Extraordinary Tesco row divides town
Updated on 04 June 2008
The community in an historic Suffolk town has been divided by an extraordinary row over plans to build a Tesco supermarket.
The retail giant's repeated attempts to build a store in the market town of Hadleigh have been turned down but earlier this year it handed in a planning application for permission to build an outlet at the Brett Works site off the high street.
The supermarket chain is aiming to incorporate Suffolk pink in the colour scheme and use building materials that bosses believe are sympathetic to the local area.
But the community has been torn in two by the proposals over fears by some that it will lead to a loss of local jobs and cause traffic chaos.
A Tesco supporters group, which claims to have over 300 members, is now boycotting local shops displaying anti-Tesco posters which say "Hands off Hadleigh".
Roy Smith, chairman of the Tesco Supporters Group, also wants to knock 20 per cent off the trade of any store displaying the posters.
Mr Smith said: "We weren't particularly pleased about boycotting shops but if that's the only action we can take, if that's the most effective action we can take, then we're all for it, to boycott the shops displaying these posters."
But John Bloomfied, who is chairman of the Hadleigh Society which opposes the plans, said: "The whole idea is that Hadleigh is a small market town which needs its local shops.
"We enjoy our local shops and the shopkeepers enjoy serving us properly and so on. This is the whole character of the town and to attack that which is core to the high street seems to be completely crazy."
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