I feel that I must write to express my sadness and shock at learning another shop is to close in our town of Weymouth, namely H Samuel.

I work away at sea for four to six weeks at a time, Every time that I come home I see another shop or business, has either closed or is about to.

Now Samuels will cease trading in four weeks’ time.

This will leave another, large, empty space in our beautiful town.

How many more will close until our council wakes up to the fact that, if they are not careful, Weymouth will be a ghost town.

Oh, there are, no doubt, plenty of charity, mobile phone and pawn shops, as well as even more takeaways/eateries lined up to take over the empty shops.

But, I wonder, what justifies more of these being in our town.

Is this the future of Weymouth and, indeed, other towns’ high streets across the country?

There is good news though in these gloomy times – Brewers Quay is re-opening, I’m very glad to say. I did a stint at Weymouth Museum, which was based there, and when I talked to holidaymakers and told them we were closing down they couldn’t believe it.

They said that one of the main reasons they came to Weymouth was our unique Brewers Quay.

Hopefully they will now return and bring much needed tourist money back to our town. We will have to wait and see, won’t we?

It must be better than last year when people stayed away owing to the Olympics shouldn’t it?

ALAN WILSON, Radipole Lane, Weymouth