WE'RE all doomed.

It's the year 2005 and Chesham as we know it today is just a distant memory.

The town is ruled by the hamburger, the chip, the poppadom and the noodle.

And as the final shopkeeper packs up his stock and closes his doors for the last time, another pile of fast food wrappers and drinks cans rustle and rattle down the street. The rubbish stops at the feet of a group of youths munching on fried chicken nuggets.

High Street shopping is dead long live High Street eating.

In this new era, restaurants and food outlets have taken over. McChesham has been born.

Nothing is ever going to be the same again and we're all fat.

Okay, so it's a bit over the top, but this seems to me to sum up the fears of some of our more misguided councillors in the Chiltern district.

This week I have been left astonished at the short sightedness and displayed by some of our so-called local representatives.

For those of you who don't know, or haven't noticed, a former butcher's shop at the heart of Chesham's Market Square stands sad and empty. A monument to changing shopping habits and consumer behaviour.

But the Brazils and Co building is to remain closed.

The reason why? Because Chiltern district councillors voted to refuse a change of use application to allow an interested tenant to re-open it as a restaurant.

How utterly ridiculous. Here we have a situation where people, who were prepared to invest money to bring a thriving source of trade to the town, were snubbed because of fears that Chesham cannot afford to lose retail space and get bogged down by restaurants.

I find it unbelievable that people can be so wrong. Chesham is a small town which could be charming.

Town manager Maggie Cannon is right. Chesham has to embrace cafe culture especially in Market Square which is practically the only part of the town that passing motorists can see as they drive through.

It's obvious that if people drive past Market Square and see a collection of inviting-looking eateries they might be tempted to pop into the town and go for a meal. You never know they might even have a look around the shops afterwards.

One thing is for certain though. In no way can Chesham afford to lose potential investors because of some peoples' totally unfounded fears about fast food or kebab domination.

People these days often go to small country towns for a bite to eat just to look at Old Amersham. It's not the charity shops they go for.

It's about time some councillors woke up to smell the coffee and grabbed a pizza of the action before it's too late.