CostaGate

I regularly visit totnes from bristol and love it because it is not a sterile cloned high street llike so many other towns and cities, includeing the centre of bristol which is horrendous.
I cannot believe the comments on here saying there is nowhere to hang out in totnes!!! what about the barrell house, it's big enough to hang out with your extended family and all your friends! and so many cafes have gardens. what do people want?!!!
Totnes is a wonderful place and has something for everyone. Costa is vacuous and the coffee is weak and tasteless. i hope it doesn't become a zit on an otherwise vibrant town.

Really are there no places to drink - Do we really need a coffee. Perhaps the people above do not realise the amazingness of Totnes not to be run by Chains. This keeps more money in the local economy. keeping the cash local, supplying jobs

You could not make this up! The irony of this is so funny it hurts. The anti-Costa brigade who can't see something that would be good for the town would, were their campaign to succeed, be rewarded with an opticians!! Should have gone to Specsavers indeed.

Over 4,000 local people signed the petition!!

I sure don't think so.

There may be 4,000 signatures but tell me please who has checked they are all local people and that each is unique and not that the petition is not full of those who have signed mutiple times. I hope those in authority at the council, like me, know that there have been huge numbers who have signed mutiple times.

I guess the hysterical anti Costa mob believe in winning by fair means or foul :-)

I'm a teenager and I think it would brillant to have a Costa in Totnes. There's nowhere to hang out with your friends or family. Also, if youreally don't like Costa, you don't have to go to it! (Come on, it's good coffee!)

I would love to see a Costa in the old Greenlife premises. With a few exceptions, the surroundings of the independent cafes are not exactly the best places to relax and enjoy your chosen drink. The "Green Cafe" is one place which I particularly dislike. To add balance, unlike the anti Costa elite, I do like Rumour and Tangerine Tree coffee.

Following on from the last comment it is a shame that most of the places selling coffee in Totnes don't offer a bettter range of coffees and most most important operate stricter quality control with the same consistancy that national chains, like Costa, do.

Come on all the hysteria about the wonderful choice of coffee in the coffee shops of Totnes. Let's get this right I am not aware of a single specialist coffee shop as is Costa. The town could do with one to give it that extra pull for tourists

Seven Stars open at 6.30am in the morning... selling coffees....maybe they could improve their range of coffee.

I disagree. The consumer organization "Which" did a survey of coffee shops and found that independents were on average cheaper than the big chains. I use Costa in Exeter or at motorway services so am not anti Costa per se, but the survey mirrors my experience and I think that the quality of a latte in Costa is inferior to some of the independent coffee shops.

I'd love to see a costa in Totnes. I haven't found a decent coffee there in years. Sometimes you just want 'Normal' in a town obsessed with 'Organic' or 'ethnic' tastes!

Hmm! I'm thinking of starting a pro-Costa petition... though probably too late!! I hope all the TT people will be delighted with the new Specsavers. Can't help thinking it's fine for well-off middle class people to drink their lattes in the little cafes (Costa coffee is delicious and better value than most) while buying their expensive spectacles in the independent opticians... I'd better be careful, or the Green Police will come knocking at my door...