SIR - Well, at last there seems to be a little light at the end of the tunnel! The county council have taken notice of the majority of Minehead residents, and it looks at present as if the library will stay in the town centre, the wonderful West Somerset Railway will be left alone, to remain as the jewel in the tourist crown, and the market will revert to its original site. Good news indeed. Unfortunately, our district council, with their hotch potch of ideas and arcane ways, take a different view altogether. This council of camarillas, despite irrefutible evidence to the contrary, are convinced that we need another supermarket. And the only reason why? To pay for Ego Towers, of course, their very own idea of a mark of success, where their egregious 'mission statement' can become reality and where they can live happily ever after, serving the people. What a supercilious attitude indeed! Take no notice of the fact that this council - and therefore Ego Towers - could be defunct within a couple of years . . . or is this just my wishful thinking? But of course the people of Minehead will be placated by moving the site of this inefficacious building to a different site, won't they? An insiduous move on their part to cloud the issue . . . but on to other things. The Donaldson report has been proved to be not only flawed but hostile to the words that the council wish to hear i.e. that we actually need another supermarket. So on to the backburner it goes, then, until they find a way of extracting themselves from this quagmire. If there is to be no supermarket, there cannot be an Ego Towers, and our 'mission statement' will not become reality; this seems to be the mantra of this hubristic bunch. Let's take a look at supermarkets, then, and their effect on town centres. For no particular reason, other than the fact that they have already purchased a plot of land in Minehead, let's investigate Asda-Walmart. This American-owned, American profit-making Bush- backed company have expanded hugely all over this country. Currently, this company has plans to massively expand 40 of its stores, after successfully completing a mezzanine floor in itsYork store, and is in the process of adding 33,000 square feet of mezzanine to its store in Handsworth, Sheffield. Both in York and Sheffield, this extra space is being used exclusively for non-food items and is having a massive detrimental effecton surrounding shops and traffic congestion. Normally traffic flows are assessed on original floor space, but by almost doubling this capacity, and by additionally selling a huge range of goods other than food, chaos ensues, with the local authority powerless to intervene. This scope for uncontrolled expansion is a loophole in planning law that at present is being exploited to the full by Asda-Walmart. Ask the peope of Eastleigh in Hampshire, where a 50,000 square feet of mezzanine non-food space is being planned in its store! In case you think that this is exclusive to Asda- Walmart, go to a large well-known DIY store in Taunton, where this loophole has been exploited by them, and you can see for yourselves just what scope there is. All this information can be viewed on the Friends of the Earth website, http://www.foe.co.uk">www.foe.co.uk, who are campaigning for a change in the law but currently to no avail. Do not be fooled by re-assuring rhetoric from district councillors or by Asda-Walmart themselves. If they are given the go- ahead to build, they will surely add a mezzanine, double the floor space, and put shops out of business. Hello Asda-Walmart, goodbye town centre. You have been warned! Ray Brooker, Chestnut Way, Alcombe.