This list of local groups campaigning against supermarkets is not exhaustive. If your group isn't in the list and you would like to be included or you want to give us an update on what's going on with your campaign then please contact us: info(at)corporatewatch.org

Exmouth Citizens Forum (Save our Shoreline)
Contact: Tim Todd/Megan Armstrong tel: 07976 833 320
email: info(at)exmouthcitizensforum.info
website: www.exmouthcitizensforum.info

'Exmouth Citizens Forum' is a protest group formed by a number of concerned Exmouth residents, and friends of Exmouth, to fight the proposals of East Devon District Council (EDDC) to sell off public land on the Exe estuary for supermarket development (possibly an Asda store). This development will include the demolition of a leisure centre and swimming pool and the building of a supermarket in their place on the estuary. The group is concerned about the impact of another supermarket on the viability of the town centre and the environmental impact of more development on the estuary. The group wants the regeneration of Exmouth to be a community-driven bottom-up process, not something imposed by the council.

The group has organised a petition and demonstrations against the proposed development, produces an newsletter and has a website. In July 2005, the petition signed by 10,970 Exmouth residents was presented in parliament by the local MP.

Minehead - DIRECT 'Save Our Town Campaign'
Contact: Naomi Griffith email: saveourtown2005(at)yahoo.co.uk
website: www.saveourtownminehead.co.uk

West Somerset District council wants to sell one of Minehead's town centre car parks to build a new supermarket (possibly an Asda store) on the edge of the town centre and to build new council offices on another car park, which currently holds the town market. The council argues based on a report, which they commissioned, that Minehead needs more retail space, particularly non-food, to prevent leakage of shoppers to other retail centres. Locals fear that a new supermarket will mean that the high street shops, which include plenty of small independent retailers, will close as they won't be able to compete. Locals got together in January 2005 to start campaigning and have launched a petition, letter writing campaign, held public meetings, developed a website and organised a march of 600 people through the town.

Sheffield - Meersbrook/Heeley Stop the Supermarket campaign
tel: 07838 186479 email: andyjools(at)hotmail.com
http://www.pedalpushers.org.uk/
campaigns/stopthesupermarket.htm

Local people and traders concerned about a planning application to build a supermarket on the Arnold Laver DIY store site on Chesterfield Road/Little London Road have joined forces to create the Stop the Supermarket campaign. Local concerns include increased pollution, traffic and road safety, parking problems and the potential loss of other local shops. The group has organised public meetings, a petition and letter writing to local councillors, and intends to lobby council and area planning committee meetings at which the application for planning permisssion is to be discussed.

Shirley, West Midlands 'Keep Shirley Alive' Campaign
Contact: Karen Leach email: karen (at) localisewestmidlands.org.uk
www.localisewestmidlands.org.uk/New_Heart_of_Shirley.rtf

Local campaign group, 'Keep Shirley Alive' are fighting proposals for a 42,000 sq foot superstore , underground car park and 15-20 retail units for big name stores, in the heart of Shirley town centre. The group has called on Solihull Council to go back to the drawing board and scrap its 'Heart of Shirley' plans. The campaign group recently commissioned a very useful report on the Council's plans for the superstore development from the independent think-tank, Localise West Midlands (see above for the weblink). The report says that the 1996 retail assessments, on which the plans are based, are completely out-of-date and a new study should be conducted. It also concluded that a mix of retailers was desirable in any new development in Shirley. The report's authors thought the overall impact of the proposed development would be negative and the proposed super-store was far too big for Shirley. It also said the council's consultation process had been seriously flawed and recommended the proposals be put on hold.

