WHAT a shower we the people of Tavistock have in our elected representatives both on the town and borough councils. It was bad enough that Bedford Square when it was altered was paved with Spanish granite, but now it is covered by foreign stallholders.

Forgive me, but I thought that both of our councils were elected by us to represent us and further our joint interests, not provide income for somebody from overseas.

We are very fortunate in this town in having both a cheese shop and a delicatessen of national repute, along with very good butchers and greengrocers. All of these retail outlets are subject to very high levels of council tax; further they all provide much needed employment in the town, which is not over-endowed with employment potential.

Further these businesses all pay Income Tax to HMG. Why then do these elected officers allow foreign competition to set up in the square who pay none of the aforementioned taxes, provide no local employment, and return to their homelands with the money?

Can you imagine our Continental cousins letting us do the same thing in their towns? These are the same people who stopped the sale of British beef on the continent for years after it had been certified safe for human consumption, blockaded the imports of British lamb and disrupted the cross-channel UK freight on at least two occasions, and still have not paid compensation for the loss of income for those blockades. And even when we wanted to ban pair trawling to save dolphins voted us down.

But hey! Don?t be bitter about it, just lie back and become doormat Britain, or on the other hand we could and should look after what we have got within our town because there are many other towns that would give their eye teeth to have depth in quality shops that we take for granted, too late when cheap foreign competition has forced them out of business. I don?t see these stallholders leaping to fill the breach.

These people already have to compete with supermarkets, but that at least is on a semi-level playing field, unlike this influx of cheap foreign competition.

Ian Ridgeway

35 St Davids Road

Tavistock

THERE is bitter irony in Bedford Square being packed with French market stalls at the end of the week in which the French refused to support measures in the European Union to conserve fish stocks and the dolphins off the coast of Cornwall.

They showed the same intransigence on the import of British beef after the foot and mouth scare. Why do we not retaliate?

I did not buy in the Bedford Square last weekend. I am a francophobe and I wish there were more of us.

G Kirkpatrick

Parkwood Road

Tavistock