Listening to some of the concerns expressed by long term residents of Wisbech I was taken but the hostility towards the many East European shops in town. That many shops are empty, and that on market days there is often too few people, is mostly down to how and where people choose to spend their money.

I have blogged extensively on the rise of the supermarkets, and the impact of “dragging” out the centre of commercial activity of our town to the perimeter. The new development on Cromwell Road has escalated this change, and its impact will, at least in the short-medium term be significant on the High Street.

This is no accident; it is the purposeful and intended consequence of Tory FDC policies over a decade. Not to say they intended to destroy the town centre but it must have been a known consequence. Of course, residents could have chosen to spend their money elsewhere but clearly it is only the supermarkets that have prospered.

What happens in the long term is very much down to the voters, and in the meantime we could all try to spend a few more pennies with our Indy traders and market. We should have found investment for the town centre and helped make it the place it could be, and perhaps again a community hub. Tories made a different choice, no matter what they may say about the marketplace they have failed it, and therefore the town.

However, what shops we have we should welcome and support. Every shop owned by East Europeans would otherwise be empty - there are no queues of people waiting to take them over. I welcome every person I see in the town, wherever they are spending money, they are at least keeping it alive until there is a more substantive plan.

DEAN REEVES

Victoria Road

Wisbech