Labour Government About To Make It Harder To Oppose Tesco

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Mon 14th May 2007

St Albans Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate Sandy Walkington has condemned the latest Labour Government suggestion to reduce local councils' decision powers over huge new superstore developments.

The government's review of planning has suggested that they scrap the 'needs test', which allows local planning authorities to include need when deciding supermarket planning applications.

"If they bring this in, it will only make it harder for us to defeat the monstrous Tesco proposal for central St Albans," Sandy said. "Not just in St Albans but all over the country people are saying 'Enough is enough' to ever more applications for giant superstores.

"So we all campaign to protect our high street and local community and then get stabbed in the back by central government. This is yet another chipping away of power from locally elected representatives to decide what is good for local people.

"Proposals to take away our Green Belt, the imposition of travellers' sites, the diminution of our city hospital - when is this attack on St Albans going to stop? It's time that the Blair-Brown government gave power back to local communities so we can take our own decisions about what is good for a sustainable, vibrant city centre."

Notes to Editors:

The government's Planning White Paper is expected to be published tomorrow or Wednesday - this proposal has been widely flagged as being included.

For more information, please contact Sandy Walkington on 07802 177317