Chancellor Gordon Brown delivered his fourth Budget on Tuesday and the Cornish Times visited sunny West Looe on Wednesday morning to ask a cross-section of the community in Princes Square what they thought of it.

Were they better off or worse off? Did they think it was a good or bad Budget? Their views are aired in this week's Have Your Say.

Very pleased with the Chancellor's effort was John Cotton who said the Budget would have a good effect on the economy and would be especially beneficial for families in the low income bracket.

He said: 'I think it was a fair budget and I am glad with the cash injection into health and education.'

Known to enjoy the odd cigarette or two, he smiled wryly and added: 'As a heavy smoker I'm pleased about the extra 25p on a packet because I am contributing directly towards the National Health Service.'

However, not everyone took such a candid view of the ever spiralling price of a packet of 20. Ian Tamlin, owner of West Looe and Barbican Spar Shops was definitely not pleased. 'They are eternally putting up the price of cigarettes which does nothing to help combat the £billions lost each year through smuggling,' he said.

'We are supposed to be part of Europe but the cigarettes here are much more expensive, so we are not on a level playing field. The Government says it is trying to get rid of the blackmarket but they are too worried all the time about what people are going to say or how they are going to vote at the next election. The Budget has done nothing for me except to make cigarettes harder to sell.'

Outrageous

Just up the street at the Londis Shop, Brian Horton who took over the store in 1987 said it was outrageous that cigarettes had increased so much.

'I think the tax burden is falling too heavily on one sector of the population - smokers,' he said.

But his main concern was the 2p rise on a litre of petrol. He said transportation costs were the biggest worry as everyone has to use a car, and the rise was an extra burden.

'We are grossly overtaxed as a country,' he said, 'and this will begin inflation again as prices begin to go up because of it. In my 13 years here I have seen many small companies go to the wall because of transportation costs.'

Driver Mrs Elaine Libby said she filled up the tank of her Peugeot 106 at Safeway, Liskeard, on Monday morning in an attempt to beat the budget and was very glad she did. 'They always seem to hit the motorist which is unfair because everyone here depends on their car to get around,' she said. 'I am relieved the car tax has stayed the same though.'

Mrs Libby's daughter Andrea said she was also not taking any chances and bought her road tax on Saturday, the earliest date she could get it, just in case it went up again.

David Salter, 26, who works in the Tender Carver, Looe's only butcher, said there was nothing in the Budget for the young and single.

'It hasn't really affected me,' he said. 'I'm unmarried with no responsibilities. You get used to the petrol going up, but as I drive a Peugeot Turbo Diesel 1.9 nothing has changed and I don't qualify for the 1200cc reduced rate in road tax.'

A different view point came from 83-year-old Margaret Saunders, whose husband Edgar is 93. She said she was pleased about the fuel allowance being increased to £150 and the waiving of the TV licence for the elderly, but she didn't think the Chancellor presented his budget very well.

Young mum Clair McAteer, out enjoying the sunshine with her four year old daughter Bethany, and mum Morag Gent, said she was really pleased at all the help for old age pensioners, but could see nothing much to help her and her partner Stephen Pote bring up their family.

She said the increase in Child Benefit would probably be taken up by the loss of tax relief on the mortgage, the petrol increase and the 1p on beer.

'This has not exactly been a mind-blowing Budget,' she said. 'There is nothing that would make me feel like saying this is really good. What they have given families with one hand they have taken away with the other.'

Money

Mrs Gent also felt the Budget had passed her by. 'I'm not a pensioner, I am still paying my mortgage, my wages haven't gone up in three years and I have to drive to work,' she said.

It would seem that in West Looe, and probably elsewhere, that in spite of all the extra funding for the NHS and education, at the end of the day, for the ordinary person in the street it is the money they actually have in their own pockets which counts.