Bere Alston

IT would seem from your paper that just about everyone, including yourselves, is against Sainsbury's coming to Tavistock. Perhaps even your paper is biased as your reporting carries mainly comments from those who object or make the most noise.

I wrote in October in reply to certain comments made then about the site proposed being used for industrial use and I can see no change in this. Tavistock still has many units empty and in fact others have gone since then. Businesses seem uninterested in industrial units in Tavistock.

Now is the time for us to get realistic in Tavistock and move into the 21st century. We have had the green light for strategy of the rail line to Plymouth so there must now be a chance those houses that go with it will be built. This will provide both jobs and much needed school and new hospital in the town. So obviously there will also be a need for another supermarket. This will also bring work to the town.

Another point is the fact we have so many empty shops in town already and most here before the present economic situation, they are just not suitable for most retailers or too expensive.

We have a chance of moving Tavistock forward bringing both much needed work and choice to the town. Now is the time to take the blinkers off as they cause tunnel vision to look to what the town needs as a whole not just ourselves.

We have to continue to let our town grow and develop as it has done in the past, this might well have to be on the edge of the town. By its very layout and the traffic system, if you can call it one, the town centre is not user-friendly for the shopper.

Change comes so we should not always fear it and see it as a bad thing — it offers us challenges and opportunities at the same time.

K W McCarter

4 Deacons Green

Tavistock