I WAS very interested to read the piece by Jim Durkin on October 8 about the actor Edward Fox intervening in the debate about having another supermarket in Wareham.

Wareham already has the Co-operative store in North Street and the Sainsbury’s store in the Rempstone Centre in South Street. Aren’t they enough?

Could those who are in the know tell everyone in Wareham why there is a desperate need for a third supermarket that would have been 21,000 square feet in size?

If the answer is yes and that it must be done because there is a need to provide cheap food for low income families, surely the other aforementioned supermarket branches are already offering discounts on their lines. Pubs, craft businesses, butchers, bakeries and other small businesses are the artisans who make our small town high streets unique.

Also don’t forget the work the farms and conservation groups do in the countryside to compliment the surroundings of the small towns.

It is also worth remembering every pound you spend in your local shop generates more income in rural areas than in a supermarket.

Anyone from Poole or Bournemouth who visits Wareham, Wimborne, Swanage or any other small town for recreational reasons and dismisses this argument, trivialises this at their peril.

So well done, Mr Fox, for doing your bit to keep Wareham free from a Fleetsbridge-size supermarket. Let’s hope the town’s small businesses have a future for generations.

Matthew Bell, Bettiscombe Close, Canford Heath