I AM puzzled by Tim Smith’s comments on Reading’s ‘clone town’ status (The Chronicle, October 28).

He complains that the New Economics Foundation’s surveyors (who, I understand, were volunteer local residents) only counted 40-60 High Street shops, but the same methodology was used in every town.

No doubt Oxford would have scored better if they had looked at Little Clarendon and Walton Streets, and I doubt that the Reading survey captured any of our 12 (so far) Tescos.

One can argue that a wider survey would produce more meaningful results, but I see no evidence that Reading was treated unfairly.

Adam Sowan

Reading