• I WAS disappointed to see that the former NatWest on Elgin Avenue in Maida Vale has been replaced by another estate agent in the form of Dexter’s.

Several years ago I wrote about my dismay when the café next door was replaced by an estate agent.

What do estate agents add to the community? Do they need a shop space on the high street? Surely their activities can be run from an office.

Estate agents in high street units are surely just well-placed advertising for properties which most of us cannot afford.

Ironically many estate agents are now indulging in the virtue-signalling of placing a rainbow in their windows, with messages thanking the National Health Service and “key workers”.

The majority of those NHS staff and key workers would never even be able to glance at the properties on display.

Yet property speculation, sadly, has a much greater financial value than saving lives and caring for the sick.

It has recently been announced that the Barclays Bank on the same street is to close on December 11. I wonder if I can get good odds on that becoming an estate agent too?

THEO MORGAN
Sutherland Avenue, W9