Great Success For Ed Davey Public Meeting On Tesco - All-Party Opposition To Tesco Plans

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Mon 16th Apr 2007

The public meeting on Friday 13th April on how to beat Tesco organised by the Liberal Democrats and chaired by Sandy Walkington, Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for St Albans, set a new benchmark for cross-party working in St Albans. The meeting was designed for local residents opposed to the Tesco plans to meet Ed Davey, MP for Kingston-upon-Thames, who has successfully campaigned against a similar Tesco application in his own south London constituency.

"It was standing room only in the Trinity United Reform Church hall. It was particularly gratifying that Anne Main MP and Cllr Roma Mills both came to pick up campaigning tips from Ed Davey," Sandy said.

"I opened the meeting by saying that I had received calls both from Tesco and from their lobbyists. It showed that meetings of this kind do have an impact and can make a difference.

"There were then opening speeches from Mike Dilke of the local non-party political residents' campaign, from local county councillor Chris White on traffic and retail impact issues, and then from Ed Davey detailing all the key arguments and points which worked in heading off Tesco in his own constituency.

"I am very grateful to Anne Main and Roma Mills for attending the meeting and emphasising the all-party nature of the opposition to Tesco's current proposals. The subsequent exchange of questions and answers between the audience and the panel teased out all sorts of useful tips and ideas.

"As Ed Davey made clear, Tesco will still come back with new proposals for his south London constituency. They are not out of the woods in Kingston yet and still have a fight on their hands. So he was delighted to take away learning points from the meeting too.

"We ended up with Ed Davey, myself, Anne Main and Roma Mills standing shoulder-to-shoulder with local residents. It is so refreshing when politicians from different parties can demonstrate they can work together and learn from each other. I hope this will be a precedent for future occasions in St Albans", said Sandy

ENDS

For further information, please contact Sandy Walkington on 07802 177317