I WAS very interested and somewhat puzzled by the Easter Around the Counties supplement in the Malvern Gazette & Ledbury Reporter, April 6.

The supplement had photographs of Pershore High Street, Ledbury Market Hall and Malvern town centre. In the photographs of Pershore and Ledbury, pedestrians and vehicles could be seen in some number. The photographs of Malvern, which depicted the Belle Vue Island, the Priory Park and the Abbey Gateway, showed nobody. Not a soul, no vehicles not even a bird or animal. The only two people pictured in the entire two-page Malvern spread were the proprietors of the St Ann's Well caf, with the headline "still open for business".

However, if the town centre photos are anything to go by, there won't be much trade passing their way.

It begs the question "where have all the town centre shoppers gone?" Could it be:

A. Our local police force were holding back the crowds (out of camera), while the photographer took the shots?

B. The shoppers were all at the Townsend Way development and the tourists had all been scared off by the foot and mouth epidemic?

C. The photographs were taken during the screening of the "who shot Phil Mitchell" episode of Eastenders?

Could this lead to a new weekly Gazette competition, run along the lines of "spot the ball"? Each week we, the reader, have to mark a cross on the picture, where we think the shopper might be. The winner receiving a gift voucher to be spent at a store, of their own choice, on the Townsend Way development.

D N Cottrell, Pickersleigh Road, Malvern.