CONGRATULATIONS to Okehampton Town Council who have seen sense and balance and taken the commonsense notion that three supermarkets is adequate for a town the size of Okehampton.

However, we see from facebook and elsewhere that the idea that Tesco will bring jobs and ease congestion in the town is rather alarmingly still around.

The assertion that Tesco will bring jobs to Okehampton is completely erroneous – of the 180 jobs Tesco will provide a number will be part-time and a number will be outsourced to staff brought in to run the new store.

There's another figure which is a national average based on detailed analysis of other such stores opening and that is a loss of 276 local jobs; 180 minus 276 is a net loss of jobs to the town and that is the likely outcome of Tesco arriving here.

In a similar way, the increase in the number of cars per hour is likely to completely outweigh the advantages of the extra parking spaces Tesco will provide. Extra congestion is likely to result from the development of the Tesco proposals, not an easing of traffic. We seem set to get a new relief road whether Tesco come here or not, so on balance I would say traffic would flow freer without Tesco.

Paul Wilson

Okehampton Community First