CHAMBER OF TRADE - NO TO TESCO

Further to Tescos planning application regarding the site on Cromer Road Sheringham. We feel strongly that the size of this store is way above any needs Sheringham may have. It is totally in the wrong position and WILL cause major traffic congestion on the main road. The 20 conditions, which were set by the planning department, have not been agreed by Tesco (even if they were agreed the enforceability is highly questionable). Should Tesco be granted planning permission they will succeed in making a mockery of the Planning department- at the expense of Sheringham's smaller independent businesses. Micro businesses are KEY to the local economy in North Norfolk. Independent retailers offer local produce within a local supply chain. They know where their goods come from. This is the type of business, which has been sustaining the local economy and paying their rates over the last century! What amount of rates relief might Tesco be granted should they eventually build in Sheringham? Considering plans currently exist( on the station car park) to build a grocery store within the town centre, to grant permission on the Cromer road site will be ludicrous. Tesco profits will not be reinvested within the town or North Norfolk but will be channelled away into shareholders pockets.

Sheringham is special but not so special that it is able to fight the cloning process which has happened to lots of small towns once any superstore has been granted planning permission. The aggressive pricing of certain products (which are sold below cost) can only be achieved by high volume sales of overpriced goods, or by driving down the 'cost' price.

It is not by accident that Tesco is the most successful of all supermarkets, employing the best psychologists, the best legal experts and using the most sophisticated tactics. Tescos ensure that their shoppers are unwittingly 'led' into buying more and spending more. Tesco is a predatory uncontrolled beast, which will threaten and eventually destroy the local economy. To see it as anything other is naïve and gullible. The small retailers who run their businesses in Sheringham and will suffer great losses, are your own neighbours, your own friends and yes perhaps even your own families! To grant Tesco permission will be the greatest disservice any of the members could do to Sheringham.

Should the rail link eventually be established this will drain Sheringham even more. I implore you most strongly to refuse Tesco's planning application once and for all. This reflects the views of every member with whom I have spoken.
Yours faithfully, JOOLS MCLEOD.
Chairman Sheringham Chamber of Trade.

For information from OFT regarding threats to the grocery market, please visit www.thelocalshop.com or www.oft.gov.uk

Unclaimed Prizes!

If you attended the May Day Fun on Bank Holiday Monday at Briston Village Hall/The Copeman Centre and bought some raffle tickets - please check to see if you still have them in your wallet or your purse, as you may have won a prize!!!
Someone who planned to be there all day bought ticket numbers 77 and 80 but was not there to see them picked out and we have not had anyone come forward since to claim them. If you have them please phone me so that I can check the serial numbers to confirm the prize is yours. You can contact me, Terry Serne on:- 01263 862244

KIDZ CORNER Okay, all you children aged 1 - 12 years, this column is for you.  Enter the competition(s) and you may win a prize. What is brought to the table and cut, but never eaten?

When my daughter Michelle was 4, we were watching a program on TV and they were dancing the Macarena, and she tells me, "Mommy, I know how to do that!! Watch me do the MACARONI !! " What ever the dance was, she could do it, and I had tears running down my face.

Coffee Morning with Music at WI Hall, Cromer. In aid of Friends of Cromer Hospital.
9.30 - 12.00
organised by local members of the UK Independence Party.