People need to realise that whilst there may be a need for a supermarket in no way should it be Tesco's. As a company their statergy is to sway the planners with so called affordable housing and once in and trading forget their promises. Just look at the Sands development in Scarborough, suddenly when the developers are meant to paying AS PROMISED to improve Peasholm Park they say they have no money, the same will probably happen on the Chubb Hill development and will most certainly happen at any Tesco site.

The other thing Tesco will do is suck all the business from the already struggling town centre and as said before the commercial properties in Whitby are not of interest to chains due to their sizing. I will put money on the town looking like Beirut within 3 years of Tesco arriving.
Please before thinking 'It would be nice to have a big Tesco in Whitby' think about what makes Whitby great and so very attractive to both us and the thousands of tourists it brings, its the fact that it hasn't gone just like every other town.

Whilst Whitby does need another 300 jobs, at what cost to Whitby? Tesco's proposals may be enticing but we don't need Tesco. Gradually our beautiful town is being eaten up by development. Yes, we need more affordable housing for residents but we need redevelopment in a sympathetic manner.

Whitby is unique and we need to keep it that way, Homebase is already a blot on the landscape on the way in to Whitby don't let anymore retail giants buy their way in with empty promises.

Too True. Gradually our beautiful town is being eaten up by development.

Go to any other fundamentally tourist driven town such as Stratford, Cambridge, Oxford etc and you'll see how developers have to make do with the facade of the old grand building and will in many cases build new behind old, but not in whitby, its a case of tear it down as quick as you like and put up another eyesore such as Chubb Hill, Albion Street. Makes you wonder who's palms are being crossed with 'gold' with no thought of why Whitby is loved by so many.
Utter madness to think Tesco's care about affordable housing/climate change, its all hot air to sweeten the planners.

Then get pro-active. Check out the FREE WHITBY MOVEMENT, visit our web-site and read about our policies. We are not idiots!

http://www.freewhitby.org.uk

We can already choose to shop at Tesco or not but have to make at least a forty mile round trip to do so.

Why should my free time be taken up travelling out of town to do a basic,affordable weekly shop or even watch a movie, go bowling or eat out at Pizza Hut or McDonalds for that matter? Why are the people of Whitby denied this convenience in their own town? You can't even get up to date DVD's in Whitby since Woolies shut, not to mention the other media and gadgets unavailable to us in our own town.

Surely companies such as Tesco who want to serve us should be able to do so. It must be in our interest to keep our economy local. You don't have to shop there, that is your choice, but at least you can have that choice if the shops are here to choose from.

Whitby is currently run as a giant theme park with town center businesses mainly concerned about serving the tourist. Local needs are not being catered for. Most of the elected coucillors ( elected by local people ) are only interested in developing Whitby further for tourism and local issues are often overlooked. Keep it. Have your theme park, but give us our shops.

Whitby can be more and better than this. The geography and history of the area prove it. Don't be afraid of change and development. Keep an open mind and remember that any development in the town will be for profit, let's not pretend it isn't.

More damage is being done to our town by tourism than any shop like Tesco could do. The only jobs available to Whitby people are seasonal minimum wage jobs working at niche businesses, often in poor working conditions, owned and run by greedy settlers.
Property is unaffordable as it is bought up for use as holiday cottages. I've seen these people arrive for their week in a Whitby holiday cottage. They park up and unload all their Tesco shopping, ironically, brought with them from out of town. They park for free all week taking up residential parking spaces all around the town center area and beyon

Ask the butchers, bakers and greengrocers of Stow on the Wold in Gloucestershire where their customers went to when Tesco came to town. If you want up to date DVD's, go on the internet (you can pay for it by saving on travel costs) but if you want local services, local produce and local businesses to continue, avoid the mistakes of Stow on the Wold. Whitby is unique, don't spoil it with multi national conglomerates who care little for the townsfolk and the traditions. Shop locally with locally sourced produce. The more people shop this way, the costs will come down and Whitby will stay unique.

"Tesco who want to serve us should be able to do so. It must be in our interest to keep our economy local"

So do you see the Tesco execs living in Whitby, no so how can you even think Tesco could help the local economy, any hundreds of jobs promised turn out to be tens of, not hundreds and many of them part time.

Having lived in towns that have been 'invaded' by the trash you mention, the fast food chains bring nothing but litter and obesity and the chains close the local butcher, greengrocer, newsagents and petrol station all of which not only provide better service but to many a place with a friendly face.
Thats one thing Tesco won't ever be able to give.

Money spent in locally-owned businesses gets spent again in locally-owned businesses. From butcher to baker to candlestick-maker. By supporting local businesses, we are supporting our own community.

Money spent in Tesco's pays a few menial wages, true, but the vast bulk leaves the town forever.

Same story with absentee holiday-cottage landlords.

Whitby attracts the money, greed extracts it.

The trick is to attract money to the town that STAYS here. Tesco is not in business of making Whitby prosper - it's in the business of harvesting Whitby's prosperity.

If the 'harvest' fails, they'll pull out and leave a hideous mess for SBC to screw up the redevelopment of, meanwhile keeping the bureaucrats' snouts in the trough.

No win for Whitby whichever way that goes.

I fully agree with all the comments in the post by Kevin Graham.
This is a major opportunity for Whitby.
And before anyone asks the obligatory questions, let me answer them :-
Yes I was born and bred in Whitby.
Yes I live near the proposed development.
It's time to wake up to reality, we need something like this to loosen the stranglehold the likes of W Eves & The Co-op have on us and our pockets!

If you haven't studied this, then your opinion on the Tesco proposal is under-informed:

http://www.tescopoly.org/

"Tesco now controls over 30% of the grocery market in the UK. In 2009, the supermarket chain announced profits of over £3bn."

and

"On 26th August the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) found Tesco guilty of using bogus statistics in a leaflet outlining plans for a new store in Manningtree, Essex."

Beware of those who misinform the under-informed. They do so to fulfill THEIR ends - not OURS.