RECENT communications in the Ripon Gazette have sought to berate Ripon City Council for their decision not to back the call for Ripon to put itself forward as a FairTrade city.

The current position is this: I, as I believe the only member of the present council who is a regular churchgoer, actualy voted against the decision in council and I made a point of asking for the matter to be referred for further discussion at a future meeting; this was agreed with backing from Coun Williams and other members of the council.

For myself, I am all in favour of FairTrade as a means of protecting the producers in other countries and allowing them to get a fair wage for the efferot they put in to provide us with the crops that we crave.

I also believe that we should introduce the same system in this country, so as to stop the greedy supermarkets putting our own producers out of business.

This would mean that when a BOGOF item is displayed, or a price reduction is given, it would be up to the supermarket to cover the cost of the decrease/offer, and not cut the price paid to the farmer, etc.

I shall try to put a strong case to my fellow councillors when we further discuss this matter at a future meeting.