MADAM, If our local planning officers honestly believe they can prevent the second largest supermarket in the world from selling certain types of goods and services "to limit the impact on other businesses in the town" (Cllr Roberts letter), they really are out of touch with reality. They would, I am sure, very soon find themselves involved in an expensive litigious case with the supermarket's mighty legal team over the various anti-competitive rules laid down in Competition Act 1998, various EC Treaty articles and others. If the local independent butcher, baker and greengrocer were to close down in the town, what then? Would they make the same trading restrictions to Morrisons and Sainsbury's? Of course not, it would be simply unreasonable. Not even the council has the power it thinks it has to stop the might of a supermarket doing what it does best: restricting choice, suppressing suppliers and killing off the largest employers in the country – independent businesses. The local Councils might do better to spend some of their time championing more bite size projects such as making it easier to actually park and shop in the town centre to encourage a diverse and thriving place to shop. Council meetings from parish to central government, without some degree of external scrutiny, do have a habit of becoming a little bit too 'cosy' for the greater good. This one obviously doesn't like to be questioned. Andrew Meek, Ross