WEREN'T we told that the planned Tesco superstore would be open by Christmas?

Is it just me, or do other people think the idea of building one of the biggest out-of-town type of Tescos in the country, slap bang in the old village area of Leyland, is bordering on town council lunacy?

What a place to choose for it. Next to an historic Saxon Cross, opposite a church mentioned in the Domesday Book, round the corner from the Weavers Cottages and up the road from one of the finest parks in England.

We already have Booths, Iceland, Kwik Save and Lidl, yet the council seems obsessed that we must have a huge supermarket right in the centre of town.

The result is what we can see now, disgraceful dereliction in the heart of what is otherwise a pleasant town to live in. There are plenty of empty shop premises. If there were demand for more shops then surely they would be full.

On the plus side, the Millbrook Park housing development at the end of East Street is excellent. The Tudor-style houses built round a village green look great. Couldn't we have a residential development like that near the Cross, with a few smaller shops such as Tesco Metro included in it?

Mr S Maslaczyk, Railway Street, Leyland.