The campaigners who want a Tesco in their town

The battle lines have been drawn. Across the UK, pressure groups - like the one above in Sheringham, Norfolk - are getting organised and standing up against the all too familiar not-in-my-back-yard mentality of anti-supermarket lobbyists. They’re calling for supermarkets to come to their towns.

So who are these Imbys (as they shall henceforth be known)? How are they garnering support? And how much influence can they really hope to have on the planning process?

Their counterparts, the Nimbys, either cast themselves as the final bulwark against the worst excesses of capitalism or protectors of a more wholesome, by-gone era. Conversely, this new breed of pro-supermarket campaigners has far more practical motives. They’re tired of the long drive to far-off supermarkets for their weekly shops and the scant choice, high prices, long queues, inadequate parking and short opening hours of existing local stores. They want change, and they’re mobilising on social media and using changes to planning legislation to help get what they want - to good effect in Sheringham.

“The headlines were that Sheringham was against Tesco - that just didn’t feel right. Suddenly people took on the fight”

Jono Read

For 14 years, the question of whether the town - served by an East of England Co-op and more recently a Sainsbury’s Local - needed a larger supermarket divided this seaside community. The antis fought hard, campaigning to ‘keep Sheringham special’ and objecting to plans from Waitrose and Tesco on the grounds that a supermarket in Sheringham would detract from the town’s character, kill local businesses and cause traffic chaos.

This was a vocal minority, says Jono Read, who in 2007 set up a Facebook page to mobilise support for a supermarket coming to town after a parish poll revealed 82% support for such a development. “The headlines were always that Sheringham was against Tesco - that just didn’t feel right,” says Read.”I wanted to see what the strength of feeling was. Suddenly it felt like people were taking on the fight and coming together.”

In 2010 planners finally gave the green light for a Tesco to be built on the edge of Sheringham. With a sales area of just under 4,000 sq ft, the store is about 25% smaller than the one Tesco had previously wanted to build. Nevertheless, the Imbys are happy. “The plans look great,” says Read. “We want Tesco because local people need jobs and good value shopping.”

The web - particularly Facebook - is playing a crucial role in pro-supermarket campaigns around the country. On the Isle of Skye, a group set up to support Tesco’s application to build a 30,000 sq ft store in the village of Portree has won the support of nearly 2,000 followers on Facebook. Tesco’s plans for the island will go to public consultation in October. For Janet Gillies, islander and co-founder of the pro-Tesco group, the development will help make Skye a little less isolated.

“There are days in the summer when you can’t get basics like milk and bread in the three Co-ops [operated by the Co-operative Group] on the Isle of Skye,” she says. “I can go to the Inverness Tesco [a five-hour roundtrip] and spend £120 and the trolley is full. If I spend £120 in Co-op, it won’t even last the week. Even when you’re spending £50 on fuel, it’s still cheaper to go to Inverness. We need a supermarket.”

“There are days when you can’t get basics like bread or milk on the Isle of Skye. We need a supermarket”

Janet Gillies

Not everyone’s as keen on the idea of Tesco arriving on Skye as Gillies and her supporters, though. There have been grumblings amongst some of the island’s shopkeepers, admits Gillies, but as yet no groups have sprung up to argue against a Tesco on the island. “Their main argument is that a Tesco would take away from existing businesses,” she adds. “But the shops on Skye were already closing through no fault of Tesco.”

Elsewhere, anti-supermarket groups have been far more organised. And vocal. Last April, protests against the opening of a Tesco Express in Stokes Croft, Bristol, by a group claiming to have 93% support from local people (falsely - protestors had only polled 500 of the community of Stokes Croft and St Pauls, which Bristol City Council says numbers 6,000) descended into riots.

The two sides are also entrenched in the Wiltshire market town of Malmesbury, where Waitrose and Sainsbury’s have both submitted development plans. The town is currently served by two small Co-ops (Co-operative Group) and many locals say greater choice is needed to sustain Malmesbury’s growing population. Others say the development will sound the death knell for the town, clogging its streets and killing off local businesses.

Again, these voices of dissent appear to be in the minority. An online poll on Wiltshire councillor Simon Killane’s website revealed 72% support for a supermarket of some description to be built on the edge of town - 37.4% favoured Waitrose’s application to build an 18,000 sq ft store, 26.9% supported Sainsbury’s plans to build a 30,000 sq ft store and petrol station and 7.3% agreed with both proposals.

Vocal and local
“This vocal minority tends to be very local, living near the town centre,” says Killane. “They tend to be very well off and have concerns because a supermarket would directly affect them. Many more, particularly old people living in rural areas, would prefer to go into a supermarket with a car park rather than go into some quirky old town centre.”

Of course, large retailers and their developers need to prove that a new development will benefit more than just their bottom lines if any planning application, whether it is supported by local people or not, is to be successful. Apart from the jobs such new supermarkets can bring (Tesco says it will create 200 on Skye and 150 in Sheringham, and Sainsbury’s and Waitrose say they will bring 200 and 140 new jobs to Malmesbury respectively) developers are often required by law - under Section 106 agreements - to help fund civic projects related to their developments.

“The new legal process gives a real opportunity for locals to influence how their towns are planned”

Mike Carpenter, head of planning, Bidwells

”These are agreements between the applicants and an authority,” explains Mike Carpenter, head of planning at the consultancy Bidwells. “It used to be guidance but now it is law that payments or contributions made to an authority have to be ‘fairly or reasonably’ related to a development. These agreements are often elements that integrate a development into a local area, things like improving links between a store and a town centre or providing car parking open to the public.”

In Malmesbury, both Waitrose and Sainsbury’s have made several amendments to their plans - including the addition of a pedestrian walkway into the town centre, new pavements and a new roundabout to improve road safety. In Sheringham, Tesco has funded a new community centre and emergency services centre (the first in the UK to house all three blue light services under one roof) to replace those that will be demolished to make way for the new supermarket.

On Skye, the developer Tesco is working with is being asked to provide funding for improvements to the road that links Portree with the village of Staffin, a project for which one source says “public funding is non-existent”. Tesco was due to make a call on whether it would fund the project this week.

‘Dysfunctional’ planning system
Investment in local infrastructure by retailers looking to set up shop in an area is another plus for pro-supermarket groups. “There is terrible traffic congestion on the Staffin Link Road, especially in the summer time with all the tourists,” explains Gillies. “At times, the road is single track so part of the agreement is that they should improve the road to ease the congestion.”

Recent changes in the law giving residents greater say over how their areas can be improved also stands in these groups’ favour. Carpenter says the new rules, which allow residents to draw up their own neighbourhood plans that go on to inform local authorities’ planning strategies, are proving valuable. “This new legislative process gives a real opportunity for neighbourhoods and locals to get together and influence the way their towns are planned,” he adds.

“We have a people-led process. Residents are saying there’s a need for a supermarket in our town” Simon Killane, Wiltshire councillor

It’s putting power back in the hands of people, agrees Killane. “The UK planning system is incredibly dysfunctional,” he says. “We’ve all been living through a developer-led process in which developers say ‘I’ll give you a suitcase of money and you’ll give me access to your land.’ Now we have a people-led process in which residents are saying there’s a need for a new supermarket in Malmesbury. We’re saying ‘bring it on.’”

Of course the retailers will only “bring it on” if a proposal adds up. “We set new stores up in response to customer demand,” says Michael Kissman, Tesco community and property communications director. “We build new stores when we know they’ll be busy and popular.” And if they are - as Kissman insists the Tesco Express in Stokes Croft is - they’ll stay open. No matter how loud the Nimbys shout.