THE LONG and gruelling battle has ended. Tesco has finally laid down its arms over plans to build a store on Poynton’s main artery.
The supermarket giant has this week confirmed it will not appeal against the borough council’s rejection of their plans for a store on London Road South.
In the last year, there have been many bruising clashes between the multinational and locals, who said a shop of that size would choke the village’s road network and ruin the character of the area.
Tesco maintained throughout the saga that it could help keep shoppers in Poynton, who at the moment travel outside the village to buy their groceries. Parish and borough councillors, traders, residents, campaigners, and even MP for Macclesfield Sir Nick Winterton, opposed the chain store’s advances.
Earlier this year, Macclesfield Borough Council binned the plans after councillors voted unanimously against the application.
And this week Tesco finally accepted defeat over the scheme and said they would not launch a lengthy legal appeal that could have cost borough taxpayers thousands of pounds in barristers’ and solicitors’ fees.
Keith Lambert, of campaigners Poynton Against Tesco (PAT) and a trader on Park Lane, said: "This really is a victory for the small man.We’re relieved. That’s probably the best way to describe it. I think you’ll find that most of the people in Poynton will be relieved and overjoyed.We are not going to suffer the problems of traffic and business closure that we would have done. We always lived in hope."
A spokesman for Tesco said: "Obviously we were very disappointed with the council’s decision to refuse our application in Poynton, however we will not be appealing against their decision."
But he would not confirm that Tesco would not consider other sites in Poynton in the future, and said: "We are always looking at ways to serve our customers in Poynton. We never say definitively what will happen one way or the other."
