Readers respond to an article about the decline of town centresSammy Gecsoyler’s report from Rotherham (‘It’s just vape shops, nail shops, charity shops’: can anything save the British high street?, 4 November) tells the story in its dates. One out-of-town retail park in Britain in 1981; 385 by 1996. Parkgate opened in 1987 and MPs warned that it would disembowel towns and villages. It did.