Stour Community First

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www.stourcommunityfirst.org

Staying the Course for our Future: Stour Community First

Many of you will have heard the news that the Tesco plans were approved by the Tendring District Council Planning Committee last night. We are obviously devastated by the news. Not only did 5 members of the committee vote in favour of the plans, with 2 against, but most surprising was that there were 4 abstentions. To abstain from giving a view on such an important issue is unacceptable and we will be making the group's views known to Bernard Jenkin, our MP, to Tendring DC and to the Planning Committee directly.

Thank you to everybody who has supported our fight over the last 4 years. We were born out of the community's wish to fight these plans and we hope that you feel that we have given everything that we can.

So what does this mean now for Stour Community First? Well, we have always said that we are a group that is not just 'anti-Tesco' but totally 'pro-community'. Over the coming months, we will be thinking about what we can do to continue to support our community and help it to thrive, even in the face of the new Tesco that will be built. So we urge you to continue to support us and your community. Without this support, our worst fears about the impact that the Tesco could have are more likely to come true:

• Support your local shops on the High Street - you will be supporting a long chain of local suppliers too
• Don't shop in the new Tesco store - it may only be a small gesture, but each of us can make that gesture
• Once the store is built, tell us about any bad practices you see Tesco undertaking. Tesco are notorious for it and we are not going to let them get away with it
• Get involved in the various community activities that SCF and other groups are organising

In short, divert your passion in fighting the Tesco proposals towards supporting Manningtree, Mistley and Lawford. Ironically, now that the store will be built, we would love nothing more than to be proven wrong; we want Manningtree's High Street to thrive and our local businesses to prosper. But wouldn't it be good if we could say that this was because the local community supported them and not simply because a big supermarket happened to bring people into town (which we don't believe happens anyway).

So look out for our emails in the near future which will tell you more about what we are going to be doing. Stour Community First is proud of our community and we are going to do everything we can to ensure that it maintains its vibrancy, heritage and tradition in the face of all the challenges in front of it. But we need your help to do it, now more than ever.

So stay the course for our future by supporting Stour Community First