NEVER in all of the years I have been reading the Ledbury Reporter have I felt so enraged that I felt the need to write a response to a letter by Ms Victoria Crowe (No Benefit, 27th January 2012).

The comment “Although developers always promise that they will provide more jobs, these are not proper careers.

“They tend to be part time with no prospect for advancement... keep young people in small towns by providing proper jobs, not just shelf stacking” absolutely astounded me.

This is blatantly disrespectful to all of the hard working people that work in supermarkets and I find the comments highly offensive.

I take it that Ms Crowe has never shopped in Ledbury Tesco before? Or if she has, then how an earth would she be expected to buy the items without the shelf stackers or pay for the items without the checkout assistants – because apparently these are “not proper careers”.

Just like a job working in one of the town’s local shops, behind a till, in a cafe... are not proper careers I suppose?

With unemployment at its highest, there are people in Ledbury who are currently struggling to put food in their kids’ bellies and keep a roof over their families heads – I’m sure not many of them would turn down employment in a supermarket “with no prospect for advancement”.

I worked in a supermarket after leaving school and found this to be a very valuable credential on my CV, as most of my previous employers commented on how this position showed I was “willing to work hard”.

How very sad that what started out as a refreshing debate regarding whether a town should have another supermarket, has become a class war.

HAYLEY PONTER
Ledbury