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Please... please .... no Lidls or anything else of a similar nature in this area of St Andrew's Road. This road is chaotic enough as it is - did you know there is more traffic on this road than there is on the main road between Bridport and Dorchester!!! The whole thing would be an accident waiting to happen with yet another entrance/exit for traffic in such a congested area. And, furthermore, in an area the size of Bridport we have quite sufficient supermarket outlets already. Also, in the article it is made very prominent regarding Lidls "offers" about cycling equipment and fishing equipemnt. What do the two fishing equipment outlets at West Bay, and the cycle shop in town have to say about the matter? It would be interesting to hear their comments. Perhaps one of you reporters would like to report back on that point in next week's Bridport News. Thank you. Sue Adams

Bridport already has three supermarkets, as well as a lot of wonderful greengrocers, butchers, bakers and other specialist shops which are a large part of the town's character and appeal. No one can really claim that we lack choice - do we really need another supermarket?

Sue Adams.. probably a member of the St Andrews Residents Association, what is wrong with competion.. nothing from my point of view, perhaps what you ought to 'moan about' is the junction at Sea Rd North with St Andrews Rd... how much longer do we have to wait for improvements to this ? its about time we had a mini roundabout OR traffic lights here. Its probably thanks to your lot that I have to contend with those silly speed bumps several times a day, they are much to high. Should have had traffic calming like Skilling Hill Rd. Bring on the additional Supermarket, you may save some money by using it, and we may see some omprovements to the junction into the bargain. Of course this road is busier than Bridport / Dorchester Rd, its the only proper way to get to Yeovil and beyond, especially for the M5.

It’s great to hear of the extra competition coming into the area. Many people commented that Safeway’s prices were at the premium end of the price spectrum and I believe they got away with this for so long because of the lack of competition. Safeway targeted the retirement population of Bridport with plenty of disposable income which kept the prices high where the other Supermarkets in the town focus on low prices. It is only now with the takeover by Morrisons that the Supermarkets in the area are in direct competition with each other. We have to encourage other chains to come into the area to increase competition and help families on low incomes. I have been informed by a third party that Sainsbury’s is looking for a site in Bridport. They are having difficultly finding one so if you can suggest one please contact them directly.

Don't forget - ever Lidl helps...[bold]bold[/bold]

A Lidl in St Andrew's Road? No, no, NO! The last thing Bridport needs is yet another cut-price supermarket. Especially not one which, as we now read in the national press, has been treating its employees appallingly. If it does get the go-ahead, let's boycott it - as the residents of Seatown, who are having a new Tesco foisted on them, should boycott that. Hit 'em where it hurts - they'll soon get packing.

Pity Lidl isnt opening in SEATON instead of greedy Tesco. There is a shortage of supermarkets for Lyme, Seaton. etc. Lidl's in Bridport is better than nothing, it will be great to do Lidls then Morrisons once a month. SAVINGS AT LAST.

I look forward to having Lidl in Bridport, they offer an alternative range of products and at reasonable prices, I am sure that residents of Bridport will find it very useful, and its being built on existing commercial land.

We don't need or want a fourth Supermarket in Bridport. [bold]Let's all be at Bucky Doo on Saturday 5th April from 9 to 5 to protest[/bold] (bring your placards, posters and rubbish food packaging).

