Budget supermarket Lidl has been given the green light for a Workington store despite an eleventh-hour plea from Tesco to halt the scheme. Our readers had their say on the News & Star website and Facebook page.

When are we going to build something original that will bring people to the towns from outside the county? I think a lot of people think Cumbria stops at the Lake District and it’s time that potential was tapped into. I don’t like to sound like a stuck record, however I’ve mentioned once or twice about an indoor ski slope.

Chris Forbes

Wouldn’t be in west Cumbria as too far out the way I suppose. Carlisle actually would work, easy to get to from Lancashire, the north east and Scotland.

Andy Reay

The problem is it’s costly to start an independent business and with no guarantees of local support it’s very risky and lots aren’t prepared to take that risk.

Big corporate business can afford to risk it as they can write it off if it doesn’t work out which is unlikely. Look how they flocked to KFC when it opened.

I actually do think a budget hotel is needed. The nearest is Whitehaven and Cockermouth and you can’t rely on the local independent hotels to actually have someone there to let you in when you arrive with a toddler in tow in winter. I speak from experience on that one having booked one years ago and then couldn’t gain access. Luckily we had family to fall back on.

We do need to bring more people out west but they need something to do and somewhere to stay. We get quite a lot of tourists so it would be even better to have them sleeping here too as they would spend more time and money in our local town.

Carol Watson

Workington needs a Primark.

Lauren Etherington

Workington needs more men’s shops because the town has nothing.

Karen Thompson

You want to see how bad Whitehaven is for shops.

Margaret Burns

Primark needs a proven demographic which doesn’t even exist in west Cumbria. It will never happen. Not unless you can conjure up another 500,000 people.

Kay Teasdale

Why should Tesco take over the world?

Heather Marie

Very surprised Tesco didn’t already own the land.

Andy Mac