Ossory Road Campaign - Dis-Asda on the Old Kent Road
creative_resistance_london(at)hotmail.com
www.ossoryroad.ownsthis.com/website/campaign/

Asda bought and planned to build a superstore on the Old Kent Road, Southwark, South London between Ossory Road and Malt Street with over 500 car parking spaces. The Old Kent Road already had Tesco, Aldi, Lidl, McDonalds, PC World, B&Q, Halfords and Toys R Us, but what the 100,000 people who live within a one square mile radius of this site do not have were decent community facilities. Local campaigners decided to resist Asda’s attempts to move in, by squatting the supermarket site in September 2002. The occupants then opened the buildings and yard on Ossory Road to the public and began hosting community events, children’s weekends, discussion groups, banner and puppet making, workshops on alternative technology, gardening projects, and brilliant parties etc

The occupants successfully resisted evictions in March and July 2003, the water and electricity were subsequently cut off and living conditions became very difficult. The occupiers were evicted a number of times, with the buildings boarded up and damaged by bailiffs but each time were re-squatted. Plans for a final eviction/demolition were foiled by the occupiers and their supporters on 19th January 2004 when bailiffs arrived to find barricades and a group of protesters who refused them entry. Asda placed permanent security outside the building and the bailiffs eventually evicted the building later that month. The Asda store finally opened in December 2004. See the website for pictures of the community centre's activities and the subsequent evictions.

London Borough of Newham 'Friends of Queens Market'
Contact: Pauline Rowe 07903 374 009
email: friendsofqueensmarket(at)yahoo.co.uk

Queens Market is a hundred-year-old bustling market in East London, next to Upton Park on the District Line, consisting of some sixty small shops and eighty stalls, established by act of Parliament a century ago, serving the local low-income and multi-ethnic communities with a very wide range of low price goods. The London Borough of Newham plans to sell Queens Market, to private developers. After spending nearly a million pounds on regeneration in 1998, the site was put up for sale without public consultation in 2003. The Friends of Queens Market are a mix of local people and market traders who want to keep the market in existence and keep it in public ownership.

The Friends believe that Newham Council is committed to attracting higher-income residents to the borough at the expense of existing local residents who benefit hugely from the low-cost fresh food and household items that are essential to the health and well-being of the community. Much of the fresh fruit and vegetables from the market are half or two thirds cheaper than the equivalent from Asda.

Newham Council has consistently refused to release any documents relating to the proposed sale of the site or the original feasibility study conducted in 2000. Even back-bench councillors have been refused access to the study. Local people first learned of the proposed sale by accident when an advert appeared in the Estates Gazette (Feb 2003) - there was no public consultation. By mid 2004, despite a 2,000 strong petition and numerous protests and much public disquiet, the local paper broke the news that the supermarket chain Asda was negotiating with the council to build on the market site. Before a scheduled public meeting could take place the Mayor appointed St Modwens as the ‘preferred development partner’ for the market in September 2004. He rushed this through as an emergency decision, using General Exception Notice procedure. The reasons given for the rush were ‘public interest’ and ‘market sensitivities’.

At the end of 2004, the council conducted what is believed to be a deeply flawed MORI poll. The Mayor claimed a 51% majority in favour of ‘redevelopment’. Critics of the poll say that interviewees were neither told of the plan to sell the market nor asked if they approved; they were not told that the market area was to be slashed and pushed halfway under a tower block, on the edge of the present site. Whilst 500 ‘nearby residents’ were interviewed, only 214 market shoppers were polled. The Friends of Queens Market already have 7000 signatures petitioning against the market sale!

Brighton
Contact: Brighton Urban Design and Development (BUDD) & Stop the Store.
Ben Messer, Sara Bragg or Keith Taylor, co-ordinators, tel: 01273 324198 / 681166 / 291165 respectively: email: Ben(at)clevel.co.uk
www.buddbrighton.org, www.schnews.org.uk/sotw/sainsburys-brighton.htm

BUDD formed in early 1997 to provide a forum for debate on a proposed development of the Brighton station site, focused around a Sainsbury's superstore and car park. BUDD aimed to raise awareness of the implications of the development, to explore community-related development options and to lobby the local planning authority. The Council was persuaded - in part by BUDD's efforts - to refuse the planning application, and after an extended public enquiry in 1998, the decision was upheld by the Secretary of State. The Council then embarked on a public consultation process with a view to drawing up a new Planning Brief for the site (previously there was no such formal document). Five hundred people attended a Community Planning Event in October 1999, and overwhelmingly opposed any major retail uses (and associated car parking) for the site.

