To the person from Cinderford who expressed their desire for competition for the Co-op, I say be careful what you wish for! Their description – empty shelves, closed check-outs (and I will add overflowing parking areas) – perfectly describes Tesco in Lydney which is getting increasingly worse as the weeks pass.

The powers-that-be are all too keen to approve housing development on a large scale but appear to give no thought to how the rest of the town's facilities will cope, such as supermarkets.

Of course I am overlooking the fact that Forest of Dean District Council have dealt with the lack of adequate parking by making it so that people cannot afford to park in the public carparks.

I have been forced to accept a 20 per cent pay cut for the past three years to keep my job but that does not, of course, stop the cost of living increasing dramatically during that period and it continues to do so.

Now I will have to pay out an additional £480 a year for the privilege of parking near my place of work and it really does make me wonder why I bother to keep struggling to provide for myself when I see many people around me who do not – and in some cases have never – worked yet they drive around in cars far superior to mine when I am terrified that my next MOT will see the end of my poor old car.

I am told I am not eligible for financial assistance of any description presumably because I have a family tree as long as your arm which is English and I have worked, paid in and supported myself continuously for 39 years since I left school. Oh, and also I have not produced litters of children for the state to support. I am totally worn down and disappointed at how things have turned out by playing by the rules. If I had my time again I would get pregnant at 15 and never work a day in my life.

Finally if Forest of Dean District Council think I am going to pay them £26 a year to empty a maximum of two loads of garden waste a year (£13 a load) they have another think coming.

– Name and address supplied.