Between them, Essex County Council and Castle Point Council have held dozens of fruitless meetings about the Olympic Legacy and the creation of a viable town centre in Hadleigh.

The refurbished fire station, not forgetting its clock, has been lauded as part of the Olympic Legacy, but is nothing of the sort. It is a separate issue from the two-day cycling event on the side of the Thames.

Furthermore, a legacy is something you get free, but we taxpayers have been handed a facility that was badly thought out and done on the cheap. Even the clock is not much use, as all it does is form a distraction to motorists driving towards Southend.

Castle Point Council has had numerous meetings about a new town centre.

These have generated much negative comment, particularly in connection with the proposal to pedestrianise the High Street.

I think that is the way forward, but until the whole project is taken in hand by a developer, we will have nothing positive to see.

We elect councillors to act on our behalf, not to just ask us what we want. They should know if you ask 100 people what they want, you are likely to get 100 different replies. When we have an imaginative and sensible proposal for Hadleigh town centre, then we can talk about it sensibly.

As for the Olympic Legacy, there isn’t one except for a large hole in our collective pocket.

Brian Lee
Woodfield Road
Hadleigh