However, it soon became clear that Sainsbury’s was intent on putting in a further application and the Council reluctant to continue its opposition organised a Working Group to develop a Planning Brief. The group, with representation heavily skewed to the interests of the landowner, Railtrack and Sainsbury's delivered a Planning Brief that explicitly allowed for a supermarket (only a few metres short of the official definition of 'superstore') on the site. This effectively ruled out any community-related and sustainable development options.

Meanwhile Railtrack, Sainsbury's and other developers formed the 'New England Consortium', and delivered a new application in September 2001 for a mixed-use development including housing, hotels, language schools as well as a supermarket with 200 space car park. The public has continued to express opposition, not least because the proposal does not address longstanding concerns about the effects of the supermarket on smaller local retailers, on traffic and pollution, on the character of the area, or adequately address the need for affordable housing locally. There have been a number of creative actions around the Brighton site including a squatted information centre.

In 2003, the developers eventually got planning permission for proposals which they spun as a textbook example of a 'sustainable urban neighbourhood for the 21st century' with energy supplied by a state-of-the-art combined heat and power plant. Meanwhile the development will include a massive 42 storey building, including a hotel. Work has already begun.

According to BUDD:

'The Council has now acknowledged that the most controversial and unpopular aspect of this scheme, the supermarket and car park, has only been included in the Planning Brief to provide upfront cash and so help finance the rest of it. This is despite Council advisors’ own reports that indicate: a) that another form of development, such as a housing-led scheme, would be viable and b) that there is no quantitative or qualitative need for another supermarket. In other words, the superstore and car park are not there to satisfy social needs, but the wish of the landowners to make maximum profit. This goes against government planning policy guidelines, which state that development should be based on need not on profit.”[71]

Westbury-on-Trym-Westbury Residents Action Group (WRAG).Contact: Denise Barwell tel: 0117 9508012
email: denise(at)corporacare.co.uk.

WRAG was formed in May 2001 after canvassing local residents and finding overwhelming local opposition to the development of a new Sainsbury’s store. Westbury-on-Trym is an urban village currently well served by small local retailers and a small Somerfield. There are at least seven supermarkets within approx. four miles, including a very large Wal-Mart.

Sainsbury's applied for planning permission to demolish three houses and to build a two storey store with a sales area of 15,000 square feet and an extension to an existing car park. The land in question is designated in the Local Plan as ‘open space for recreational and leisure purposes’. The land is made up of individually owned allotments, some of which are subject to restrictive covenants. Westbury-on-Trym is a conservation area. There is a church dating to the Saxon period on the fringe of the proposed development, and the oldest inhabited house in Bristol is alongside the site. This is also an interdenominational house of prayer and meditation.

WRAG was successful in seeing off the Sainsbury threat with an unprecedented 1000+ letters sent to the planners. Ultimately, it was the historic nature of the site and concerns about the traffic implications that convinced the planners.

Castle Douglas, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland
Contact: 'Save our Stewartry Shops' (SoS) Alistair Livingston 01556 504937 (or messages on 01556 502487) AlistairLiv(at)aol.com
http://tescodeconstruct.blogspot.com/

Castle Douglas is a small market town (pop. 3,386) in rural South West Scotland. Five years ago, Castle Douglas became a 'Food Town' a marketing concept set up to celebrate and reaffirm the fact that Castle Douglas has a vibrant local economy with around 80 independent shops, providing a wide range of products including many food shops selling local produce, including some with their own farms and fishing boats. It also has a large Co-op. Castle Douglas is the main driver of the local rural economy. Despite their Georgian shop fronts, these are not old-fashioned businesses, with new businesses opening up all the time – there is only one vacant shop on the high street.

