Sir, – The annual Yarm Fair has been and gone and the financial toll on all the retail businesses can now be assessed.

It is increasingly enormous.

Gone are the days when the fair filled the high street all day with events and fun – now the town is avoided by most people and the normally bustling High Street is turned into a night time funfair and is a ghost town during the day.

The town council argues that the fair is a tradition.

The tradition was for a trading fair for the sale of cattle, poultry and cheeses, and people came from miles around to visit the town and to pay their bills.

My father said that Wensleydale publicans would come to town and settle their account with Strickland and Holt for the wines, spirits and tinned fruit they had bought during the year.

The fair was an annual event which benefited all the shops, pubs and businesses in the town.

The roundabouts and fortune tellers came to amuse everyone.

The town has changed so much over the last 40 years.

Rents and rates have soared.

The businesses in our building alone pay over £1,000 a week in rates to the Stockton Borough Council and rents are enormous so no wonder we scream with frustration when people cannot even get to our car park or park on the High Street to shop.

Many small shopkeepers close their businesses but shops like Boots cannot close by law and they lose their disabled parking bay, access to the car park all day Saturday and nearly all their customers.

Strickland and Holt really suffered this year from theft and we have decided we cannot open on the Saturday any more.

In earlier times, fairs were organised to enhance commerce in the town and help the town spread goodwill throughout the area.

Now the fair seems to be quieter and rougher every year and the police say the cost of policing it goes up and up.

The High Street does not seem the right place for the event as the geography of Yarm limits accessible parking. Yarm Town Council has added to our woes by closing the High Street to traffic during the day on Saturday.

The High Street is the heart and soul of the town and should be valued. Is it not worth listening now to the voices of those struggling to run their businesses in difficult economic times?

We do not want to seem killjoys and would like to find a new, traditional form for the fair which would be fun for all the families in Yarm and benefit the businesses and residents alike.

STEPHANIE RICHARDSON Strickland and Holt, Yarm