Life in the Country: Winter Part Two and Latest in Hay-On-Wye's Battle Against Tesco's

Tesco's seems to be getting a lot of flack in the national press - maybe its monopoly will finally break. Whatever the outcome, the negative press is all good timing for the Plan B protest group in Hay.

The nights are already drawing out slowly and so far this has been a mild but wet winter, with a few snowdrops already peeking up amidst the sodden grass. Christmas passed in a blur of log fires and friends and family and finally, the builders have packed up and gone leaving the outbuildings secure against the blast of the north wind.

Hay-on-Wye is quiet... the Thursday market this week was half its normal size and there were no home-made jams from the old Women's Institute - since renamed 'Country Market'.

Supposedly in-fighting between the cake-makers led to two break-off factions who now glare at each other from across the old buttermarket. Both make exceedingly good cakes but one (which shall remain nameless) still has the edge!

The Hay Plan B against the upcoming planned 'retail development' in the town is now fighting fit after the Christmas break with an open meeting scheduled for 23 January.

I finally got a reply from Powys Count Council about the stakeholders meeting of 19 December. The reply came in on 10 January which goes to show that Powys (a) don't read their emails or (b) don't care what the constituents think or (c) are totally inept.

Behind the scenes in Hay, a group of legal experts are now challenging Powys County Council on a number of issues and one of the current trustees of the Hay and District Sports Association has been up on a fraud charge. This is interesting as the HADSA is a charity and is part of the intricate deal with Gaufron Developments and Powys County Council.

Also interestingly, Tesco's seems to be getting a lot of flack in the national press - maybe its monopoly will finally break. Whatever the outcome, the negative press is all good timing for the Plan B protest group in Hay.

Sad news in Hay, Diana Blunt's Pemberton's bookshop - the only book shop specialising in new books - is closing and she will concentrate solely on the Hay Festival bookshop which she runs every year. A clothes shop will take over the premises and Booths Bookshop will buy the stock. She blames the rise of the Kindle and Amazon as being partly to blame.

Let's hope that none of the second hand bookshops are forced to close in Hay - there is nothing better on a wet Sunday than to spend a couple of hours browsing in the back rooms of one of the many specialist shops... Hay must be one of the few market towns that is open every day of the year apart from Christmas Day!

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