A waste

Published: 18th March 2010

• YOU report (March 11) that the 48p-a-copy booklet Love Camden, produced early last autumn by the council to promote independent shops, has been a failure.
I am not surprised.
Love Camden was poorly conceived and poorly written by someone who clearly did not know the borough (or London). 
The booklet’s map marked the Thames River (not the River Thames!) and gave us a new area in Camden called Marchmont & Bloomsbury. 
I asked Transport for London about bus routes that served the new area of Marchmont – well, you can guess the answer. 
The booklet was quirky at best and not comprehensive, certainly not something that people will keep to hand.
Rather than act as their own publishing house, Camden Council should use local newspapers to promote small businesses. Local papers are the place where independent traders are likely to advertise and the main newspapers that serve the borough, of which yours is one, are widely read.
The £48,000 that this booklet cost could have been spent to encouraged people in the borough to visit these small traders.
I am sure that Camden Council meant well with the Love Camden booklet and, in the great scheme of things, it has done little harm. 
It would be interesting, however, to know what positive outcomes the council thinks the booklet had. I am sure the some independent store owners would like to know. They should let their councillors know how they would have spent the £48,000 seemingly wasted.
LESTER KAY
Reachview Close, NW1