In Spring 2004, local residents found out that Tesco was submitting a planning application for a 2700 sq. metre supermarkets and a 200 space car park, on an ideal 'edge of town' site on the main road leading into the town. The high street is 300m and a roundabout away. In May 2005, after a concerted campaign, Tesco won planning permission, with local councillors arguing that the supermarket will modernise the economy and bring back money currently spent by local people at the Tesco in Dumfries 18 miles away. Despite Tesco's claim to bring jobs to the area, locals say that the area does not suffer from long term unemployment and the supermarket is more likely to loose jobs than create them. Tesco will especially impact on the small towns around Castle Douglas. The post office in nearby Haugh of Ur is already closing as its owners say they have seen what has happened to small shops elsewhere as a result of a supermarket moving in.

The campaign is ongoing. The decision to allow Tesco planning permission is likely to mean that planning permission will be granted for the garden centre (currently on the Tesco site) and the cattle market to move out-of-town – totally transforming this small rural market town.

South Molton – Residents Against Tesco's Supermarkets (RATS)
Contact: Diana Amory, Meethe Barton, South Molton, Devon, EX36 4JA

Locals are campaigning against North Devon District Council's proposals to allow the development of a town centre site for a new supermarket. The Council considered a number of different sites but eventually decided on a site owned by Tesco adjacent to the town centre car park and pannier market. Tesco has not yet put in a planning application and says it won't go ahead until the Council sells a strip of land next to the site to Tesco and they want control/ ownership of the town car park as well. Locals say that they weren't consulted properly about the proposals to build there and are calling for a referendum on whether a supermarket should be built in the town. The group is concerned about the impact of a supermarket on the viability of the market and the existing shops in the town centre. They are also concerned that the supermarket will be adjacent to a number of historic listed buildings and the council failed to consult with English Heritage.

Hadleigh, Suffolk-Campaign Against Another Supermarket in Hadleigh (CAASH)
Contact: John Bloomfield, Hadleigh Society tel: 01473 822063
www.hadleigh.org.uk/tesco

The initial Campaign Against Another Supermarket in Hadleigh, (CAASH) was successful in stopping a Tesco superstore on the edge of the centre of Hadleigh, Suffolk. However, in 2004, Tesco reared its ugly head again in Hadleigh.

First campaign: The Hadleigh Society and other like-minded bodies teamed up in April 1999 to oppose proposals from two supermarkets to build on the site. In October 1999, local people voted in a referendum following which the Town Council rejected the Tesco application, whilst recommending that an application by Buyright Stores, to extend their existing supermarket, should be approved.

The developers of the Tesco store, appealed and a Public Enquiry took place in October 2000. The weight of evidence filled more than the three weeks allocated, and the conclusion was finally scheduled in March 2001, two years after the proposal was first aired. The Inspector’s report recommended that both supermarket proposals be refused. The Secretary of State agreed and turned down both Tesco's appeal and Buyright's application.

The Inspector accepted that the need for a supermarket was proved but rejected the Tesco proposal on the grounds that the building was of an unsuitable design and would not enhance the outstanding conservation area. The Inspector repeated in her report that the proposed building looked as if it had been designed by Pinewood studios! The Inspector also considered that the proposed road junction would create traffic problems and noise pollution. The Inspector's only significant objection to the Buyright proposal was that the building of a supermarket adjacent to the existing store would create a "one-stop" shopping site from which few people would walk into the High Street. The local shops might therefore suffer.

Second campaign: On Christmas Eve 2003, Tesco launched its second attack making a planning application for the same site, although this time proposing two schemes one that would require the sale of the town's allotments and the other requiring the demolition of a house. In both cases a compulsory purchase order would be necessary. This time around Tesco prepared a PR offensive for example, launching a website showing off the scheme and playing up the 'clawback of trade' argument, claiming that of every £1 spent by residents on household goods, 85p is spent outside the town.

The Hadleigh Society identified a number of technical omissions in the plan; the archaeological assessment, for example, contained errors, and doubts were raised about the flood risk assessment.

Then, in February 2004, Babergh councillors agreed that the site could be used for retail development and a further decision was to be considered as part of the Local Plan Inquiry in the autumn of 2004. The Suffolk Preservation Society requested that Babergh consider other community uses for the site, and the Hadleigh Society collected 1,262 signatures opposing the Tesco development.

