Letter: Wolves promoted

Sir: Peter Dormer's article 'Wolverhampton: a motown with no town' (29 June) cannot go unchallenged. No one could guess from the article that Wolverhampton won the award in 1993, for the most improved town centre, from the British Council of Shopping Centres. Could one guess that the new Combined Courts Centre won a Civic Trust Commendation in 1991 or that the restoration and conversion of the Chubb Lock Works into a cinema and studio complex won a Royal Town Planning Institute commendation in 1993? The new Molineux stadium has just won an RTPI Planning Achievement Commendation for 1994.

Wolverhampton's 'mistakes' of the 1960s and 1970s were no worse than most other comparable English towns. What is significant is how Wolverhampton in the 1990s has recreated a vibrant, prosperous, attractive and dignified town centre, which is beating off the out-of-town challenge and is redefining itself as a university town with a sporting and entertainment focus and high-quality big city shopping.

We already have all that Mr Dormer asks of us - major park- and-ride facilities, the Midland Metro light railway planned and ready to go, a Town Centre Strategy and Action Plan preparing for the next 10 years. We deserve a better opinion than his superficial, inaccurate academicism.

Yours sincerely,

NORMAN PERRY

Chief Executive and

Policy Co-ordinator

Wolverhampton Metropolitan

Borough Council

Wolverhampton