Downing St petition in battle over store plans

The petition against the plans to build the superstore in Scarborough will be handed in to Downing Street on Thursday next week by the Scarborough Town Against Tesco Store (STATS) group, which has collected more than 5,400 signatures against the proposals. The group opposes the size of the development and the impact on traffic as well as the effect on local businesses.

Malcolm Short, the chairman of STATS who will present the petition alongside fellow campaigner Sylvia Bonnet, said: “The time is getting nearer for the planning committee to make its decision.

“We have no option but to take it ourselves to get further exposure of our campaign, and to stop this superstore from being built.”

Tesco beat rival Asda to the site with a bid of about £20m in September last year and submitted plans to Scarborough Council in January.

A decision over whether to grant planning permission was recently delayed and it is now thought that the application, originally scheduled for April, will not be heard until later this year.

A Tesco spokesman said: “We are working with Scarborough Council, North Yorkshire County Council, local residents and other stakeholders to get the plans right for Scarborough.”

Meanwhile, the national spotlight has turned on Harrogate after the Yorkshire Post revealed on Wednesday that controversial proposals to build a Tesco superstore in the town – the last postcode area in mainland Britain without one – will finally go before planners next week.

If a decision is made by Harrogate Council to provisionally approve the plans, it will signify a giant leap forward after a lengthy planning process which has rumbled on for almost four years.