In March 2004 Hadleigh Town Council’s Planning Committee rejected the latest Tesco plan for the site by a majority of five to one. It was rejected on the grounds of traffic problems, environmental damage, dangers to pedestrians on Bridge Street and the effect of heavy traffic on the historic buildings adjacent to the site. Suffolk Wildlife Trust joined the Suffolk Preservation Society in demanding further investigation of the site. The Trust believes that the site may provide an important wildlife habitat. Tesco, however, continues to lobby for a new store.

In late 2004 and early 2005 The District Council’s Local Plan was placed before the Inspector who finally reported in November 2005. In this he concurred with the previous Public Inquiry Inspector’s observations, Tesco’s planning application not having been determined by the DC. On this occasion Tesco got round the fact that protagonists of a scheme are not allowed to appear before the inspector by arguing for a larger store still, which was turned down by the Inspector. The Inspectors report listed the comments by the opponents, which went on for very many pages but dismissed all of these in a single sentence. He relied heavily on the previous Inspectors observations, but was highly selective in the way he used the information. We now have some good planning brains poring over the Inspector’s recommendations. The distinct impression coming from the District Council is that Tesco is too big to fight, so let us not waste our time and the ratepayer’s money. Nevertheless all this has been sufficient to revitalise CAASH, so the Fat Lady has yet to sing! (Going on previous form Tesco will put an application in on Christmas Eve)

Top tips from the Hadleigh Society's campaign include:

• Prepare carefully - it took CAASH about a year to gather necessary information

• Rather than address the weaknesses in the application, look at what they've left out. Someone with a good, cynical mind is a great asset!

• Use a range of tactics. In Hadleigh, we used real cars to stage the council's projected traffic figures. This caused town centre gridlock - what further proof was needed! Another tactic was to build a model of the development to illustrate the inappropriateness of site and design. In Hadleigh, this included erecting scaffolding to illustrate the height of building.

• Follow the rules to the letter with regard to the Planning Inspector.

• Engage as many of your friends and colleagues in the campaign e.g. use your Christmas Card list to ask your friends to write to the District Council.

• Brief your District Councillors separately from the Council Officers.

• If you get obscure and confusing replies from the developer, expose this at the enquiry. We asked a simple question about relative heights of buildings but received a reply with a confusing explanation. At the enquiry we asked the developers ‘expert’ to read the letter out. The developer got a real roasting for sending us misleading information.

Unthank Road, Norwich
Contact: Residents against Unthank Tesco, tel: 01603 664928, Bridget Barne (Co-ordinator) tel: 07792 836893
www.stopunthanktesco.com

In September 2004 Tesco submitted a planning application to Norwich City Council to build a single storey Tesco Express at the former petrol station site on the corner of Unthank Road and Trinity Street, Norwich. Over 100 people attended a public meeting in October 2004 to voice concerns. Over 3500 people signed a petition opposing a Tesco store on the Unthank Road and most of the road's retailers displayed the anti Tesco store poster.

In March 2005, over a hundred supporters of the campaign were at the Planning Committee to see Tesco's application unanimously rejected by councillors after nearly two hours of discussion.

The debate centred on five main issues: design of the proposed store, limitations of manoeuvre for delivery vehicles; the fact that the new store would not be adding significantly to what is already in the neighbourhood; the risk of increasing accidents in an area where there are already significant number of incidents and, finally, a 'lack of amenity' (Trinity St/Unthank Rd junction is a blind corner, and various other difficulties to do with the site itself).

Tesco's representative said there would be only 2 - 3 lorries per day and that a new Tesco would improve sustainability(!). In response, a local campaigner and two Ward councillors spoke strongly against the proposal. One of the councillors said she had 'more correspondence about this issue than any other in her time as a councillor'. The clear majority of this had been against the proposal.

