I loved Cindy but it felt like they didn't know what to do with her once Mandy left and then they killed off Ella. She had no family around bar Tom (who also felt like a spare part for ages). Leah should've at least been given a better exit that wasn't another generation of teen pregnancy.
It just seemed stupid decisions to me. Axing Cindy who is one of the main characters from the start and has lots of links to many characters? And Leah? The daughter of arguably the shows main male star? They even axed James who was involved with the main male star and prominent and won the best actor award for the show. I honestly thought these axing all were a publicity stunt, especially as James has come back, but pretty sure at the time he posted online as if he was definitely gone