NOTHING sums up the current plight of Paignton better than Crossways.

With the highly honourable exception of those few brave businesses still eking out a living by trading in there, it is a monument to decline.

Dark, damp and largely derelict even in the middle of the brightest early spring day, it is a forlorn and forbidding place through which to walk.

Now the new owners of the complex, which was once the very bee's knees in 1960s urban planning, have promised that it will be revitalised for a prosperous future.

New tenants are being sought for the vacant units, and a fresh start is being promised.

Soon, it seems, the units will be light, bright and busy once more, and while there are those who will dismiss this as pie in the sky in the current climate, it may not be so.

There is a 'domino' effect in town centres which means that when one shop shuts, its customers are less likely to visit that part of town. That leads to other shops closing, and so forth.

But the phenomenon can work in reverse, and there may be a chance to see just how it does so in Crossways.

It will only take a couple of popular, high-profile shops to shine their lights into the concrete gloom to get people to restore the walk through Crossways to their Paignton shopping route.

More shoppers will bring more business, which will bring more shoppers. The dominoes which have tumbled so spectacularly in Paignton in recent years will be upright again.

There are many people, however, who will take exception to one of the early proposals.

The owners of the complex do not see the newspaper kiosk at the top as part of their long-term plans, and want to knock it down.

Hundreds of people have already signed a petition to save the concrete cube, and there is a great deal of sense in what they say.

At the moment the kiosk is practically the only thing that draws people to the complex. Until it is packed with new and exciting businesses, surely it would be foolish to take away one of its few existing assets?