Portobello, Edinburgh
Contact: Portobello Campaign against the Superstore email: info(at)pcats.org.uk
www.pcats.org.uk

Campaigners successfully blocked an 85,000sq.ft. superstore development in the historic area of Portobello, Edinburgh. Although the end user was never revealed, local campaigners suspected it was an application from Tesco. The application rejection was met with dancing in the streets and an impromtu celidh! A summary of the decision is as follows:

The development is not in the town centre nor edge of centre but is sufficiently close to be included in an extended town centre; The superstore could be accommodated without architecturally compromising the area’s character or appearance; A superstore could complement Portobello without affecting the existing ‘niche’ shops. (PCATS disagree that the butcher’s, greengrocer’s, fishmonger etc. are niche shops); There would be little impact on the surrounding residents!; The increased traffic from the superstore would not improve the shopping environment; It was not clear how the council had arrived at the view that the local roads could cope with the increased traffic, (it’s what we’ve said all along); The development is inappropriate in scale and character and is not well integrated with Portobello; The demands for heavy access by car would create congestion, pollution and parking problems;

In conclusion, the superstore would have to be successfully integrated with the town centre and not cause significant traffic problems. This proposal does not do that, the store would be free-standing and would adversely affect the quality of the shopping environment of Portobello.....I hereby dismiss your client’s appeals and refuse to grant outline planning permissions for the developments.... (the magic words!!)

Top tips from pcats

1. Try to appeal to broad a spectrum of supporters. Don't assume that certain groups will not be interested in your campaign. We had every age group from eight weeks to eighty years old at our public meetings.

2. Inform supporters regularly through as many channels as possible, e.g. e-mail, newsletters, leaflets in shops, libraries, pubs, etc or delivered through doors. press releases, web sites, public meetings, demonstrations.

3. Use planning arguments (employ consultants, independent of local authorities if necessary) and don't just rely on emotion.

4. the need to be organised and persistant

5. organise a wide programme of enjoyable fundraising activities. Use events to help keep the campaign momentum by getting people together, especially during fallow periods. The Portobello campaign included Ceilidhs, a Burns Night Supper, coffee mornings and a film-themed calendar of local traders raised £6,000!

Walsall, West Midlands - Walsall Friends of the Earth
Contact: Gerald Kells, 55 Folly House Lane, Walsall, WS1 3EL. Tel: 01922 636601
email: gerald.kells(at)talk21.com

The Walsall local FOE group campaigned against Tesco's plans to replace their town centre store, which serves people without cars, with a smaller Tesco Metro, and build a big new store on the edge of town. The local FOE group and other opponents of the proposal claimed the new store was ‘out of town’ but the council argued that it was ‘in town’, because the site is included in the town plan. The FOE group successfully argued that the store was 'out of town' at the public enquiry, held in September 2001. The group continues to support the maintenance of the town centre and oppose out of town developments. Gerald Kells is an experienced campaigner on supermarket development and planning appeals and is happy to give advice to other campaigners.

Witney 'Save the Post Offices Campaign'
Contact: Richard Dossett-Davies tel: 01993 705516
www.users.waitrose.com/~greenwitney/recent.html

Local people in Witney were angry when Tesco took over two local 'One Stop' convenience stores and then said it would close the post offices which had been operating in the shops. The campaign called a public meeting so that local people could voice their views over Tesco's plans to close the Post Offices in Cogges and Fettiplace Road (Smith's Estate). Locals argued the post office closures would leave 10,000 people in Witney without a local post office. Many pensioners depend on the post office to withdraw money, pay utility bills and council tax. It is too far to walk to the main post office for many elderly and disabled people. Local campaigners including pensioners and wheelchair users took their campaign to Tesco's HQ in Hertfordshire and to Tesco's AGM, where they put searching questions to Tesco's CEO.

The fight continued with more demonstrations, but eventually Tesco closed the stores in 2004, amid promises from them and the local council that at least one of the Post Offices would reopen elsewhere, but that promise has been dropped. Campaigners hear that profits at the two Tesco stores have been disappointing.

For more information about nationwide campaigns to try and stop Tesco closing instore post-offices, see www.everylittlehurts.org.uk

Workington, Cumbria - Save Our Cloffocks campaign
Contact: www.cloffocks.cwc.net/MainFrame.htm

Asda and Tesco are currently involved in a bidding war for the controversial Laundry Field site on the Cloffocks, a piece of open land in Workington. The battle has been ongoing since 2004, when a £20,000 independent survey said the town could not support two big name retailers, and Tesco was chosen. In July 2005, with Tesco just weeks from submitting planning permission, Asda stepped in with another multi-million pound bid.

