SIR — I imagine the vast majority of your readers will agree with James Knight in his comments about petrol prices at Tesco, Minehead, as opposed to Barnstaple, Bridgwater and Taunton (Free Press August 4).

What was quite incredible were the comments by the Tesco spokesman saying 'We don't want to be the ones who cut their prices so low that they force family-run garages out of business'.

Their store is full of promotional material about 'unbeatable prices', 'We sell for less' and the current deep price cutting on TVs, videos and mobile phones.

They are the market leader in probably the most competitive part of business today and their job is to sell for less and we don't grumble about that.

Or are they trying to tell us that their prices of fruit, groceries and meat could be lower but they are trying to look after the greengrocer, grocer and butcher?

The crux of the matter is simply that there is no other supermarket within 20 miles offering petrol.

Does anyone doubt that if there was just one other such store in Minehead then the price would be down straight away?

To use hard working small retailers as the reason for not cutting prices further is hypocritical because, as they had reduced their price by threepence a litre, they know they will get the trade anyway so their argument does not stand up.

Tesco at Minehead have a year-round population around 10,000 and a very large additional number of captive shoppers from Butlins for most of the year. The holiday makers refill their cars whilst on holiday here and again for the journey home.

It is not the other petrol outlets they are penalising, it is all the customers they expect to use their store week in week out.

Give them all a break and reduce the price to that of our neighbouring towns!

Peter Birch,

Windsor Close,

Minehead.