Fear new shop would divert trade from town centre

The company’s scheme to open a 15,000 sq ft food store in Park Road could have brought up to 150 new jobs, Vale of White Horse district councillors were told. But they refused the application because it would divert trade from the town centre and was on a site earmarked for industrial use.

Waitrose has just announced its intention to submit plans for a store north of Gloucester Street, creating up to 120 jobs, and councillors on the Vale’s development control committee were told on Wednesday that Waitrose would not go ahead with its application if the Tesco store was approved.

Objectors said the Tesco store would harm town-centre trade but other residents welcomed the application, including mother-of-three Leanne Hutt and a Facebook group with 560 members.

Mrs Hutt, 26, of The Lees, Faringdon, said afterwards: “This is a missed opportunity for the town. I am here to represent hundreds of residents in Faringdon who are supporting Tesco coming to Faringdon.

“I have 400 names on a petition — we should not have to do a 20-mile round trip for our shopping.

“It’s hard to afford to give your kids their five fruit and veg a day in the credit crunch and it would cost a lot more at Waitrose than it would at Tesco.”

Harriet Warner, 27, a piano teacher from Faringdon, who started the Facebook campaign, said: “This is the wrong decision and I think Tesco should appeal.”

But shopkeeper Trevor Wynn, 58, who has run the Nut Tree gift shop in Cornmarket, Faringdon, for the past seven years, said: “The committee’s decision to refuse Tesco planning permission was a victory for common sense. The Tesco store would be too far out and would take trade away from the centre.

“But if Tesco had considered the Gloucester Street site we would have been pleased with that. We do need another supermarket but not one on the outskirts.”

Liberal Democrat district councillor Richard Gibson told the committee he had visited Faringdon to walk the routes between the Tesco and Waitrose sites and the town centre, adding: “The Gloucester Street site is on the edge of the centre but I do not believe that people will shop at Tesco and then walk to other shops in the town centre.”

Conservative councillor Matthew Barber said he sympathised with Faringdon residents who drove out of town to get their shopping, adding: “Tesco are no more or less able than any other retailer to ruin a market town. The big problem here is not who it is but where it is.

“Many people feared problems in Wantage when the Sainsbury’s store opened but that is much closer to the town centre.”

Alan Hickmore, chairman of Faringdon Town Council, pointed out that the town council did not formally object to the Tesco application. He said: “The site has been unoccupied, will provide the equivalent of 100 full-time jobs and, frankly, we need those jobs in Faringdon.”

Budgens in Faringdon, which is planning to expand the town’s only supermarket, is watching developments closely. Shoppers will be able to see Waitrose’s plans at an exhibition in November and the chain expects to submit its planning application by the end of the year.

Following the meeting, Tesco spokesman Sophie Akokhia said: “We are disappointed by this decision and will now consider our options. We will keep the local community updated.”

When asked if Waitrose had hijacked the Tesco application, Ms Akokhia replied: “It has been timed to perfection.”

The councillors voting against the Tesco plan followed their officers’ recommendations to reject the scheme on planning grounds.

The plan was refused on three grounds — the Park Road site was outside Faringdon’s identified town centre area in the local plan and would divert trade from the town centre; alternative sites on the edge of town were not properly investigated by Tesco and the plan involved the loss of an established industrial employment site.