THE attitude of pub landlords in Richmond towards plans for a new public house in the town is disappointing if predictable.

Under the guise of concern for public order, they have banded together to oppose plans by a national pub chain to convert the former sorting office in Queen's Road into a pub and beer garden.

Public order is a problem from time to time (mostly weekend closing time) in the town but to suggest that one more pub will, in itself, create more disorder is absurd.

What really lies behind this campaign of opposition is fear, not of disorder, but of competition and that is hardly ever an appropriate motive to stop development. Those fears are fueled by the knowledge that the company behind the plan, J D Wetherspoons, is arguably the country's most successful pub operator with plans to open 100 pubs this year with more to follow after that. In a struggling industry, it has found a formula which seems to work.

Richmond is certainly not short of public houses, some of them very fine ones too, but arguably it is short of variety and Wetherspoons could bring something different to keep in the town people who might go elsewhere for their entertainment. It would also mean the overdue development of a underused and prominent town centre site, likely to appear even more derelict following the imminent development of the Georgian theatre almost opposite.

If Richmond were the bustling hub of activity it should be, perhaps the town's licensees could afford to take a sniffy attitude towards such interlopers. But any national company, which sees potential in the town and is prepared to invest in its future, should be given a more positive welcome.