- Tesco's proposed floor space is much more than the combined floor space of all the present comparable Hadleigh High Street shops.
- 3,000 square metres is equivalent to nearly 2 and a half Olympic sized swimming pools.
- Despite Tesco's claims, surveys show that it will NOT bring employment to Hadleigh.
- Action for Market Towns, based in Suffolk, confirms the threat to local jobs. Within a 15km catchment area of 93 superstores studied, employment in specialist food retailers declined by nearly 30%. Each superstore opening resulted in an average net loss of 276 full-time equivalent jobs.
- Failure of local shops will lose jobs, according to a survey undertaken by CAASH (using the Lady Cranbrook formula) which identifies that at least 156 jobs would be at risk, not including the growers and suppliers of local produce.
- Tesco talks only about their use of a ‘brown field’ site, the industrial estate, but part of the land is virgin meadowland.
- Increased traffic on all roads, bringing congestion, making it difficult to cross the road and increasing the dangers
- to children
- to mothers with prams
- to slow walkers
- A bye-pass was built to protect our precious buildings and Tescos will bring lorries in to our town and encourage more traffic.
- Access into the town is already difficult, as all roads into Hadleigh are effectively single lane.
- Hadleigh is already serviced by 10 supermarkets within a 15 mile radius, all considerably larger than the proposed new Tesco store.
- The proposed development will have flood insurance implications for those living in the town and downstream.
- The massive increase in traffic, with up to 4,000 car movements a day (based on Tesco’s own figures), will harm riverside wildlife and spoil the tranquility of the River Walk and nature reserve.
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