The Cookstown Credit Union has urged chip shop owners to lower the price of a fish supper after it saw a rise in loans for Friday fast-food family meals.

One of Cookstown’s newest outlets, The Cod’s Pollocks, has defended the price rise, citing the cost of the newspapers to put the food into, as well as the price of the small plastic forks.

Shop owner Nemo Fisher fumed:

“People need to wise up and quit moaning about it. Sure everything is going up. I bought a tin of Lilt and a Marathon last week in a shop in Pomeroy and it gave me 50p change from a fiver. People don’t realise the cost of things. Sure the Guardian newspaper is nearly £5 on a Saturday and that’s our favourite newspaper for cods.”

Cookstown man Ray Haddock revealed he had to take on a part-time job this week in the evenings to pay for a rake of fish suppers he bought at the weekend for his son’s 7th birthday.