Your View: No to Sainsbury's in Bovey

By Jackie Juno

I wrote the poem below in response to discovering that Bovey Tracey town council are spending £750 of our money on seeking legal advice to lift the covenant which protects the fields off Le Molay Littry Way to be used 'for the benefit of the community' only - and that certainly does not include a supermarket, in my book! Or, judging by the amount of people attending the council meeting on Monday 21st November - not in their books either! I was able to read out this poem at the meeting, as a resident of Bovey Tracey and as holder of the title Bard of Exeter. It was received with much foot-stomping, clapping and cheering.

THE BARD'S PRAYER

Our fields which art in Devon

Hallowed be thy green

If Sainsbury's come Death will be done

To this earth, our little bit of heaven.

Give us this day our daily breath

And leave us our local shops

As we give them our custom willingly

And lead us not to the consumerist temple

But deliver us from corporate unsustainability

For ours is the freedom

The fields and the community

For ever and ever Amen.