Blog: So, more worrying times ahead for Shrewsbury town centre then, writes David Burrows.

It seems businesses inside the river loop are under attack from all sides.

I’ll start with what is probably considered a swear word in these parts: Tesco.

Yep, the company famous for its slogan “Every little helps” has decided that a lot helps even more, and is bidding to expand its out of town store.

This is the same Tesco which stuck two fingers up to the planning process last time around and decided to sell more non-food goods than it was legally allowed to. Its punishment? Receiving retrospective planning permission.

Town centre traders quite rightly picked up their verbal pitchforks and declared Tesco a threat to their very existence.

Tesco now wants to increase the size of the store by a third. Their argument is that it will safeguard 420 jobs.

Sophie Akokhia, Tesco corporate affairs manager, says: “Our store is extremely popular and busy.”

So, Sophie, that being the case, why do the jobs need safeguarding? Surely if you’re popular and busy, those jobs should be quite safe, shouldn’t they?

As usual a corporate giant is using gun-to-the-head tactics. If they suggest not granting planning permission would lead to people losing their jobs, then the planners will just fall over themselves. Let’s hope the powers that be realise this particular gun is loaded with blanks.

One reason people will flock to Tesco (especially if they can get all they need there)? It’s free to park. Unlike the town centre. Which is not only very much not free, there’s not many places to park anyway.

I was at a recent show where a Canadian comedian playing at Theatre Severn reworked a famous line from Star Wars: “What are we doing here? In Shrewsbury?” he asked. “It’s like something out of a dream. With very limited parking.”

And if you can find a space be prepared to take out a second mortgage (mortgages. Remember them?) to pay for it. Of course, if you don’t have the right money, you won’t get change (surely that should be illegal, shouldn’t it?)

Shrewsbury Town Council has called for Shropshire overlords to produce visitor figures to show what impact those charges have had. Can’t wait to see them. Especially to see if they ring true. A lot of people have been commenting on this website saying the car parks on Sunday are all but empty. Parking charges on Sundays have increased from £2.50 for a whole day to £3.10 for two hours. Coincidence?

Once again it would appear that somebody being paid big bucks is trying to use a quick-fix solution without worrying about the downward spiral likely to be caused by their actions.

Somebody somewhere needs to sort their priorities out. Tell Tesco where it can stick its expansion. It’s quite big enough already, thanks very much. And try to realise the amount you are raking in from car parking charges is being offset by the fact no-one wants to come in to Shrewsbury anymore because the money they were going to spend on a nice lunch during a day trip out would instead have to go into a big grey machine in return for a bit of paper which allows them to stay parked for, ooh, 20 minutes.

Every Christmas, the council is keen to make a play of Shrewsbury’s unique shopping experience with all its independent traders.

So why is it doing all it can to kill them off during the rest of the year?