SOME people believe it would be good to have "competition."

Well, maybe if there were a level playing field this would be true.

I have personally seen the power of a large chain of shops quite deliberately "kill off" local competition in my previous home town.

In the Midlands town where I grew up, a company owning a chain of cafes opened up a cafe immediately next to the locally-owned one. Quickly they halved their prices, drastically undercutting the local cafe.

In six months the local business closed and went out of business.

The "chain"cafe then had a monopoly. It soon put up its prices well above what had been the local cafe’s prices.

Big businesses cannot be trusted to put the local community first. They are not locally owned and they choose their prices according to what they want and have the financial power to do so.

Support your local businesses.

Oppose the Costa proposal.

Rob Nicholls

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