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@ Sceptic. No it wasn't Abingdon I was thinking of - although I did go to school there. Many
a delinquent hour was spent behind the sports centre on Stratton Way smoking fags with the glue-sniffers.

It was actually Didcot i was describing. That's where I'm from. What a place that is. My brother always says if Oxfordshire had piles they'd be on Didcot. I noticed it was in the book 'Crap Towns'. The town centre - if one can call it that, is a long ribbon development, full of charity shops and places selling plastic junk made in chinese gulags. The new bit they've built has had very little take-up and many of the shops are empty. It looks like a stage-set from Romeo and Juliet. As you walk through it you half-expect her to appear at an upstairs window with a rose between her teeth. Initially, when you see it, it appears to be that reactionary Poundbury school of neo-Georgian, which has an eerie fantasy quality anyway - but they've done it on the cheap, in a sort of postmodern referential way - changing the roof heights and the paint colours, but with very little ornamentation - so the effect is like stage flats. Maybe it's more 'As You Like It' than Romeo and Juliet - since 'all the world's a stage' after all ; ) Then there's a strange flight of steps leading down to Sainsbury's which can only be described as a sort of Greek amphitheatre.

Didcot is such a dump it's funny. There was a poetry competition there last christmas - where you had to write a poem about Didcot. The stuff my family came up with was hilarious, but so obscene it can't be printed in a public forum, especially in the presence of a 'junior boarder' ; )

Know it well KL. Know many who used to live there,my eldest included. Note though the 'used to', can't think of any who stayed out of choice. I think it's strength used to be as a place to buy a starter home and get a foot in the housing market. Either that or where to catch a train from!
I don't think it ever had Exmouths advantage of having some character - so in a sense it has never had much to lose - unlike Exmouth which has much to lose.

If Asda is cheap how come it's so expensive?

I've just been doing a few rough calculations.

By Asda's own estimates there'll be 350 new jobs for Exmouth. It seems reasonably likely then, bearing in mind that more people, in a ratio to output, are employed in small businesses than in a streamlined corporation and that demand for food is a constant rather than something which can be generated, that, around 500 jobs will be lost in the area.

Of those, of course a percentage will be re-employed in the new Asda. Let's say 50% find new jobs there, leaving 250 who unemployed.

Then let's calculate the earnings of these new Asda employees. On minimum wage they'll be on £5.52 an hour. If they work a 36 hour week that's £198.72. Minus basic rate income tax at 22% that's £155.01 take home. On a 52 week year they earn £8.060.52. This qualifies them as low income since the average income in the South West is over £20,000. They may well then be eligible for Income Support at £60.05 a week, plus Council Tax benefit - call that £23 plus Housing Benefit call that £45. Which means the taxpayer funds their jobs at Asda to the tune of £128.50 a week.

For 350 employees, plus 250 unemployed who will receive jobseekers allowances and similar relief on housing the total bill, per annum, for the taxpayer, will be a staggering £4009200. Over four million quid.

If there are four people in an average household and Exmouth has 40,000 residents that means that the total bill EACH YEAR for having an Asda in Exmouth, per household, will be
£400.92.

This, of course, does not include the costs which may be incurred if the A376 needs to be widened. Neither does it include the costs of the rates which will not be collectable on shops which stand empty, all of which must be borne by the taxpayer. It does not include the external costs for pollution which occurs when food is transported long distances.

So, there you go. £400 a year. A conservative estimate. A stealth tax on you, levied by the government and it's friends in big business.

Ah, but you're such a thrifty shopper that you can't afford the prices small shops charge.
That's why you're in Asda getting 10p off a can of baked beans. What parsimony! Hold on. Is it your imagination or is that the sound of sneering laughter you can hear, coming over the Asda tannoy? No, it can't have been.

Did you find everything you were looking for today sir? Have a nice day!

There is an organisation that is paid for by the supermarkets, I think it is called the British Retail Forum and they, rather embarressingly for the supermarkets given they were the funders, found that on average, every time a new superstore opened up the average NET loss of jobs in the area was something like 276 lost - not so far of your calcs KL.
If anyone wants the references they can be found fairly easily by googling, or I will dig them out.
Asda can pay for a two page spread, or issue a press release saying they will create 350 jobs but they do not have the balls to come here and answer questions about what sort of jobs, what rates of pay and what job losses can be expected elsewhere. Try emailing them and asking for their view on unions, or why they were obliged to make massive payments for anti-union activities (see http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=406904&in_page_id=2)
All starts to look a bit different to the PR spun version doesn't it.
Talking of spin, did anyone see the problems flybe had in respect of Norwich airport and the numbers of passengers. There was a shortfall which meant flybe was heading towards having to pay a significant sum for not meeting agreed targets. What did they do? According to reports they put on extra flights and sought to hire actors to fill places to take them over the number threshold. See http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/norfolk/7321306.stm
The head of Flybe Public Relations is also the Leader of East Devon District Council - so when they start talking of their green credentials, just remember that some were seemingly quite happy to stick on extra flights and create more greenhouse gases to save money.
Beware the spin doctors!

The head of Flybe Public Relations is also the Leader of East Devon District Council

.... well, well, And do you think the leader of EDDC was influential in coming up with their solution to the FLYBE Norwich to Ireland passenger shortfall???

Surely not !!

Private Eye could get some mileage out of this .. if it hasn't already!