George complex and Isaac Newton shopping centres, I discovered no less than 50 ‘black holes’ which had once housed shopping outlets.
Add to this the numerous derelict sites around the town and you realise that Grantham looks more like a modern war zone than a great place to visit.
All of which makes it obvious that the powers-that-be should stop sticking their heads in the River Witham mud and start a ‘Let’s make Grantham Great Again’ appeal, instead of the current worthy but, in my view, misguided ‘Grantham is Great’ campaign.
And before any smug, self-centred radicals start scoffing: ‘If you don’t like the place, you can always leave’, I would say: ‘Why should I quit my home town when their apathy has caused its decline?’
Rather galvanise the large number of residents who do possess the ambitious enthusiasm to transform Grantham back to its former glory into more positive action. It’s working with the museum. Let’s widen the scope even further.
Peter Clawson
Welham Street
Grantham