SIR: I would like to apologise profusely to the lovely folk at Debenhams Winchester for disparaging their future prospects at a recent Town Forum meeting (Chronicle, June 25).

All I was trying to say, rather clumsily, is that if anything unfortunate does happen to the store, the city council should try to take back control of the tower at the back of St Maurice’s Covert, as it’s the only surviving part of the Norman church that once stood there.

If there was an opportunity to make it fully accessible to the public and to use the top level as a viewing gallery it would be worth exploring.

It was good to see the store back open and busily trading this last weekend, and I would encourage everyone to use our wonderful High Street in Winchester and to ‘shop local’ whenever they can.

Cllr Kim A Gottlieb,

St Michael ward,

East Stratton