I read with dismay the headline in your edition last Thursday (November 10).

Especially when it is considered against the article on page four about the arrival of yet another coffee shop in the city.

Pritchetts have been forced out of town by a council bent on ruining our city. A lot is at steak.

The butcher’s is a well-run, friendly, accommodating, clean and tidy enterprise that has brought great credit to the city not least through its window displays.

Their produce has always been of the highest quality and their shop brought some character to the Fish Row area.

It has that rare commodity these days of real personal customer care. Pritchetts have effectively been given the chop!

The council rewards this high quality of service to the community by forcing them out of the city centre because of its intransigence.

Given the nature of their business I very much doubt that Pritchett’s supplies are brought into town at busy hours of the day.

A simple bit of flexibility would have enabled them to continue at their current location with little impact on the public.

But the council have seen fit to banish them, at great cost to their business, to the Churchfields area, thereby increasing traffic movements and eliminating passing trade in the process.

I wish Pritchett's well in fighting against the challenges of bureaucracy but they have had to foot the bill, not Wiltshire Council. After some of their recent decisions e.g. parking charge increases - in particular for disabled people - I do wonder what the Council’s plans for Salisbury, really are. 

I pay a significant part of my retirement income in council tax and see very little positive for Salisbury out of it. Lord help the tourists and residents of the future.

Perhaps we should have Salisbury moved into Hampshire or Dorset, where our fine city might be appreciated by the Council for what it is rather than what can do to it?

Roy Bexon

Netherhampton Road