Campaign to save The Crispin

At my book club last night one of the lovely members told me that he and his wife always read this blog, which was great to hear. However he said he doesn't want to hear any more about vegetarianism! Belt up about the green stuff Jade and get back to the supermarkets. So in honour of this gentleman, I've found a new supermarket-related issue to tell you about today....

I was flicking through an edition of S40 Local, a brilliant little local community magazine in my area, when I spotted an article that caught my eye, for obvious reasons.

The piece in S40 Local

It was about a campaign that had been mounted to prevent a local Chesterfield pub, called The Crispin, from being taken over and turned into a drive-by Tesco Express.

The article made for some interesting reading. I was surprised to learn that if the application was successful it would become Chesterfield's nineth Tesco-owned store, which of course begs the question what on earth would a small town like Chesterfield need with NINE TESCOS? Especially as we have a Tesco Extra which must be the size of a small village right in the centre of town.

The piece also explained: "The conversion of a pub to a supermarket is a change of use that doesn't require planning permission - only things like car parking, signage, and an ATM require approval so typically change can slide through unchallenged."

Luckily in this instance it appeared that the application was being challenged by local people living near the pub. The Crispin, on Ashgate Road, has been a public house since 1840 and was originally a hostelry for weary traders bringing salt to the tanneries of Chesterfield.

Now I have to admit when I read this little article I didn't hold out much of a hope for the campaigners trying to save The Crispin. It seemed like something of a David and Goliath battle, and I've been working in local newspapers for long enough to know that controversial planning applications often get rubber-stamped despite local opposition.

But I also noted that the issue of S40 Local that I'd been reading was rather an old one (it's been hidden under a growing pile of papers for quite a few weeks) so I decided to do a little Google search to see if I could find the latest news on the campaign.

I was really really chuffed to find this newspaper article from last Friday's Derbyshire Times telling me that Tesco's application to turn The Crispin into a small food store was recently turned down by town planners. Apparently more than 1,100 local people had joined the campaign to save their local pub.

Tesco has not yet decided whether to re-submit the applications, which included installing an ATM and an extension, or appeal the decision, so the future of The Crispin remains in doubt.

But in the meantime a Facebook page (FB/savethecrispin) tells me that the campaign remains very active and there are a number of initiatives to promote the pub and get people using it.

I guess you don't need to be a genius to figure out where I sit in this particular debate. I think that nine Tescos in one small town is already nine too many, so I really hope that David will triumph over Goliath in this instance. Save The Crispin!