So – an application for a new KFC restaurant has been approved by the planners. Pembroke Dock - on the site of the former school house on London Road.

People will no longer have to drive to Carmarthen for their chicken and chips (Do they now? We don’t. We are currently buying takeaways from our local pub).

Moreover - wait for it – up to 30 new jobs will be created.

Wow.

We wonder how many will of these will be permanent, and offer well paid work?

But the food will be cheap, and ours is a low income area.

We will soon have another multi-national organisation making megabucks out of us locals to give to their shareholders in the capital.

There will be more heavy goods vehicles ploughing hundreds of miles across country burning up fossil fuel .

They will probably carry pre–prepared chipped potatoes grown on an industrial scale from somewhere in England - and chicken from who knows where else.

Biodiversity?

Organically grown?

Don’t make us laugh.

But the food will be cheap, and ours is a low income area.

We will have more, instantly available, processed food stuffed with additives - which is widely known to contribute towards the problem of ill health and obesity.

This issue has been raised frequently over recent years by the likes of Jamie Oliver; an ordinary bloke who thinks other ordinary people – and especially their growing children - are entitled to good, fresh food.

But this food will be cheap, and ours is a low income area.

In Pembrokeshire, we have local farms and fisheries worried about the present and future effects of Brexit.

We have wonderful local produce.

Before lockdown, we had many small, independent businesses selling affordable fresh food from nearby suppliers. Excellent cafes and restaurants across the county. Food cooked from scratch, regularly earning five stars from satisfied customers on tripadvisor.

But this food will be cheap; and ours is a low income area.

We have many talented young people graduating from Pembrokeshire College in hospitality, catering and all sorts of specialist culinary skills.

Why are we not investing in their futures and our economic recovery?

Why can’t we build a food hall on this site, offering them a range of small business opportunities, encouragement and support, and the rest of us choice?

We were promised central government funding to replace the monies we would lose after leaving the EU – weren’t we?

But this food will be cheap. Ours is a low income area.

And it seems anything better is not on the cards.

Because we’re not worth it.

SHIRLEY HAMMOND-WILLIAMS AND LEIGH SMITH,

Bosherston