Last orders for your local | Money | The Guardian

Last orders for your local | Money | The Guardian

When local residents and traders found that the Bird in Hand pub in Brickhill, Bedford, would be converted into a Tesco Express, they were determined to resist. Within three weeks, an action group collected 1,500 signatures protesting against the store. Hundreds turned out for a public meeting.
Councillors were lobbied, a protest website set up, boycotts organised. The protestors found a restrictive covenant that said the site could not sell anything more than tobacco, alcohol and mineral water. A community poll in October, which drew a higher turnout than the town's mayoral referendum, gave a thumping 'no'. In total, 1,080 people voted against Tesco, and only 69 in favour.
But the protests fell on deaf ears, and in February the retail giant took over the Bird in Hand, its eighth store in Bedford. Despite the Brickhill protests, Tesco has now found another pub across town, the Crown, which it plans to convert into what will be its ninth Bedford store.