A crowd of protestors took to the streets amidst renewed plans to build a Tesco on Mill Road.

On September 29 the campaigners arranged themselves as a human lorry to demonstrate the congestion they fear the opening of the supermarket would cause. They claim that lorries each taking forty minutes to deliver to the new Tesco would cause chaos on the narrow streets.

The public inquiry at the Guildhall is currently ongoing. It has seen protestors arguing that the store would place excessive strain on Mill Road traffic; Tesco say that their vans would make little difference.

Protestors claim that if Tesco is successful, then it is because the council have been either ignorant or deliberately inconsiderate of the city’s feelings.

One man said “Tesco on Mill Road would significantly affect the independent traders – what are they going to be selling? Ready meals and sandwiches. Tesco haven’t really done their research....they don’t listen to the community and what the community want. That seems to count for nothing to Tesco.”

The angered campaigners were muttering of a “democratic travesty”, although some passers-by questioned whether the community as a whole is as anti-Tesco as was being claimed. One man stated, “I’ve lived here for my whole life, and I don’t think Tesco is going to do any damage to Mill Road, not at all.”

He argued that the protestors would prove to be hypocritical: “We’d like to have the greengrocer’s, we’d like to have this, we’d like to have that – I’m sure they would, but all these people are going to be shopping in Tesco in the next couple of months. They will be.”

Some have suggested that the opening of Tesco on Mill Road would provide much-needed competition to the Sidney Street Sainsbury’s. That shop currently has a monopoly over the student market, and is bursting at the seams as a result. Tesco’s supporters believe that the convenience of a new supermarket will cause many of its current opponents to change their tune.

Ellie Humphry