You may have seen the "artists impressions" of the view of the supermarket from the remnants of Hanham's Ground, reproduced below. Please note the gravel paths, informal edging, happy locals picnicking on hardwood benches etc. Note also the line of trees beyond the store itself, disguising the hard edges of the roofline. The store itself seems to occupy a very minor part of the site. Artists impressions indeed!

True - three old trees with tree preservation orders on them have been saved and yes, there is extensive landscaping, but we very much doubt if the final result will be the semi-rural idyll depicted.

Given Waitrose's boast to have a "buy local" policy, you might think that they would invite local landscape gardeners to quote for doing this work. After all, these would be the local companies with a broad experience of the local soil conditions, what is representative local planting, and how to enhance the natural landscape of this chalk stream site.

We have made enquiries of Stewarts Gardenlands and their directors have made the following statement:

Shoppers may remember the almighty fuss made when Waitrose opened a new supermarket in Torquay, last year, the store immediately walked into controversy by revealing fish being sold at its fresh fish counter were being driven 322 miles every day from Grimsby — not the Devon fishing port of Brixham, a mere 8 miles away. The leader of South West Fish Producers Jim Portus said Waitrose had no excuse for not taking fish landed in Brixham.

Dorset Wildlife Trust objected to the original planning application due to a lack of mitigation or enhancement of the river and bankside habitat of the River Allen. The revised plans have still not addressed this issue and therefore we understand that Dorset Wildlife Trust continues to object to the development.

It would make extremely good sense for the Wildlife Trust to collaborate with a local landscaping company, to design the public amenity areas. This should hold true whether or not the Town Green Application succeeds.

So far as we can see from the plans, the public will have complete access to the banksides of the River Allen, raising the certainty of litter, dog faeces and pollution, vandalism, children paddling in the water, etc.