Pretty vacant

Alan Murphy (Letters, 19 January) shows that remarkable ­capacity for grasping at any passing straw that has typified the minority tendency determined to stop any change in Stockbridge and delight in the ­village’s continuing decline into bland, monochrome mediocrity.

To suggest that the difficulties facing the Blockbuster group are a coup de grâce for the ­Accies’ proposals to revamp the 
historic but admittedly tired Raeburn Place ground at their own risk and that of their willing investors, while simultaneously reinvigorating a high street that is a shadow of its former self by extending “the strip” of shops west of the post office, thus creating a new ­dynamic for that part, is both ­risible and preposterous.

I have no idea if the Stockbridge branch of Blockbuster is profit making or not; the last time I used the place it specialised in VHS tapes, but I should have thought that the misfortunes of an ageing brand trying to compete with at least six TV movie stations and lord only knows how many other cheaper and virtual suppliers of films do not have anything whatsoever to do with the viability or otherwise of Accies’ idea.

There is absolutely no connection. It might be as well to surrender absolutely and say that it is not worthwhile opening any shops any more, and that all the other retail premises that have closed in Stocky since Blockbusters opened (eg Abdul’s, L’Aquila Bianca, Woolworths, even) should have been be allowed to remain derelict the better to help preserve the lifespan of those that are left.

Magnus K Moodie

Boswall Terrace

Edinburgh