No superstores 'means prosperity'

BBC News Online is carrying a report today quoting the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) and the Plunkett Foundation, which claims that shops, employment and the countryside in England all flourish if plans for superstores are refused.

The report focuses on Saxmundham in East Suffolk where planning permmission for an outside town superstore was refused in 1997.

The following is taken from the BBC report.

"The area's butchers, bakers, fish shops and greengrocers have since prospered, the report says. It says the evidence should inspire UK-wide action.

Benefits of rejecting the supermarket included small stores doing well, an increase in farm shops and markets, more firms adding choice and value and local stores helping to keep communities alive, the report said.

It also ensured local countryside was well managed and served the community.

In the area around Saxmundham, the number of food suppliers rose from 300, in 1997, to 370.

And the number of shops - 81 - had remained constant, bucking the national trend."