THE letter to this newspaper from David Kent regarding the history and sale of the Brunel Centre, brought back memories of the time when the quality of leadership and determination of the council provided the town with the best in shopping and leisure facilities.

The splendid and well received Brunel Centre pioneered a facility of overhead delivery access and the spectacular roof structure and spacious plaza was designed to depict the architectural merits of Brunel's Paddington station.

Such was the favourable impact on opening that one well known architect considered the centre as second only to the modernised shopping centre of Cologne.

In its heyday during the 1970s, crowds also enjoyed performances by choirs and orchestras in the perfect location of the plaza.

In later years the structural similarities to Brunel's Paddington appeared to be disregarded, when, presumably in the interests of modernisation, a quite superfluous first floor level was constructed, which served no real purpose and remains almost totally deserted to this day.

These changes in design, together with the abundant clutter at ground level, so obliterates the Brunel connection that the centre might just as well be renamed after the current owners and the Brunel statue, quite properly now standing with its back to proceedings, removed to a more appropriate site in the Railway Village.

The forthcoming Brunel celebrations would be an ideal time to do this.

R E BURCHELL

Swindon