Who left the oven on?

A very expensive fire indeed!

Salcombe's High St Under Threat

I have to admit to missing this snippet of information until Google updated me...

It appears that the shops adorning Fore St are under threat from a potential 100%+ increase in business rates! Average rates are currently £9k with new rates looking likely to be over £20k. Apparently it's based on the property rental values in Salcombe, which as we all know are totally unrepresentative of the area as a whole.

It seems that some traders have already had offers form, wait for it...high st chains(!!!) but have so far held out. Can you imagine Salcombe with a WH Smiths, Starbucks or Costa Coffee, the thought of it makes me shiver!

We can't let this happen to our fantastic town...Kingsbridge appears to be at the beginning of the slippery slope to "high st hell" with the opening of a Costa in a once great pub. Imagine how much Costa would like to get their hands on the KA or Tesco on a couple of shops next door to each other...

Lets start a defence now and vow never to enter the doors of Costa, if their profits aren't great in Kingsbridge hopefully they will forget about Salcombe.

Lets hope that just for once the Town Hall get off their ample backsides and fight for the very soul of their (our) town!

Deep breaths...and relax...