If North Wiltshire District Council say no-one followed up their interest in the new riverside units in Calne (letter from Philip Lucas, 21 March), I feel a correction is definitely in order here.

When the new shops were still at foundation stage (1999), I formally expressed an interest in renting one of them to use as a caf/bistro, similar to those that are now thriving in most towns.

With this in mind, I began to trudge the streets of Calne selling sandwiches, baguettes and business lunches with the intention of performing a bit of market research to see what the people of the town felt about such a shop. Result: Positive.

A formal business plan was presented to the bank with a view to getting a loan for the venture.

Result: A written offer of £25,000 (positive!).

An approach to North Wiltshire District Council themselves produced the offer of a £2,000 new business grant (positive).

My tender was delivered to the letting agents at the end of 2000. Result: Not a word.

It took three months of continuous telephone calls to the agent to be finally told my bid was unsuccessful (not even a letter) and I have never been contacted by anyone since.

I eventually managed to retrieve the tender and have watched the units sit empty and become vandalised.

It's a pity, because people could have been sitting in the sunshine reading their library books and sipping a caf latte for a year now.

If this isn't following up an interest, then I don't know what is. I couldn't have tried any harder.

Helen Mills

Mill Lane

Cherhill