If you read the Crediton Gazette, you will have seen a picture of me on the front page (23rd March) tearing up an offer of a grant of £400. We hope there will also be coverage in the Courier. We were offered the money some weeks ago and thought carefully about it as there is no denying that a boost of £400 to our funds would have been very useful. We also canvassed the views of supporters and a number of people expressed their views very strongly.

In the end we decided unanimously that the way Tesco operate is so much at variance with our philosophy and values that we should not accept it. The full press release is on our website setting out our views, in particular how the arrival of Tesco has affected the town centre traders.

However we are still keen to influence the way Tesco operate and will soon be having discusssions with them about their waste policy, assuming they are happy to talk to us!!

Gerald Conyngham

PS: If you would like to read about Tesco's corporate Green Policy you can find out more here.They purport to be spending over £100 million in the next five years to green up their operations