LETTER: Apathy is cause of the decline

But on business success in Chichester city centre, it seems inaction and apathy by local people and businesses as well as Government is causing decline.

The Government and our wide range of politicians are, sadly, continually playing catch-up with a changing world including the important commercial and consumer advantages of digital.

‘Fiddling while Rome burns’ is a constant fear.

They apparently lack decent leadership, vision and capability to get ahead of the curve, to press forward and make this nation more successful in a global world.

Brexit is a good example of the problem Britain faces with many people, not just politicians, inexperienced in the commercial world to know how to succeed in it.

Fed up with decades of out-of-touch centralised bureaucratic control that is far-from-nimble to deal with a changing world, a little over half of British voters managed to point out their disgust at the ballot box and push some change.

Even then the Conservative majority didn’t have a plan for what to do if Brexit happened, despite prominent Tory politicians pushing for such change.

Such ‘government’ would be a joke except it is a most serious issue.

Chichester District Council, the local Chamber of Commerce and businesses appear complacent.

The council may claim business rates are controlled by central government but when have you seen it and/or businesses campaign vocally – and effectively – against the Conservatives?

Our own constituency MP Andrew Tyrie is an economic expert but, again, we don’t hear him standing up to tackle a blatantly unfair and punitive business rates system driving British people and British companies to the wall. Shame...

Mark Chapman

Chichester