COUNCILLORS and an MP supporting community opinion on Asda, are great but dreaming if they think they support the majority.

I recall posters through letter boxes referencing the huge tax evasions; a No Asda website supported by hundreds; a study showing two-thirds of shoppers tend to choose non-supermarket methods and a small but steady stream of letters to the media supporting local shops and Co-op's regular charity.

Why should a minority third of the opinion reign? Also recalled is Co-op's admission that it knows something of adverse impact because it caused it when they grew in Cinderford and Coleford.

And more choice? What do we want more for?

Come on. Can't we buy the right shaped pasta here? Apart from the fair supermarket choice for our small Forest populations and borders, we also have home and free library internet shopping.

A quick ring round confirms Asda, Tesco, Sainsbury and Waitrose all cover all of GL14 and we have a multitude of other providers, including veg box schemes, milkmen, rural farm shops and sadly now, even food banks.

During varying incomes, my family has used all of them but, in the end never gone without food and basics.

Yes, I was lucky enough to be taught how to shop and cook well but found the best value for money was rarely through supermarkets, unless it held a reduced-label.

The notion of choice, itself, is surely then a symptom of being over-provided for – there used to be a day when we were thankful for what we were about to receive, every day.

We see Keith retire in Cinderford, still no grocer returning to Lydney and Pat now threatened in Coleford.

Yet we remain incredibly lucky to have many independent shops compared to much of the country.

Artisan prices in Cheltenham, for example, have put fresh food out of reach of many having been swamped out by supermarket tactics and economic advantages.

Fresh produce helps immunity, blood disorders, cholesterol, asthma, allergies to preservatives, obesity and many conditions that suffer from 'cheap', usually packaged or GM (genetically-modified) food

What right do those that want more choice have over those without any choice, those who must have fresh, real food?

Why should one third reign? We all know these opportunities and rural jobs will shrink with more supermarkets.

Some employ well, fairly and give opportunity but the jobs are rarely of the hours to sustain mortgages.

However, my grocer, for example, has sustained and skilled her family since well-meaning Amanda was a child and also gives fair work to small farmers, independent warehouses, fruit and veg markets, cleaners, drivers, an accountant, a solicitor, etc.

The Asda court case showed its adverse impact will be so large, the whole Forest supply will be affected.

Now we might have the double blow of Asda in Lydney too, Tesco plan at an eight-acre site in Ross.

What right does Asda have to lock out approximately £60-80 million every year, it appears, in Cinderford?

Yes, every year, if I read their defence paperwork correctly, for the sake of superfluous choice?

I don't agree with everything Co-op does but I'm glad it steps in, when our councillors and MPs don't, and know the law and its valid sums.

With all due respect to him, even a planning inspector, in the Coleford Tesco case we saw recently, appeared to have no grasp of basic statistics, economy or viable alternatives.

Mr Harper's government is clear: social and economic considerations are the cores of good planning whether or not the local departments and backbenches actually can, or choose to, seriously follow-up on that small print.

The law doesn't change depending on the barrister presenting it. Out-of-town supermarkets are rarely passed now for the very preservation of town centres.

The expense to the public is that some brands throw their toys out of their prams until they get what they want.

Do councillors, and their leader, really find time or inclination to look up when voting the social impacts and sums for the many planning applications, with the sometimes 300 page agenda they consider each month?

They rarely replace officers and rarely risk putting themselves in a position where they might have to duck the toy-throwing heavyweights.

I found just to give a researched opinion to the Tesco Inquiry attracted actual defamation, an aborted attempt to claim inflated costs against me and a brief but major falling out with the deputy mayor, as a cost-to-the-public-purse allegation was aired but our costs weren't.

So, choice? Apologies for the tone but the brick wall takes its toll. I dare any pontificating about that so called 'need' to look into the eyes of their grocer and say, hand on heart, "My having more choice is worth more than the jobs and health that your fresh food brings".

– Fran Challice, Coleford.