letters
Published: 18 February, 2008
The January edition of Shopping Centre carried a letter from Ian Waterman expressing his delight at seeing that Princesshay had won the BCSC Supreme Gold Medal at the awards ceremony in December. He then went on to say that the complex is "renowned for having problems with its lifts, with stores experiencing regular breakdowns". I am not sure quite how Mr Waterman reaches a view that Princesshay is renowned in this respect, but as somebody who has lived with the development and implementation of the scheme over the last decade, I can honestly say that the many comments, emails, letters and visitor feedback that we have had have been virtually unanimously glowing about the scheme and the way it works.
Perhaps it is a little premature to judge a scheme's performance based on initial and occasional teething problems with lifts - please assure me that all schemes around Europe open without any teething problems with mechanical and electrical equipment! I can confirm that the lift adjacent to the Shopmobility facility was operational from the moment the scheme opened and only had occasional teething problems one morning when it was out of action. The lift at the other end of the car park was operational. Shopmobility, who enjoy a brand new free facility provided by Land Securities, were able to cope with this minor inconvenience and have nothing but praise for the scheme overall. The whole scheme was independently audited by Access Design Consultants and every individual unit was signed off by our Access Officer. The layout, access to new shops, lifts and Shopmobility all combine to provide a first class facility for all users of Princesshay, whether they have a disability or not. One can't help feeling that in falsely claiming that Princesshay is renowned for its problems, Mr Waterman is promoting his consultancy at the expense of making a fair judgement about the scheme.
John Rigby, Director Economy and Development, Exeter City Council