After a long running campaign by the 'Save Our Cloffocks' group to prevent development on the site, including a failed attempt to have the site declared a public green, a lone campaigner, Paul Shepherd, has launched his own protest against the latest threat by submitting his own planning application for a wildlife haven and adventure playground. He had to pay £265 to submit the application. Even if he is successful, it doesn't mean he can go ahead as the final decision lies with the land owner, Allerdale council. The council says it is planning to use the millions from the sale of the land to develop sports and leisure schemes in the area and they have already begun a consultation process. The Cloffocks is the site of an ancient Celtic game called 'Uppies and Downies'. The sale of the land for a supermarket would spell the end of this long standing tradition.

Lewisham-Hither Green Heritage,
Contact: Douglas Earle, 144 Hither Green Lane, London SE13 6QA.
tel: 0208 244 3778.

Tesco bought the Hither Green Hospital for £5m, and sought planning permission to redevelop it, although there were already several supermarkets nearby. The campaign against it focused on heritage issues (preserving the old buildings and their setting), traffic, impact on local shops and loss of trees. The application went to appeal in 1999 and was rejected by the Inspector. The main reason for rejection was the negative impact it would have on the local town centre.

Llandovery
Contact: Mr Davies, 4 Kings Road, Llandovery, Carmarthenshire, SA20 0PU. tel: 01550 720 269.

In the late 1990’s there were plans for a store and petrol station on a green field site at edge of this small market town (2,000 population). Local traders and residents were concerned about the damage it would do to the town centre. The retail impact assessment carried out for Tesco was felt to be highly inaccurate, so Camarthenshire County Council commissioned its own. Currently there is a revised application for a central town location which some retailers feel might encourage more people to shop in the town. An environmental impact assessment (flood prevention scheme) was needed and the retailer had to pay half the cost, approx. £600,000. In June 2001 Tesco withdrew their application because they felt there wasn’t sufficient parking in the scheme for the edge of town development.

Sheringham Campaign Against Major Retail Over Development (SCAMROD)
Contacts: Ronald Wright/Jamie Wright, Ironmongers - 01263 823258

Billed as one of the last towns without a supermarket, the residents of the market town of Sheringham have been trying to fight off the major superstores for more than seven years. Budgens got planning permission for a smaller store at the end of the high street in 2003. The scale of the proposed out-of-town Tesco store and its impact on the vitality of the town centre are the main concerns, as are increasing traffic problems on the already busy coast road. The campaign group argued that the planned Budgens store was big enough to meet Sheringham's shopping needs. Locals feel let down by the council because the Tesco store was initially refused permission by the area planning committee, but when Tesco threatened to appeal and claim costs from the council if the application was refused, it was subsequently approved by the full council in January 2004. The permission was however subject to twenty conditions. Tesco say some of these are too onerous, the limit on non-food to 15% of the floor area and the ban on a cafe, florist, chemist and wet fish sales in the store, and so they are back before the planning committee again arguing for their removal.

Wimborne, Dorset - Keep Wimborne Town Green Action Group
Contact: Peter Mann pm3(at)speed-mail.co.uk or PhilipAtlay philip(at)atlay.fslife.co.uk tel: 01202 881 554
www.kwtg.co.uk

Locals in Wimborne are campaigning against the development of a Waitrose store on one of the only green spaces left in town, the cricket pitch. They are not opposed per se to Waitrose being in the area, but to the particular site that has been chosen for the store. They have enlisted help from English Heritage as the cricket pitch is in the Wimbourne Conservation Area, also the Environment Agency as the pitch is a 'sump' for flood waters if the river Allen overflows. The group has a petition and is encouraging people to write letters to councillors and plans to present argument against the proposals to the planning committee.flows. The group has a petition and is encouraging people to write letters to councillors and plans to present argument against the proposals to the planning committee.

References
[71] Brighton Urban Design and Development newsletter www.buddbrighton.org