SIR. Reading your article about the market traders possibly being forced out for being “too downmarket”, something occurred to me (Too downmarket?, May 3).

Apparently, the area should be a “high quality hot and cold food offer” as that is what the customers want, according to the authorities.

It also seems customers do not want watches, CDs or anything that is not food.

But they must do, as the traders have been around for decades and would have gone if Kingstonfirst was right. The fact they are still there and were able to continue trading until Kingstonfirst decided not to have them, shows Kingstonfirst to be arrogant, deciding what the public wants when the public has known what they wanted for at least the past two decades.

Out of interest, what did Councillor Osbourne mean by a “whole kind of breed”?

Richard Jones, 16,
Surbiton