Sir, – Sir, – We write in response to the statement put out by the Coors/Vale partnership to announce an exhibition of their proposed plans for the building of a supermarket on the Coors Sports Ground in Anstey Road. It is noteworthy that this announcement appeared in the week before Alton Town Council is due to consider the Tesco application for its own supermarket, to be located at the retail end of the Mill Lane industrial estate.

The Anstey Residents' Group (ARG) was set up recently to represent and give a voice to Alton residents appalled by the total unsuitability of the sports ground as a supermarket site. ARG are not by any means an 'anti-everything' group and agree that Alton would benefit from another major-league supermarket to provide competition to Sainsbury's. However, we are very much opposed to siting a supermarket on a green field site in an area of the town that is entirely residential in nature. Not only is it out of the town centre, but it is bounded by a conservation area on one side and a listed building on the other which happens to be Hampshire's oldest school building, dating from 1642. Its location cannot in all seriousness lay claim to having a minimum impact on the retail prospects of the High Street – if Tesco's Mill Lane initial application failed that criterion, then so should that of Coors.

The existing Coors Sports Ground is currently protected by a covenant from 1935 which was drawn up to specifically to provide enduring protection of the sports ground from the possibility of exactly this kind of development. While we favour the retention of that covenant, the reality is that should the relevant parties (Coors/EHDC) be minded, they can quite legally render it ineffective. If that proves to be the case, then a sympathetically designed housing development of an appropriate density would surely be a more suitable use of the site than the proposed commercial development.

It is difficult therefore to take seriously Vale Retail's assertion about the pedigree of Molson Coors' heritage in Alton "that dates back decades", when they actually came to Alton in 2002 and now, within a few years, are initiating steps to trash the covenant of 1935.

They claim to have shown how seriously they take their responsibility to the local community, but give no details as to how they have done this. In fact, their much trumpeted "responsibility" appears to manifest itself in completely ignoring the wishes of those residents living nearby and riding roughshod over local conservation and heritage issues under the spurious guise of providing the town with 'the right solution' and 'a host of new facilities'. What is included in this host of new facilities is not explained and, in terms of sports provision, we already have those facilities on a pleasant green field site which Coors acquired from Bass, but now seems determined to submerge under acres of concrete.

What are not mentioned are the serious traffic problems that are likely to result on the busy Anstey Road/London Road if this scheme is allowed to proceed. This road is a feeder-route for at least five schools, not including a popular nursery and Treloar College. In addition, approval has been given to develop the Chandos Lodge site which, when it is complete, will result in a further 200 houses feeding traffic onto the same length of road and considerably increasing peak hour flows.

ARG is supportive of the provision of a full range of sport facilities in Alton. However, the attempt to introduce a supermarket onto the site under the guise of wrapping the whole scheme up as a gift to the sports people of Alton is disingenuous and Altonians should be wary of being deceived by this strategy.

The relocation of football and bowling, together with the funding of further facilities for tennis relies entirely on land being made available by Alton Town Council. It is not, as is being suggested by the Coors/Vale partnership, a net gain of sporting facilities in Alton but simply a replacement of the provision being lost due to the redevelopment of the Coors site. Visitors to the Coors/Vale exhibition at the Assembly Rooms would do well to scrutinise very carefully exactly what the Coors scheme is promising.

ARG appreciate the difficult challenge facing the Alton town and district councillors in finding a solution that will be acceptable to their electorate and not seen to be prejudiced towards the applicants, special interest groups or indeed any other parties that have a commercial interest in the Coors site.

ARG will continue to oppose the commercial development of the Coors Sports Ground but will support the introduction of a second large supermarket of sufficient stature to compete with Sainsbury's, but in a more appropriate location. Arguably, Tesco seems to us to have such a location in Mill Lane. They already own the site and are also offering Alton substantial road improvements to Mill Lane and the Ashdell crossroads, as well as an extension of the cycle and bus routes. Additionally, they are willing to undertake the clearance and re-utilisation of a brown field site which is currently a derelict and toxic eyesore. All these benefits are new, of direct advantage to the town and are not just a relocation of existing sporting facilities that are already to be found on the Coors Sports Ground.