LET us look at the facts. HMV and Blockbuster – going or gone due to the film and music download revolution. High Street shops – gone, or going due to high petrol and car park prices, and escalating bus and rail fares.

The times they are a changing due to the internet download and online shopping – and , of course, the now triple-dip recession making armchair ordering more attractive.

Why do we need to go to town to shop when the whole planet is now our shop window?

Other than some of the larger chain stores, Poole High Street is becoming a desolate and desperate wasteland littered with battling-for-business cafes and coffee shops. Indeed, even our once wide-open walking spaces within the Dolphin Centre are now choked with odorous coffee and muffin outlets reminiscent of any of our airports.

So, is the council trying to throw bait by way of relaxing planning permission to encourage retail outlets back into the town centre? Well, too little too late, I fear.

The day of the charming English public house has gone with the times, so too the heyday of going to Poole to shop. Why would any entrepreneur/business person wish to make lower profit margins by taking on the massive overheads a premises brings with it, when the internet is making physical shopping history?

ALAN BURRIDGE, Blandford Road, Upton