Michael Carr, of Shute Park, Malborough, writes:

The planned redevelopment of The Quay public house at the gateway of the town means it is the latest casualty in the decline of Kingsbridge town centre.

The closure of the Kings Arms Hotel, plans for the ­redevelopment of the car park at the top of the high street, the multitude of charity shops and the increasingly empty streets are all other precursors of ­further change – and not for the better.

But what is happening here?

Just like thousands of other town centres across the ­country, Kingsbridge is falling victim to an era of decline on Britain’s high streets. An era overshadowed by economic recession and structural ­economic problems – not just changing consumer patterns.

Local businesses are over­burdened by high rents and business rates that are no ­reflection on the real economy; meanwhile, despite a flatlining economy, hundreds of ­thousands of millions of pounds have been pumped into the financial sector through ‘quantitative easing’ and big multinational corporations amass huge sums in offshore tax avoidance schemes.

But with interest rates at record lows and with low returns on investments, this capital has nowhere to go. But property portfolio investments provide a landgrab opportunity to seize chunks of the UK through franchise extensions and residential developments through the exploitation of weak and deregulated planning authorities.

Landlords and developers run down local businesses knowing that after some years of closed or boarded-up ­properties the council will bend to providing planning permission that would have been unthinkable previously.

So we find more local ­businesses shut down and more redevelopments towards business use reassignment, demolition and conversion. So the character of the town will steadily become unrecognisable with a diminution to the benefit of developers but to the loss of the community.

The development at The Quay could be seen as an ­example of this. The loss of a traditional public house at the gateway to the town and the installation of a Spar and a Subway, which no one in their right mind would herald as progress.

Don’t just stand idly by and let this happen. Take action to call for the protection of the town’s key community assets through planning and an ­intelligent regeneration strategy for the town, which builds and protects the town’s character and facilities and supports ­sustainable economic growth.

This can be done.