TESCO chiefs turned out in force to a town council planning meeting in a bid to allay the fears of Petersfield residents who concerned about the supermarket's plans to expand and provide state- of-the-art sports facilities at The Petersfield School. After a meeting in September, the town council received a report from developers outlining residents concerns about floodlighting, fencing and noise levels. At the town council's planning committee meeting, Causeway councillor George Watkinson thanked the developers for quickly responding to concerns raised at a previous meeting as it had given him the chance to speak to residents about possible problems. Transport noise levels were a big concern for residents, he said, Tesco's Dot Com home delivery service operates late into the night. The developer's reply to the council report said there were 551 HGV movements along The Causeway each week and that Tesco was responsible for 14 of them. One resident asked: "Has any consideration been given to the fact that Dot Com peak time is between 7.30pam and 11pm when people are at home, so the peace and quiet of the evening is going to be disturbed? Already there is a complaint at EHDC over the arrival of delivery lorries in the early hours of the morning and the noise created by the night staff after midnight whistling and moving crates and pallets about." Tesco development executive David Bevan said: "We can deliver until midnight. It's about convenience, that's when deliveries are made. In an entire day there would only be three additional deliveries." He added that Tesco could work with the council to prevent deliveries after 10pm. Mr Watkinson said: "The residents were convinced that the times were different." Mr Bevan responded: "They may have been told incorrectly. We are willing to change the hours were a little more acceptable." A resident, who lives in one the houses adjacent to site, said: "The noise from the tennis courts will have a considerable effect on the adjacent housing. Is a sound barrier fence to be built around the tennis courts to reduce the noise level? If so, where is the fence being positioned and what effect has it on the adjacent housing?" Mr Bevan replied: "We have said from the outset that we would work with her to see what she felt would be appropriate. "Having seen it (the finished development), if she wants to put hedging up she can do that, but if that doesn't work we can put up an acoustic fence. "We are not going to force something on her that she doesn't want." Another concern was whether Clanfield observatory had been consulted over light spill into the sky. "Some years ago, they objected to the Astro pitch light at Southwick ruining their observations in the evening skies, more recently they complained about a project in Horndean," one resident said. Mr Bevan said: "The only light spillage would be reflection off the pitch. Most of the light is downwind, it's not horizontal." He added there would have to be an "element of tolerance either way". After the meeting, Mr Watkinson said "The biggest problem is that the big oak tree has got to come down. "It's a disgrace to lose another tree. There are too few big trees. But I can't see Tesco being stopped by a tree." The developers said that non-deciduous pine and green oak trees to be planted would grow higher than six metres. Proposed fencing surrounding the development, at five and three metres, was deemed to low to prevent balls going over it. Developers said they had used Admiral Lord Nelson School as a case study as it has a similar layout, with it's football pitch next to a busy road, and that had reported no problems. Since the meeting, Mr Watkinson has said residents in his ward were worried that a start time of 9am was too early at weekends, and proposed operating hours of 10am-6pm.