Aldi faces NIMBY backlash...from Tesco!

TESCO has been accused of hypocrisy for claiming a proposed Aldi store would harm local businesses in a Cotswolds town – despite having three shops in the area itself.

The supermarket giant said the new Aldi will have a ‘significant adverse impact’ on Stroud, Gloucestershire, famed for its quaint independent shops. But locals said the British chain was ‘simply trying to protect its own inter- ests’. They pointed out Tesco effectively dominates trading in the area because it runs three shops within a 2.3-mile radius of the town centre.

There is a superstore in Stroud itself and two Express shops nearby. One local Karen Maggs said: ‘I don’t think Tesco should be allowed to comment on any proposed supermarkets as they are the biggest culprits for taking business from other shops.’ Aldi has applied for planning permission to build its own 1,918 square metre supermarket 1.5 miles away from the superstore.

But a letter of objection to Stroud District Council has now been filed by Tesco’s planning consultants.

A Tesco spokesman said it had ‘submitted representations’ concerning the impact on ‘nearby town centres’.