PROPOSALS aimed at reviving Kendal's evening culture are to be welcomed.

However, those behind the idea may find that people's lives have changed so much in recent years, they no longer see the town's centre as a comfortable place to visit outside normal shopping and business hours.

And the prospect of more pubs closing will not help matters.

While the demise of the town centre's social scene is arguably a cultural phenomenon, it also says plenty about human nature.

The truth is that we have become more used to home entertainment, inviting friends round for dinner or simply drinking in front of the TV in the comfort of our own armchairs.

Maybe this makes us appear more isolationist - but more likely it is because that's where we feel safest and most comfortable.

To entice people back into Kendal of an evening, it will take more than an increase bus services, keeping shops open later or turning more pubs into bistros.

For Kendal town centre to once again thrive beyond the daytime it will need people to live there. Once shop owners lived above their premises. Their children grew up in the streets and and played in the town's many yards.

You only have to walk around Kendal and peer upwards to see how many empty rooms there are above our current shops and offices. Of course, some may be used for storage or making tea; but often they are just left empty.

If councillors such as Giles Archibald want to revive Kendal's night time fortunes, they should encourage a policy of re-populating the town centre. It would also help to solve the district's chronic housing shortage.

That way many people would not have to catch late night buses, with all the attendant safety concerns.

Re-populating Kendal town centre may be difficult to achieve, but it would not be impossible. In European towns and cities the centre is where many townsfolk live. Culture has a better chance of thriving if it follows people - not the other way around.