Philip Ward states that the smaller food shops in the town are suffering from the advent of Waitrose, saying "you only need to ask the traders for verification of this".

In the absence of any representation from the aforesaid traders, one can only conclude that, once again, perception and reality, where Waitrose is concerned, are as far apart as they have always been.

CLIVE SMITH, Greenfields Road, Malvern Link. (via e-mail)