Simon Palmer (You Say, 31 March) may well have made some telling points against the Tesco supermarket - I leave it to Portlanders to decide that.

However, he hit the wrong target by blaming the borough council for the ‘subway to nowhere’, although by pedestrianising St Thomas St it may have been indirectly responsible.

This had long been the official trunk route through the town to Portland and the county council, as the official body responsible for trunk routes in the county, chose to reroute through King St.

The problem was to ensure safe crossing for pedestrians on quite an awkward junction.

I believe a bridge was first mooted, but this brought many objections, and a subway was then decided upon by councillors the great majority of whom did not live anywhere near Weymouth.

If only a subway on to the promenade had been included in the scheme as most locals would have liked it would have been a brilliant solution, but borough councillors, I presume, had no say in this.

This only goes to prove that decisions made at the lowest possible level of power are always the best - it's called subsidiarity.

That being so shouldn't that mean that the decision over whether Portlanders want a supermarket and where to put it should be for them and their council to decide?

What business is it really of a planning committee composed mainly of Weymouth councillors?

Ken Milward Spa Avenue Weymouth