It is with sadness that after over 15 years of working at Tony Pryce sports, I will not be at the West Somerset College open night in July.

This night is generally a very informal way I meet parents/ guardians and make your transition into senior school as easy as possible.

I’m sure lots of you reading this I will know in person and by first name terms, and that I have served you in-store as a parent/child/ grandparent/guardian.

I always felt like it meant a lot to you all to be able to spread the cost by coming in to us here at Tony Pryce Sports to buy at your leisure/when it could be affordable - I know myself as a parent going through the same process that made it loads easier for me too.

But as a parent/guardian of college children, you should have had a letter informing you of the uniform changes from September- this applies to all pupils. Yes, it’s changing again!

The letter lists general shops/businesses/online out of the area places to go to - not one of these businesses is in the local area of West Somerset.

The letter does not tell you that we, Tony Pryce Sports, will no longer stock the PE kit. I however feel that we need to tell you this information to help you as much as possible.

We have been informed by Bridgwater College that the supply of West Somerset College uniform will be transferred to Jual (a Bridgwater based company) with immediate effect. Bridgwater College is now responsible for five different colleges and wants the uniform supplier to be the same.

We at Tony Pryce are very disappointed that we were not offered the opportunity to quote for this business and that the decision was made without any consultation.

The college has purchased all our PE kit stock at trade price and will shortly be available to purchase online at www.jual.co.uk.

Tony Pryce Sports has been in Minehead for nearly 40 years and as a local and supportive business of many community events, feel it is the wrong to take the uniform business out of the town, losing the facility to try on a product.

In addition, there is no financial saving for parents, and in fact the carriage charge will make your purchases more expensive.

I hope you will accept our apologies for the inconvenience caused and hope you’ll understand that this was not our decision or choice.

We hope you’ll still continue to shop and support local and that we will see you in-store soon.

Steph Hooper, Manageress, Tony Pryce Sports, Minehead.