Battleground: Broad Street

Tensions ran high at the meeting on Tuesday as traders argued about the best way to resist what they called the ‘power of Tesco’.

It came after a dramatic week, which saw the LoveLyme campaign gather momentum, with objectors canvassing the town for support and drawing up plans for a demonstration outside Woolworths on Saturday.

Prices at the Broad Street store were slashed by 70 per cent and shoppers continued to queue to get in.

Woolies staff remain tight-lipped over their looming redundancies.

Tesco also revealed this week it has no plans to extend the site, amid fears the retailer has been eyeing up the Cottage Bakery, Pitt House Flats, and the NCP car park.

Corporate affairs manager Juliette Bishop said they are not interested in that area and the store would remain an Express unit.

Lyme Regis Town Council’s are due to meet with Tesco representatives next week.

Colin Willis, chairman of the Lyme Regis Traders’ Association, and one other local business have been invited to attend, although traders believe it should be an open meeting.

Tesco objector Laura Noel said at Tuesday’s meeting in the Royal Lion Hotel: "Two people seems very few considering the number of people it is going to affect. Can we have a public meeting on this so everyone in Lyme can have their say?"

But mayor Sally Holman warned it would not be ‘an attack on Tesco’ meeting. She said: "It is an information seeking meeting. It is not a meeting about ‘Stop Tesco’, or about anything negative, simply an opportunity to find out all we can.

"Our (town council) first concern was very much for the people who have lost their jobs and our other concern is the economic well-being of Lyme Regis in a wider sense. I am not willing to be associated with ‘Stop Tesco’ banners and boycotts."

The association’s vice-chairman Pat Hicks, and owner of Threshers, said boycotting Tesco is the best defence. "We have got to get people not to shop there - that is the answer. I shall do everything in my power so they will not close me down."

Like Mr Hicks, Cottage Bakery owner Phil Saunders believes resistance is futile. Mr Saunders said: "What can we do? They (Tesco) are in anyway."

But restaurant owner Franny Owen said the supermarket’s arrival is not a foregone conclusion. She said: "There are very current precedents of communities in similar situations as ours that have stopped Tesco well beyond this point."

Mrs Owen said objecting to every minor planning application, for refrigeration for example, could cause problems for the retailer, hopefully forcing it to pull out.

Association chairman Colin Willis said if it came to that, the town would be left with another empty building, like the long-derelict Three Cups Hotel. "It is a big site which would be hard to fill," he said.

Trader Hilary Highet said: "I don’t think we should be frightened of the prospect of an empty building if there is any possibility of stopping a Tesco coming in. What we should be frightened of is some food shops going out of business and being replaced by Starbucks or Next."

They agreed these kinds of companies would be devastating for Lyme Regis, but welcomed the prospect of a Waitrose on the Woolworths site. Mr Willis said: "The best chance we have got is to get another supermarket to take it."

But with Tesco’s sights set firmly on Broad Street, Mr Willis tried to reassure traders. He said the Express store in Sidmouth has no fresh fish or meat counter, no in-store bakery, and only one special offer on wine. "It may not be as bad as we first thought," said Mr Willis.

It was a view shared by West Dorset MP Oliver Letwin who said the store would improve trade for the bakers and grocers of Lyme.

He said last week: "My instinct is that the net effect of Tesco arriving in Lyme Regis (given that the store will be in town rather than outside it) will probably lead to increased custom for local traders, due to people coming to shop in Lyme Regis who might otherwise have gone elsewhere. This has been the experience in other cases where a supermarket appears on the high street, as opposed to appearing on an out of town site."

Previous attempts at opening a supermarket in the town were thwarted in 2000, when town councillors put a stop to attempts to build a store on the site of Woodmead Halls.

But at the time, councillors did not rule out looking at multi-purpose sites on the outskirts of the town.

While Dr Letwin believes local traders will see business thrive, shopkeepers think it will lead to decreased trade from tourists, who they say will be driven away by the presence of a Tesco. One trader said at the meeting: "They come here to get away from the plastic society and I think we need to make a stand."

Remaining tight-lipped this week are Woolworths staff, under strict guidance from their management, although one said: "I think it’s obvious how we feel."

Another added: "Woolworths is something that has been here for so long. It’s just not fair."

A Woolworths spokesperson said all the staff are now in a 30-day consultation to discuss their individual futures. "These discussions are confidential and we cannot comment until the consultation is complete," the spokesperson added.

Lyme resident Nicola Pemberton shops regularly in Woolworths and said her main concern was for the jobless staff. "We will all miss the girls and good luck for their future," she said. "When I go in there I feel like I am picking over bones - it is their livelihoods.

"Woolworths is the heart of the community - we all meet in there. Maybe we do need a Tesco, but did we need Woolies to go? All the children come down to Woolies after school with their pocket money but where are they going to get their DVDs and toys now?"

Shoppers are snapping up toys and other discounted goods while they still can, before the shop’s closure on Saturday.

During the meeting, Axminster celebrity chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall pledged his support to the campaign and he was due to discuss tactics with the objectors.

Lyme fishmonger Simon Bennett took a call from Mr Fearnley-Whittingstall at the meeting but said he was not yet ready to reveal his plans.

He has called the Tesco takeover a ‘nightmare’.

The chef launched a national campaign against factory-farmed chickens in March and his television programmes highlighted the horrors of the intensive rearing methods that enable supermarkets to sell hens for as little as £2.50.