Mr Ashley Gunstock and members of the Wanstead Society have really taken their eyes off the ball.

Whilst obsessively campaigning against Tesco's licensing hours and proposed shopfront they have failed to notice that an actual Pie and Mash shop has begun trading in the High Street.

They complain about Tesco's shopfront but have paid no attention whatsoever to this new establishment.

Specialising in worker's fare, it has both brash signage and out of scale lettering.

And to make matters worse their shopfront actually boasts of other branches in East Ham and Basildon, of all places.

I am not in any way a snob, but on Saturday both my grandson and I, witnessed two rough types eating alfresco and scooping out the contents of two liquour sodden pies with the sole aid of a spoon.

Shouldn't we be encouraging good table manners in the young? Shouldn't the proprietors at least supply their customers with proper knives and forks?

The 'cockney expectation' of eating with a spoon may be acceptable in East Ham, but is this really what we wish to see in our High Street?

Some trendy newcomers to Wanstead may think it quaint, but in my day, such common eateries would have been hidden in a back street, as is the long established and appropriately situated, Bungalow Cafe, in Spratt Hall Rd. So Gunstock et al, as self appointed guardians of our 'village character' it's time to get your priorities right.

Forget Tescos and resist cocknification by stealth.

Mr J C Fentiman Blake Hall Road Wanstead