Ashtead Tesco petition signed by 45 businesses

“By the way PatrickPS given that both MP and Councillor belong to the U TURN party, ask them again tomoorrow and they will have done a U Turn and be in favour.
Given its their party the Torys that have sent the High street into decline and their friends the bankers who will not lend to smasll businesses, no whonder the High Street is falling apart.
Still never mind when this lot (The Torys) are out of office at the next eection and a decent party back in power the high street will boom again and even your friends the overcharging Shop owners who offer no choice will make money again.”

“I understand your point and the fact that you are anti towards Tesco providing the good people with range and cheap prices(maybe you are one of the rich who can affiord the exbortitant prices these other shop keeper charge, or have connections to those in business or in business yourself). However If you care to do your research you will find that everywhere Tesco wants to provide people with choice and price there are NIMBIS like yourself opposed, however when the shop eventually opens it is filled with local people who unlike yourself dont have self interest and are looking for choice and bargains.
When Tesco opens its doors you will find it full of local decent people.”

“mmman: There are now at least 630 complaints against this development lodged with the planning department. Chris Hunt, the councillor for the area and Chris Grayling the local MP are also both against this proposed development. They are both politicians and presumably aware of what the public want from them. That they are opposing this just goes to show how strong the opposition to the store has been. Petitions being run against previous proposals have regularly gained signatures in the thousands.

By contrast all we have from you that anybody other than a few estate agents support this is your word.

Which do you think I'm going to choose to believe?”

“mmman: I understand things perfectly thank you. And if you honestly think that this is about anything other than Tesco seeking profit regardless of the impact on the local community then you are being naive in the extreme. It's also rather revealing that a large part of the local population also object to this, and not just the business community. If this was such a wonderful idea I would expect them to welcome it with open arms. The fact that they don't speaks volumes in itself.

Those cheapest prices come with even more expensive consequences attached, and not just in terms of the impact on shops either. One example: those of us that just need to get through the town will suddenly find it far more difficult because Tesco lorries are blocking the way or people are double parked thanks to the lack of spaces.

The only people to truly benefit from the current proposals are Tescos themselves.

Incidentally do you then accept that Mr. Elphick was not in fact speaking for the majority of the business community in Ashtead when he said that most of them supported it? After all, the logical conclusion of what you've said would be that if most of them are trying to stop Tesco then he was either lying or made a mistake.”

“Sorry PatrickPS but you till dont get it, Tesco wants a store that will offer the widest range of goods at the cheapest prices for ALL the residents.
These businesses are trying to limit the rtange for their own personal profit. They are not interested in letting Tesco offer goods that they sell at Tescoi prices which are greatly less than these shop owners. It will benifit everyone to have a large Tesco, the larger the better.”

“They're opposed to having a store that's too big for it's environment, not to having a Tescos per se. The experience of having the other Tescos in Craddocks seems to have been good where the parade of shops is concerned, or at least there is no visibly bad impact at any rate. If it's done properly it could be a real benefit to the street. I think most people recognise that, and the problem lies in the implementation of the idea and not the idea itself.

Don't forget that on top of everything else Tescos initially wanted an entrance round the back of this new proposed store thereby depriving all the businesses on the street of any interest from potential customers that would otherwise be passing their shops. They had to be forced into offering a street only entrance to the store.

If Tescos would only just sit down and come to a reasonable compromise rather than showing utter contempt towards local residents that rightly object to having an excessively big store rammed down their throats then perhaps real progress could be made.

Finally am I the only one to notice that of the people actively supporting these proposals that estate agents seem to be rather well represented? Aren't flats part of the proposed developments? And who do you think will benefit from the sale of those new flats?”

“Of course they are opposed, how else can they continue to charge their exorbidant prices offer less choice and have less options.
It seems that those shoppers, and their are thousands of them I can assure you, who want to get cheap prices better choice and more options will need to abandon this high street and make a journey to their nearest Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury or Morrison, and show these head in the sand idiots that you have a choice whether they like it or not.”