Steve Allen, the early morning presenter on LBC Radio, who does not hesitate to speak his mind on issues involving incompetence and bad behaviour etc, came out on air recently with the comment that Hounslow was a terrible place these days and best avoided.

He lives just down the road in Twickenham and obviously shares the views of many older readers of the Chronicle that the borough has gone downhill from the days of High Street cinemas and up-market shops.

While few would intervene if someone like the council started to wave a magic wand to try to restore some of the amenities and character of the past, we should not forget that the populace is very far removed from that which was around when the last German V2 rocket fell near Chiswick.

A poll of Hounslow residents today might well come up with the fact that the majority like and approve of the market place-like qualities of our shopping centres.

Their financial status and lifestyle does not lend itself to the upmarket bourgeois yearnings of bygone years.

JIM PASQUAL Estridge Close, Hounslow.