Well as much as planet must not be known as PLANET TESCO I have to say that maybe if they did have a cafe' it might just be cleaner & the service quicker than I received when using the cafe' at the top of town last week. I won't name & shame but it's not that hard to work out. The floor was filthy as were the tables. It wasn't busy at all in the Cafe' but still took far too long. The stairs to the washrooms looked like they had never seen a cleaner & as for the toilets....... I think a bush outside would have been more preferable. So if they don't want Tesco to get want they want then they need to up their game & as I haven't used any others in town I can't comment but they all need to look at their Cafe's as paying customers & house keep accordingly.

Reading 'Boxy's comments I can totally see what you mean. Some shops, during quiet times, up their game - give you better than usual service (and even convince you to spend more than you planned. Others, well, don't!

A tiny minority have dropped their professional facades and have become, how should I say "less than enjoyable" to use because their problems are spilling over into their service. One or two who have managed to maintain a uniform quality of service have let their shop fronts deteriorate, with flaky paint and rotten wood.

You can't credibly ask people to use their local services if they are more expensive, difficult to get to, limited in range to the extent you need to go to the supermarket anyway or are just off-putting for more superficial reasons.

Personally, I feel that the town has lots to offer - especially the market, but also a lot of the shops are excellent and offer a quality/value or service edge over the big companies. I can though sympathize with people who have been tempted to go into Shepton (risked it for a biscuit, as someone put it - much like Boxy) and had a bad experience that was reinforced by the appearance of areas like the lower high street.

I think you have hit upon the more painful fact that there is flip side to the fight to restore Shepton back to its former glory.

I fail to see why (although I have my cynical suspicions), a planning committee such as Mendip's needs such a campaign to halt an application for something that was prohibited as a condition of the original planning application for the store, when they are notoriously nit-picky when it comes to other, perhaps more legitimate applications! They do, however, so please post up the meeting as an event so a reminder will appear on the front page for all.

lol Yes, its taking some getting used to, I admit, but I wouldn't have wanted to see Phillips' Tyres move away from the town center to be honest, and see the new MOT centre as a good thing (if not a pretty thing!). You have illustrated the point though, there seems to be no rhyme nor reason to the way the planning decisions are made. This situation with the Tesco cafe application, occurring at a critical time for the town (in that, I really don't think it can take much more, but also, some small changes could seriously turn the towns fortunes), demonstrates to me the importance of making the right choice when it comes to choosing your representatives on Mendip. When people say they aren't interested in politics, they just need to look at the town and ask 'is this good enough' and 'could things be better'? The Mendip councilors need to remember who elects them and who they represent or 'serve' though, as matters such as this stimulate the attention of townsfolk - or 'voters', as they might know them. However you feel about the cafe, the 'noisy' opinion at the moment is clearly 'anti' and if they ride roughshod over that opinion, it is only right that they should be sealing their political fate.