Given the choice, I’d prefer an independent, individual coffee shop with personality rather than the sterile environment of the chains.

When I lived in Greater London, I used to eat in a place called Franks. An Italian chap with an dizzying array of sandwiches and proper coffee. Small cups – in comparison with today’s buckets – but you looked forward to sipping it while eating your full crayfish sandwich or your mozzarella and salami ciabatta.

It was cramped and sometimes the tables weren’t wiped but Frank’s welcoming, chatty service beat all that.

So now Carly Trisk-Grove’s establishment in Higginson Park is being seized by Costa. The only financially viable option.

Amersham is full of stories which echo this scenario. No one but the chains can afford to survive.

Which means we have a dearth of colourful, interesting shops and a growing number of run-of-the-mill High Street ones.

I looked into business premises a while ago and the business rates were punitive. A start-up would have to have huge back up to make it through the first year. Individuals with good ideas and small savings can’t get involved.

Estate agents promote Amersham as a rural idyll but with great London connections and an array of expected High Street shops. Londoners move here thinking they’re moving to the country and will boast to their friends in Greenford, Barnet and Wandsworth that they live in Bucks and hope their friends imagine their redbrick, estate with its few acres of woodland to go with it.

Phew! I don’t know why business rates are so fixed and so high. The council leaves little opportunity for the true entrepreneur and that in itself means a very mainstream High Street.

The little towns I remember as being truly quaint, characterful and sweet are Rochester and places in Devon and Cornwall. Quirky shops with their own identity and shop fronts.

Business rates are set by central government, so we can lay the blame at their door for discouraging individuals with imagination and drive from setting up shop here. Thanks a heap…

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