AN Evesham chemist - who led a campaign to preserve community pharmacies in the face of supermarket competition - has given a cautious welcome to Government plans.

Peter Badham, who owns pharmacies in Port Street and Waterside, has been backed by MP Peter Luff in opposition to the ditching of pharmacy controls.

Trade and Industry Secretary Patricia Hewitt announced last week that the Government will not follow the advice of the Office of Fair Trading, which said that the industry should be deregulated.

Mr Badham believes this policy would have left community pharmacies at the mercy of the supermarkets. "This would have had the result that pharmaceutical services would have been planned not on the needs of patients but totally based on financial return."

Making her announcement Patricia Hewitt said community pharmacies played a vital role. "Pharmacists are trained clinicians - not simply shopkeepers - and they will have an even greater role in the NHS of the future."

She rejected the case, put forward by the Office of Fair Trading, that the industry should be totally deregulated. "Given the current shortage of pharmacists and the Government's desire to see pharmacists given a strong role in the NHS the Government does not believe that this is the time to move to a fully deregulated system," she said.

Mr Luff gave the announcement a cautious welcome. "I will be asking local pharmacies who have lobbied me so hard on this issue what they make of the detailed recommendations. On the face of it, though, this all looks quite good news and will be a real relief for hard working local pharmacies."