To: David Clarke Chief Executive West Dorset District Council 58 – 60 High West Street Dorchester Dorset DT1 1UZ 8th April 2008 Dear Mr. Clarke, The Proposals for a new Supermarket in Bridport: The people of Bridport have become aware of a new supermarket wanting to open on the edge of town. Many of us are asking what advantage this may have, how does it serve the people of the town and how does it serve our elected officials. Supermarkets extract profit from the host community in exchange for what? They create some low paid jobs but have a negative effect on the well being of our high street, forcing closure and loss of jobs. We will exchange our friends and neighbours as owners (and tax payers) for remote owners. Although the precise exchange can only be speculated the UK government report of 1999 suggested that with the opening of local superstores over 60% of high street trade is lost within one week. As their profits will be counted at their corporate HQ in Germany the shop will serve to erode our tax base by extracting profits which will be payable to the remote company in a remote authority. Our rubbish collection, street cleaning, policing, hospitals and other services will suffer. Thus all or our citizens will suffer in the name of what? Increased competitiveness, increased choice? We already have three supermarkets in this small town. How many more charity shops do we need on the high street? Is this supermarket offering something unique; for instance will they will purchase the majority of their fruits, vegetables, fish, cheese, ice cream, chocolates, meat pies and meat from local farmers and producers thus increasing the well being of the local economy, creating a local character for the shop and supporting the local culture? I doubt it. Are they offering an organic profile to improve the health of the townspeople or a shop which sells –as the other supermarkets- refined grains laced with salt, sugar and a cocktail of chemicals? They will increase pollution as this shop will presumably work like its competitors operating on the bases of last minute deliveries meaning instead of warehousing they are storing and distributing their food out of artic lorries. The lanes will suffer, the general environment will suffer (it is said that 16% of carbon dioxide pollution is from the food industry) and people will be forced to get into their cars to shop. We can presume that they will build another warehouse box, add some inappropriate decorations and lots of lights to make certain we read its name and see well enough in the parking lot, all of which will distract from the integral architecture of the town, add light pollution and further destroy the tourist attraction of Bridport. Do we assume that our town council is seduced by the idea that Bridport must do its part for fair trade? Disregarding the fact that the EU and the US maintains subsidies against the rules of the WTO, that they also maintain tariffs against any degree of finished goods from developing countries and that Britain as a country does not insist on only fair trade goods entering. We as the citizens of a small town can insist that companies who wish to trade within our boundaries conform to some ethical and moral standards and that they should not even be considered if they do not. I think fair trade is probably not a good enough reason to allow them access. We have also read some disturbing reports of their ill treatment of staff in their supermarkets in Germany, is this the kind of employer we wish to welcome to Bridport? The argument for allowing them in would, to my mind, have to overcome all of these objections and provide a transparent set of offers we could not refuse before I could be convinced that yet another supermarket should open. Listening to the conversations in the local shops and reading the angry letters in the Bridport News, I suggest the council think very seriously before considering any application for any additional supermarket in the town. We are sending this letter to Oliver Letwin MP and to the Andrew Campbell, Leader of Dorset District Council as well as the local newspapers. We look forward to hearing from you. Yours sincerely Robert and Tina Golden

I SEE JOBS!!! =D cant wait till it opens. going to get my app in a soon as posible.

I am always fascinated when I see people ranting and raving about new supermarkets, about how they will destroy the high street and so on. It is sad that these kinds of people always seem to resort to fear and conjure up an image of "big brother" in an attempt to stop these sort of developments. There is no reason why the supermarkets should destroy the high street shops, obviously high street shops can not compete on price on a like-by-like basis, but that just means that the high street shops should evolve and adjust there position to suit the marketplace they are trying to operate in. Supermarkets (especially LIDL) do not cover the high end of the food market, if you want quality meat you go to your high street butcher, if you want quality vegetables, you go to your high street greengrocer and so on. People should always have the right to choose, what is sad is that a lot of people generally go for "cheap" rather than quality when it comes to food shopping. The way to help prevent this attitude isn't to deny the public access to cheap food, the way to prevent this is to educate the public as to why the food is cheap and why they would be buying something of a higher quality. The way to solve this isn't by controlling what is available to the public, it's by educating the public ......

Well I will welcome Lidl with open arms. The main Morrisons supermarket needs some serious competition. Prices in Morisons Bridport are higher than other Morrison stores. Somerfields and the co-op aren't a big enough threat to Morrisons, so their prices stay high. There's certainly a market in Bridport for such a store. Many real local people are very lowly paid, and that work can often be seasonal.I would suggest that the nay sayers are probably not local, or if they are, live very comfortably in thier lovely big houses in St Andrews Road. People in St Andrews road should perhaps come to terms with the fact that yes they have lovely houses, but they choose to dwell on a road that is the only access to the 2 industrial estates that are currently expanding in size (Gore Cross & St Andrews Ind Est) Those along with a large Travis perkins depot, co-op, veternary surgery. A Lidl will hardly make any difference. I wonder if a Wiatrose or M&S would have cuased as much objection ????

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