Bible warning against Bovey Tracy Lidl

Heed the 'stampeding pigs'

Councillors have been urged to resist the temptation to allow a branch of the multi-national Lidl supermarket chain to open on the fringes of Dartmoor.

Quoting a bible story about stampeding pigs and recalling a much-loved Bovey Tracey hardware store which closed in 2022, local resident David Halpin urged members of the Teignbridge Council planning committee to ‘vote in memory of Arnold’s and fear the Gadarene rush to Mammon’s abyss’.

However, members of the committee, meeting on Tuesday, decided to allow the German chain to go ahead with its plans for the new store.

Lidl will build a food store with parking and landscaping on a piece of land north of Marriott Way on the outskirts of town. It could create around 40 jobs, according to a report to the planning committee.

The report explained that when Lidl first came up with plans for a Bovey Tracey branch the company sent nearly 6,000 questionnaires to local homes. Of those who responded, 1,500 were in favour and 600 objected.

The report says the application is a departure from the council’s policies because the land has previously been earmarked for employment purposes, not retail. However, shopping is not specifically banned.

Council officers said it was hoped that the new store would cut down the number of shopping trips taking people out of Bovey Tracey to neighbouring towns.

But objector David Halpin, who quoted the Biblical stampede, said: “It will, within a year or two, kill off Bovey Tracey stone dead.

“It goes against the neighbourhood plan. A plan is a plan, supposedly a democratic way forward against chaos. Why does Lidl have the brass neck to go ahead?”

However, Lidl regional head of property Suzannah Clemo said the proposals had received ‘overwhelming support’ in the town. And, she said: “With the rising cost of living, it is important now more than ever to provide the residents of Bovey Tracey with shopping choice.”