I SAT having a coffee in the Hardshaw Centre on Saturday and watched a number of elderly ladies just stop and sit for a while.


Thankfully the staff did not move them along because they hadn’t ordered a drink.


Maybe they couldn’t afford a coffee.


I heard one elderly lady say to another: “I’ve just had to stop for a breather, there is nowhere to sit down for a rest.”


The reason the seats were removed by the West Midlands-based owners was they said “research has shown customers prefer to have wide-open areas in which they can circulate freely”.


Now the wide open space has been filled with about eight or nine stalls which I have no objection to but their reason to move them was a poor excuse.


Perhaps the seating can return, after all there is a large wall in front of the empty M & S crying out to be filled.


Carol Southward, Haydock