I'VE read with interest many letters and articles on the pros and cons of another supermarket on the old Focus site and I thought I'd chip in with my thoughts.

I'm married, work full time Monday to Friday and have two children.

The reasons I don't shop in Tavistock town centre for my groceries are as follows:

1. I can't shop between the hours of 7.45am and 5.30pm due to nursery drop off/pick up and work. Are the butcher, baker and candlestick maker open from after 7pm at night? Ummm, nope I don't think they are.

2. I have a child in a pushchair. A lot of the shops in Tavistock town centre don't have adequate access or space to get a pushchair in or out of a shop, whether it be steps or a narrow doorway. I feel for those with a twin pushchair or those with a wheelchair or motobility scooter. Some shop owners don't exactly welcome pushchairs with open arms.

3. In spite of having a pushchair and that I can get a few bags on the handles, it would never take the weight of heavy groceries and goods etc..

4. I don't want to pay to park to do my grocery shopping.

So the reasons why I go to a supermarket (namely M&S Food Hall, Sainburys and Tesco) are fairly simple; it's easier, more accessible, free parking and more choice.

I avoid Morrisons in Tavistock if I can, after 5.30pm; it's a nightmare. Endless queues for tills do not make it appealing.

I'd welcome a DIY store or supermarket on the site purely so I spend my money in the town I live in and keep local people employed.

Tavistock needs to wake up and get with the real world and modern life. It's a beautiful town which could and should have nice, appealing shops that make people want to go into the town centre. I don't food-shop in the town purely because it's not convenient for me and I don't feel that having another supermarket will massively impact on the town centre shops.

You can mix independent stores with high street shops and designer shops and make it work whilst keeping the traditional look and feel of Tavistock and its heritage. People need to realise that you need high street named shops to pull the shoppers in. Alienating them will make people shop elsewhere and the independents then lose out.

If you ever go to Windsor, take a look at how they do it.

Nicky Cowell

Woodpecker Way

Tavistock

EXCELLENT news to see that Tavistock has received lottery funding for the refurbishment of historic buildings ensuring the economic vitality of the historic. It is vital that we ensure the future of our high street and make it a pleasant shopping experience for all.

I also hope that this funding will allow the Focus DIY site to go forward for a supermarket development. The council and the chamber of commerce have been opposing this proposal for fear that it will negatively impact the High Street. Surely, this lottery funding will help bolster the High Street, and ensure its vitality to the point where it doesn't matter if a supermarket is built on the Focus site.  

I agree with both improving our High Street and providing more retail choice to local people — surely these can go hand in hand.  

Now that the council has their funding, they can leave Tesco to get on with building their supermarket, thereby revitalising another part of the town.  

Alex Buckenham

via email

IN the 1970s my wife purchased a town centre freehold property in Bicester, Oxfordshire. In 1982, Tesco submitted a planning application for a very large supermarket one mile south of the town centre. This application was quickly followed by another for 144 new retail units to be built next to the proposed Tesco.  This latter developement is now known as Bicester Village. 

Retailers in the town centre were alarmed at the possibility of being left in a retail desert and opposed both applications.  Cherwell District Council, the local authority, took the opposite view as they argued that shopping habits had changed and if Bicester did not go for these proposals another neighbouring town would. If this happened they reasoned that Bicester consumers would not only do their supermarket shopping in that other town, but they would also patronise the other town's high street. 

The district council's view was adopted as policy and both developments were built. Both district and county councils achieved very useful infrastructure improvements with a southern bypass to the town which enabled the main street to be pedestrianised. This made the town centre much more attractive both visually and socially.

It soon became apparent that the large Tesco supermarket attracted not just Bicester consumers, but many new customers from further afield and more importantly they also visited the high street. 

Bicester Village's 144 retail units offer high end fashion at competitive prices and last year attracted 4.5 million customers from all over the UK. It is probably fair to say that the fashions offered are not aimed at Bicester consumers and do not really affect the town's retailers adversely. The Village does however employ a  large number of local people and that definitely boosts the local economy.

Thirty years on Bicester town centre is far from dead.   Sainsbury plc, working in conjunction with both the county and district councils is redeveloping Bicester town centre by building a large supermarket on the main town car park with a multi-storey above with a seven-screen multiplex cinema being built alongside. 

Credit for the success of all of this change has to go to the far-sighted policies of both the district and county councils and in their ability to take the business community along with them.  It proves that out of town developement can lead to the rejuvenation of the old town centre if it is handled as well as this one has been.

J E Bromhead

Tavistock resident

via email