Consumer chairman backs calls for third supermarket

Responding to a leaked Economic Development department report recommending scrapping countryside protection in favour of a new large food operator, Senator Breckon said that increasing competition would be good for Islanders.

He said that building on an ‘edge-of-town or semi-rural’ site, as proposed by the report, would be a Planning issue and not a retail one – adding that previous sites had been mooted at Green Street car park or the Airport.

And he said that protests from Sandpiper and the Co-op were just an attempt to defend their businesses. ‘What the existing operators are worried about is a big hitter with some power,’ said Senator Breckon.