Well done Stow Business Association! Who was it who said England was a nation of shopkeepers? I believe he was French and I am very inclined to believe he is right - and if he is right, that perhaps explains why so many of our attitudes and approaches to new opportunities still lie, immersed in the dark ages.

I can well visualise the various little meetings, so important to those attending, where it was finally agreed that to allow filming to take place for a two week period in Stow, for the new comedy, Hot Fuzz, was going to be refused. To allow filming to take place, the Stow Business Brigade felt, would have a grossly negative and ruinous effect on trading in the historic town.

No surprise there. I sat in the first meeting held by the organisers of the Cheese Festival, when the shopkeepers and local hoteliers opened their arms with welcoming and enthusiastic gestures - no, not true, it was just wishful thinking on my part. Instead of enthusiastically pondering all the new opportunities that might arise, what I experienced instead, was some sort of indignant hugely muted response, from a local business gathering, seeking to concentrate only on problems that might exist and wondering why they had to put themselves out almost at all, to ensure the event was a happy success -for Stow.

Far from limiting trade, I would have thought that to encourage the film company to feature Stow in their film, would in the long run, have drawn more visitors and therefore increased trade in the town. With individuals of such limited character and imagination being involved in making quite important decisions, no wonder this country, on a town by town basis, staggers from one negative situation to another.

Jennifer Blakemore, Upper Oddington, Glos.