TONY Ashby’s letter re yet another application for City Status for Colchester is one I have been going to write for quite some time now (Gazette Letters, December 30, “Town has lost its charm to be a city”) - ever since that ridiculous so-called bus station was located alongside a road with just bus stops and a waiting room that holds about 27 people, public toilets being the only ones available further down the road.

A folly if ever there was one - yes, yet another ‘foolish act or idea’ by our council, according to my dictionary.

To even consider applying for city status without a credible bus station is unbelievable.

First things first councillors: Abandon the plans for student accommodation on the former bus station site, which a majority of the public object to; make the decision to build an impressive new bus station instead; get the Travel Lodge built for all the expected visitors, if you must; and sort out that run-down St Botolph’s Street, where incidentally there is some splendid architecture.

Lost business to local shops would instantly return, alas too late for the dozens that have closed with livelihoods lost.

We need a striking building with information desks, a quality cafe, not to mention decent toilets and seating etc.

A couple of years back you published a letter from visitors who will never return, unimpressed by the lack of bus station facilities.

There must be many more visitors who do not write letters, they just never return, as Tony says.

With the council’s big push for tourism to Colchester, and no bus station, so to speak, where on earth are all the coaches going to park when dropping off thousands of expected visitors arriving from Stansted Airport?

A word in your ears councillors, forget city status this time round and apply when you have a sporting chance of winning.

An application now will be laughed out of consideration and chucked into the waste paper bin where it belongs. Another waste of our money.

Sylvia Sellers

Fairfield Gardens, Colchester