Sir,
Some years ago you kindly published a letter from me in which I bemoaned the lack of a specialist sports shop in Newton Aycliffe as, at that time, discussions were under way about re-vamping the town centre.
Since then we have seen various improvements to the town (along with more structural work starting last week) including two very well used supermarkets (Tesco and Aldi), an Aladdins cave in Wilkinsons, a specialist computer repair shop etc all of which have supplemented the existing long-standing excellent facilities such as Homeplan for DIY, Thames Butchers, Dry Cleaners, various hairdressers and many more. However there is still no dedicated sports shop.
One would assume one of the big national chains such as SportsDirect or JD Sports would relish the fact of a concentrated customer base for such a facility. There must be hundreds if not thousands of people living in the area of all ages, male and female who undertake some form of sporting activity on a regular basis.
For instance on the town we have Moore Lane Sports Club hosting one senior and many junior football teams as well as several cricket and rugby teams; there are two Sports Centres with squash courts, indoor bowls, swimming pool, basketball, badminton, fitness club etc; there are bespoke tennis and artificial grass football facilities at Greenfield School; there are two golf courses including a driving range; a variety of fitness/wellbeing facilities at the Pioneering Care Centre; American football – the list is endless.
In addition to individual sports, many people nowadays also wear a variety of sports leisure wear such as replica shirts etc. One would assume that apart from specialist golf equipment available at the two golf courses, most people travel out of town to Bishop Auckland, Darlington or Teesside Park to buy their sports equipment/leisure wear (as I used to many years ago in my younger days).
Surely there must be a demand for a specialist sports shop to be established in Newton Aycliffe to cater for such extensive and varied exploits ?
Paul Turgoose
Yoden Court
