Campaigners hit back at Tesco

7:23am Monday 25th February 2008

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CAMPAIGNERS protesting against plans to build a new Tesco in St Albans have slammed claims by the supermarket that they are in the minority.

Most people in St Albans are either neutral or in favour of the development in London Road according to an independent survey carried out by Adroit-e Research, a market research company based in Harpenden .

The poll of 301 St Albans residents, who were asked to rate their feelings about the prospect of the superstore on a scale of 1 to 100, revealed just 34 per cent were opposed to it while 36 per cent supported the development and 24 per cent had no feelings either way.

But pressure group Stop Tesco argued the survey distorts the real view held by local people.

Simon Hepburn of Stop Tesco said: "We don't know what questions they asked and we know that lots of people think anything is better than the current waste land in London Road - even a supermarket.

"What we don't know is if they were asked about alternatives.

"We know people would prefer to see a new school or housing built on the site rather than a supermarket."

He added: "It is spin - Tesco hasn't released the full results of the survey.

"Also they have asked shoppers - if they were to ask people who lived or worked near the site the numbers are much more against - they are spinning this as some sort of massive success.

"We haven't seen any increase in support for Tesco, if you walk around the area you will see Stop Tesco posters up everywhere."

Tesco finally submitted a planning application to St Albans District Council for a 4,000 square foot superstore on the former Eversheds printing site last week.

Tesco corporate affairs manager Michael Kissman is positive more St Albans residents are mellowing to the idea of a new supermarket despite ongoing opposition.

He said: "This survey was undertaken independently of Tesco and has shown up some most interesting results.

"It reflects for the first time the size of the silent majority which is not opposed to Tesco's plan to regenerate the London Road area.

While our opponents are extremely vocal and are exercising quite properly their right to promote their views, it is encouraging that there is a groundswell of opinion which considers that the development could be a benefit to the city."

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