I WOULD say the Lonely Planet Guide which described Worcester as soulless to be about right.

The city has changed over the past 15 to 20 years and not necessarily for the best. It has lost it's identity and become a commuter town.

The High Street is just another clone town facade, with the same shops as any town or city.

The satellite supermarkets have drained the individual retailers out of business. This is the very thing that attracts visitors.

Who wants to travel to Worcester to look around the multitude of charity shops?

I challenge anyone to find a child-friendly pub in the city centre, something I have heard people grumble about during the Christmas Fair.

The current obsession with inner city apartments means people can now walk around the equivalent of a housing estate rather than a diverse urban landscape.

I would also question how 3,000 low-spending students, partying and creating student bedsit areas will transform the city into a new Oxford or Cambridge.

The next time the council looks at the viability of a multi-storey car park by the Cathedral, or gives planning permission for the change of a pub, place of interest, social club or old work place into flats, or allows the change of name to something with no identity like Cathedral Plaza, we should remind them of the Lonely Planet guide.

M SWIERS,

Worcester.