• I APPLAUD Dame Janet Suzman for standing up to the Co-op, a billion pound supermarket business which is in a war to gain market share against Aldi and Lidl, (Dame Janet Suzman tells Co-op to ‘leave Belsize alone’, September 27).

The victims of that war are the independent shops in the vicinity in which they open their shops. It is widely recognised, politically and otherwise, that independent shops are the “heart of a community”. They are the people who will go the extra mile for the residents.

Some residents have commented that they think that Co-op offers cheap goods. Not necessarily so, as the PR agent for the Co-op recently explained to me.

The decline of the high street has been presaged by the New Economics Foundation, the All Parliamentary Small Shops Group and many others, who agree that: “many town centres… have lost their sense of place and the distinctive façades of their high streets”.

High streets dominated by “identikit chain stores” also have fewer categories of shop than towns that have resisted the invasion of chain stores and supermarkets.

This [was] a battle for the heart of a community trying very hard against the might and money of the Co-op giant to win business and thereby lose its moral compass.

JESSICA LEARMOND-CRIQUI
Redington Road, NW3

• The Co-op confirmed this week it would “not proceed with the store”. A spokesman said: “We have talked extensively to local people and, while there are a range of views, we do not now believe we’ll achieve the necessary consents required to successfully open and operate a store which will serve the needs of the whole community.”