I do not think that the proposed Ryde Transport Hub currently planned for an area adjacent to the Esplanade station will add anything to the prosperity of the town.

Rather, it will channel people away from it, and other places on the Island will be the beneficiaries rather than local shops and restaurants.

I wonder what these businesses' owners, who have struggled through lockdown, think about this?

It seems extraordinary to me that anyone would contemplate the destruction of an area of beauty where people gather and enjoy their recreation in the gateway to the Island — where visitors form their impressions of what the place is like.

Read more: Islanders invited to give views on Ryde Transport Hub

No one will remember a hub but beautiful gardens, seats, fine views refreshment easily at hand, the company of other people and their conversation — these are the things that make an impression and make people anticipate good things of their time on the Island.

A hub will be regarded as a concrete monstrosity and dispose people to think that the place is like the area they came to the IW to escape.

Read more: Businesses show resistance to hub plans

It will certainly damage their expectations.

The hub should be forgotten and its would-be perpetrators asked quietly but firmly to think again.