2:13pm Thursday 30th July 2009
By Nigel Kerton
Mum Lisa Farrell, who has spearheaded a campaign to bring a bargain-price supermarket to Marlborough, was this week celebrating news that Tesco is planning to open on the town’s business park.
But Mrs Farrell, 43, who lives with her 25-year-old son Bryan in Five Stiles Road, revealed her efforts to bring a supermarket to town that caters for families on lower incomes has not made her popular in some quarters.
She said: “I had one woman tell me at a meeting that if I brought Tesco to Marlborough she would shoot me and my son has been the subject of abuse on Facebook.
“The town badly needs another supermarket, there is nowhere in the town centre for one because modern supermarkets require their own car parks, so we think this is a marvellous chance.
“I live in a part of the town where there are many low income families and this will be good news for them.”
However, the town’s chamber of commerce is againt the Tesco plan as it fears people will stay away from the town centre and only go to the business park in Salisbury Road.
Chamber president Peter Davison said he was sorry Tesco was not moving into the town centre and said: “Trading conditions for independent retailers are difficult, even in a vibrant town like Marlborough, and shopkeepers are concerned about the competition that an out-of-town supermarket will pose, especially one which is able to offer free parking.”
Wessex Chamber of Commerce chief executive Mike Williams said: “We share the concern of the Marlborough chamber and, while we have no objection to Tesco as a company, we would have preferred to see them opening in the High Street.”
Marlborough has had just upmarket Waitrose to rely on since Somerfield closed three years ago.
Local people started to campaign for another supermarket to come to Marlborough saying low income families were being forced to go to Devizes, Hungerford, Swindon and Tidworth to shop.
The Marlborough Matters group was set up by Mrs Farrell, who is a catering manager at Marlborough College, with a group of friends to fight the cause.
They initiated talks directly with supermarkets including Tesco, Asda and Morrisons inviting them to look at Marlborough and they believe it was their efforts that made Britain’s biggest supermarket chain decide to come to town.
This week Tesco confirmed it had secured an agreement with the business park owners subject to planning consent because the trade park has a no-retail restriction.
A spokeswoman said: “We are proposing a small store near the entrance to the business park.”
It would be similar in size to Tesco at Hungerford and would be mainly a food store. Tesco representatives will be attending a public meeting at the town hall on August 10, 7pm, to discuss the proposal.
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