Tescos should be welcomed to Ashtead provided it cuts the size of its proposed store in half and builds a shop in keeping with the rest of Ashtead village said MP Chris Grayling at a stormy meeting.

Ashtead Peace Memorial Hall was packed out on Tuesday night with people opposed to Tesco’s plans to build a supermarket of more than 1,000 sq m on the derelict site once occupied by a petrol station.

Chris Grayling told the audience: “The balance of probabilities is that there will be a Tesco store here in some shape or form, but we can dictate how big it is.”

Mole Valley District Council held all the aces in the fight against the supermarket giant because it owned the car park that Tesco needed to provide parking space for its customers he told them.

“We can dictate and we should dictate how big the store is. We must tell them ‘be less ambitious or you can’t use the car park’.

“My view is that we should be going to back to Tesco saying that you are welcome to build a store here but a smaller store more in keeping with the rest of the shops in The Street.”

Brian Elphick, chairman of the Ashtead Village Traders’ Association, said his members were split on plans to build a supermarket in the village.

Some were convinced that they would go out of business if it opened while others were convinced they would be forced to close unless there was something to attract more shoppers to the village.

“One of our members told me ‘Ashtead has never been so dead - we need something to keep it alive’.” he said.

The meeting was organised by Ashtead Residents’ Association for its members to express their views on the proposal.

The majority were determined to fight the proposal on the grounds Tesco’s was dominating the neighbourhood and a new store was unnecessary and unwelcome and would attract antisocial behaviour at night.

Other grounds of objection were that the proposed store and its expanded car park would wreck nearby homes and cause traffic congestion.

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