I am writing about the rumours circulating in Poets Corner, Hove, about a possible major supermarket trying to obtain premises in Portland Road, located between Rutland Road and Shelley Road.

I am a resident, not a retailer, but feel very strongly another major supermarket would be a threat to our existing family businesses in Portland Road while not bringing anything positive to the area as we are well served already.

It is huge conglomerates that have contributed to our current, very challenging financial situation in that if one fails, they bring down so many people and require huge sums of money to bail them out.

As a community we need to support small local businesses more than at any other time. I oppose the proposal strongly and feel another local, family business, connected to the local community, that believes in ethics and protecting the environment would add to the community in a way another supermarket would not.

I am looking for work myself so could be tempted by the argument that a supermarket would bring jobs to the area but that is not an argument I support as the cost to the existing traders would outweigh and possible job opportunities.

Fi McKinlay Poets Corner, Hove