TESCO claims it will be up to customers to choose whether its proposed store for Frinton will be successful or not.

Newsagent David Nelder said plans for a Tesco Express store in the town’s Walton Road should not be allowed to go ahead, because it will threaten his neighbouring shop – which has been used as a newsagent’s for almost 75 years.

Frinton and Walton Chamber of Commerce has also urged shopkeepers to band together to fight Tesco, because it claims there is no need for another convenience store.

But Carol Leslie, of Tesco, said: “It is certainly not our intention to be a threat – quite the contrary – but retailing, by its very nature, will always be competitive and any retailer will understand that it’s about responding to customers’ needs, and providing what they want.

“In the end, it is the customers who choose whether a store is successful or not.

“We have provided a retail statement and this was accepted by planning officers, that there would be no unacceptable impact on trade to the three local centres.”

  • More in today's Gazette