Sir, Last week’s Abingdon Herald made me wonder whether you really want the Abingdon town centre redevelopment to succeed?

Your headline story told us at some length that there was no progress on the Charter redevelopment, whereas your brief report on the successful Heritage Weekend was hidden away on page three, even though it included the quote “Abingdon was absolutely superb, there was a lovely atmosphere and it was packed with people”.

You could have run the “no news on the Charter” story any week — why choose to run it in the week when there was also a good news story? — and why put the bad news on the front page and the good news inside?

We all want to encourage businesses to set up in Abingdon — which headline do you think is more likely to encourage them to do so?

There were at least 5,000 people in the Market Place on Saturday and several of the properties open for Heritage weekend reported 800-1,000 visitors.

And this was not a one-off event: so far this year the town centre has been packed for the science festival in March and the cycling festival in April; in May, the air and country show brought thousands of visitors to the town. In June, we had Fun in the Park and Music in the Park, July saw two charity music festivals and August the Abingdon Horse Show. September has seen Dragon Boats and Heritage Weekend and next weekend is Splash of Pink. In October, we have the Michaelmas Fair and the Autumn Craft Fair and, in November, the Extravaganza.

Please, please, stop presenting just the negative side of Abingdon — give the good news equal prominence, encourage people to come here and the businesses will follow.

Hester Hand

Abbott Road

Abingdon