FROM THE EDITOR

The Trusts either are despised or loved in the west depending on who you talk to.

We ran a poll on Neighbourly which had the haters ahead - in the final tally of 235 votes as we went to print 57.4 per cent said they did not support The Trusts with 42.6 per cent in favour. The Trusts has its own polling. It pays pollster UMR to measure how westies feel about its’ monopoly.

These polls canvass the opinions of 600 households in The Trusts’ areas of operation by phone, using listed and un-listed numbers, CEO Simon Wickham says. The survey recipients’ chosen are weighted for gender, area and ethnicity. The last survey, in June 2016, saw support for The Trusts exceed 66 per cent the number of locals who backed the licensing trusts in the poll vote in 2003, he says.

It will take someone with extraordinary drive and energy to battle The Trusts. The supermarket chains have indicated they won’t be pushing the issue. It’s over to you haters.

- Rebecca