Town isn’t just about shopping

Local residents have rightly expressed concerns about the effects of any such development on the local neighbourhood and the future viability of local shops.

I was, however, utterly astonished by the remarks by Norman Stephens, chairman of the chamber of trade. He remarked: “I worry that people object to anything and everything that’s proposed to better our lovely town”.

What planet is this man living on? Why on earth would he think that the building of yet another supermarket in Leamington will “better our lovely town”? All over the town are shops standing empty. Greedy landlords are hiking up their rents to the point where some small shops are no longer able to trade. I haven’t seen Mr Stephens raising that as something which might be affecting our “lovely town”.

People in Lillington will have witnessed the power of supermarkets in the case of Tesco and the Walnut Tree. Waitrose will no doubt also succeed in its plans. After all, money talks. There seems to be an obsession in certain local quarters about providing more and more shops,including the mad idea of another shopping mall on the Chandos Street car park.

Leamington is a lovely town and despite what Norman Stephens might think, it’s not all to do with shops. - R. Grenville, via email.