I WRITE in response to many letters regarding the empty shops in St Helens town centre.


Many writers are using the big stick to attack St Helens Council for the plight of the town centre.


However, in my view the reasons for the empty premises are the 2008 world crash, austerity, a lack of business investment because of uncertainty over Brexit, online shopping and retail parks.


Town centres up and down the country face exactly the same problems.


Surely some of these writers must have seen “ghost towns” highlighted on television and on the general media?


Bernard Holmes, Haydock