Protest over Tenbury Wells Tesco plans

Angry residents in Tenbury Wells, on the south Shropshire border, have held a public demonstration in their bid to stop a Tesco superstore being built.

About 30 people gathered on Friday to oppose plans for the 15,000 sq ft store planned for the town's cattle market.

Major concerns raised by TesNO campaigners include the effect of the company's heavy goods vehicles regularly travelling over the town's 14th century Teme Bridge, which is already in need of major structural repairs that could cost up to £2 million.

Residents also fear the new store could see many small independent shops close.

The demonstration was held to coincide with an exhibition of Tesco's revised plans for the site, which will include 100 car parking spaces and could create up to 150 jobs.

TesNO campaigner Andy Stevenson said: "The precarious structural state of the Teme Bridge will be substantially damaged further by Tesco's potential HGV fleet. The route across the bridge and into Tenbury already states it's unsuitable for HGVs, and it would be madness to sanction Tesco to bring more over this bridge.

"We are also very concerned that a 1998 UK Government report found that when a large supermarket is built in a market town centre or just outside that other high street food shops could lose between 13 and 50 per cent of their existing trade. This can't be good for Tenbury where shops are only just beginning to recover from closure after the floods of 2007 and during the present economic slowdown."

Nobody from Tesco was available to comment.

By Peter Kitchen