Store protester claims campaign ‘sabotage’

The leader of a group accused of dirty tricks in its battle with Tesco over a new superstore told a public inquiry yesterday it was his campaign that was being sabotaged.
The proposed developmentThe proposed development
The proposed development

As reported in the Yorkshire Post, protesters mounting a last stand against the proposed Scarborough store were alleged to have falsified letters of objection to the scheme.

But yesterday Neil Price, chairman of Scarborough Town Against Tesco Store (STATS) denied any wrong doing.

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He said: “I felt underhand tactics were being used to discredit our campaign and that’s what I feel now.”

STATS appeared on the verge of defeat in its four year battle to stop the £25m new superstore being built in Dean Road, near the town centre, last December when the scheme was granted planning consent.

But a public inquiry was ordered into a partial road closure needed for the development after more than 6,000 objections were received by the Department of Transport.

Cross-examining Mr Price yesterday, Tesco barrister Reuben Taylor suggested STATS was not interested in keeping Trafalgar Street West open – but only in stopping the store being built.

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He read out complaints from people who claimed never to have signed the standard letters of objection delivered by STATS to the Department of Transport.

Some of the supposed objectors’ names had been mispelled, and one elderly couple were said to have been “unnerved” that their details had been used – while others said they would be taking legal advice.

Inquiry Chairman Ian Jenkins called for order as shouting broke out from the audience during the cross-examination.

Mr Taylor suggested some of the names and addresses on the letters may even have been copied from an earlier petition.