TESCO PLANS

RE your story about plans being submitted for a Tesco Express store on the site of the former Shell Garage in North Road, Darlington (Echo, Feb 20).

Does everyone forget that when Tesco tried to open in the town centre, there was such an uproar because of the closure threat to independent shops through Tesco's aggressive pricing policy?

Tesco sells certain items at below cost price just to get customers through the door. With this in mind, most of the small businesses in the area will almost certainly close and this will be what Tesco wants - to get rid of any and all competition.

This will then leave many more premises in the area empty and subject to vandalism. The small shop where you can get different items and personal service will be a thing of the past, replaced by a vast store selling mainly its own brands of items and no personal service.

Why not build flats on this empty space, or as has been done with an empty space in Cockerton, small shops on the ground floor with flats above? - Audrey Ameen Ali, Mayfair Stores, Mayfair Road, and Software Darlington, West Row, Darlington.

HOUSEHOLD RUBBISH

I WRITE in response to the letter from John Barr (HAS, Page 10, Feb 10) about people named and shamed in Town Crier for putting household rubbish out on non-collection days.

Mr Barr suggests that the list of named and shamed are always in Band A areas of the town. A similar question has been asked before, suggesting that only certain parts of the town are named and shamed.

Let me put the record straight again. Experience tells us that the common factor is the type of house. The areas where most complaints arise, and hence where naming and shaming occurs most frequently, is in areas of terraced housing where refuse is usually collected from the back lane.

However, it must be stressed that the council does act on all reports of rubbish being put out too soon, irrespective of where in the borough the complaint is made. - Councillor Stephen Harker, cabinet member for consumer and environmental services, Darlington Borough Council.