THERE has been much written about the planned closure of Sainsburys in Prestwich and the suggestion that it might be used for asylum-seekers.

Some of the comments have given me cause for concern about an underlying attitude towards people in need.

It will be a great pity if the planned closure does go ahead and it will undoubtedly have an impact upon the Prestwich economy. Whether the Sainsburys store should become a hostel for asylum seekers is another matter.

What should be made absolutely clear is that there are many people, particularly in the churches in Prestwich, who enthusiastically welcome asylum seekers into the community.

In King's church a number of families meet regularly with us in the Longfield Centre on Sundays and in people's homes during the week. We believe our lives have been enriched by getting to know them better. We have learned much from them about patience, tolerance and forgiveness towards those who persecuted them and caused them to leave good homes and businesses in order to save their lives and the lives of their families.

On arriving here they are subjected to an obnoxious system of food vouchers and forced to shop at Tesco, the only place they can use their vouchers in Prestwich. They are not given change from these vouchers, which means trying to calculate to the last penny how much they put in their basket. This week my wife happened to be behind an asylum seeker who had overspent by 9p and was about to put a packet of rice back so that he could pay his bill. Fortunately she could help him out.

Checkout workers who don't understand the "rights" of the asylum seeker can exacerbate this sort of humiliation. A biochemist from the Congo recently told me how he went into Tesco and tried to buy some paper along with his food. He wanted to do some academic work to keep his mind active. He was told at the checkout that he was not allowed to buy paper using vouchers, but only what the checkout worker thought was necessary for him.

Surely as a local community we do not want to be guilty of having so narrow a view of the world that in our worthy attempts to do the best we can for the people of Prestwich we ignore, or despise, those who through no fault of their own have faced the stark choice of fleeing or dying.

Whatever happens, or does not happen, to a supermarket building on a small shopping precinct let us be big enough to be welcoming to all who come into our village.

DAVID EMMETT,

co-opted member of

area board for Prestwich

Council of Churches.