Madam,

I am writing in response to Mair Benjamin’s letter “Campaigning for my electorate is not voicing doom and gloom” and the comments on Facebook.

Supermarkets are a mixed blessing. They do provide employment but at the expense of other jobs in the local economy, driving out businesses which cannot compete with their economies of scale.

They provide a wider variety of food than humans have ever had before but at the expense of local economies in supplying countries and their own suppliers in this country. Their highly processed, cheap concoc-tions expand our waistlines and they encourage and create huge amounts of food waste both in-house and in our own kitchens. Meanwhile, many in the world go hungry.

The resulting impact on the environment is detrimental. Their excessive use of packaging and plastics feeds the recycling industry and we feel we are ‘doing our bit’ as we fill our recycling bags - but better not to package in the first place. Distribution systems and food miles are complicated but the effects on the environment are on balance negative. Large buildings blight urban and rural landscapes, waste energy and encourage car dependency.

Aberystwyth has come late to these large temples of consumerism but elsewhere they are already past their best-before dates. Other forms of retailing are taking their place providing new jobs for gatherers and packers in a few huge hubs and for an army of van drivers in local communities.

But older people are likely to be with us always, needing facilities and services. Do those who wrote that Mair is living in the past think themselves immortal and immune to the ravages of time and that they themselves will not need these services one day? Perhaps they could start thinking about living in the future and what it holds for them instead of attacking someone who is trying to do just that.

Yours etc

Gwenda Williams

Rhydyfelin

Aberystwyth.