When I am out with my dog for our daily exercise, people are very good indeed about social distancing, but this sometimes seems pointless when faced with the difficulties of my weekly shop.

The pharmacies are rigorous; two people only allowed in at a time, and floor markings together with personnel to guide customers - no complaints there.

The supermarkets, however, are a different matter. I have tried four different venues, three in Darwen and one in Blackburn. The only place where I felt safe was Asda in Darwen, where social distancing was adhered to, and the number of customers was controlled. In all the other stores that I tried, people were shopping exactly as they normally do, getting far too close together, and wandering at random. If this had been in a public park, they would have been fined, and it was impossible for those trying to observe the rules to do so.

Apart from Sainsbury's, where some attempt was made to control the numbers entering the shop, the only place where some form of order was applied was at the checkout - and even then, in two cases, the queues were down the aisles, so that other customers were wandering past freely.

If Asda can do it, why not the others?

When I mentioned my concerns, no-one seemed to understand what I was talking about, and the customers themselves seemed totally unconcerned about covid 19; you would think they had never heard of the government rules.

I strongly suggest that, rather than concentrating on the lone man having a smoke on a park bench, the police (whom I haven't seen in Darwen recently) should go into the supermarkets and observe the scrum that is the average weekly shop during this crisis.

Mrs Janet Hawtrey