Caroline Lucas, Green MP for Brighton Pavilion, is seeking a meeting with supermarket giant Tesco over plans for another store on a site - until this week - used by community gardeners, in her constituency.

Caroline and local Green councillors Pete West and Ian Davey will tell the retail giant that another supermarket would have a devastating impact on smaller shops in the Lewes Road area of the city.

Tesco wants to take a proposed retail unit on the site of a former petrol station which recently served as a community garden.

The MP will use the meeting to try to persuade the company to look elsewhere and to find a way to enable the garden to survive.

She is also lobbying the Coalition Government to bring in a competition test to protect neighbourhoods from supermarket dominance.

Meanwhile the community gardeners have been told to vacate the site this week.

Caroline said, "Local residents don't want or need another chain supermarket in the Lewes Road area.

"There's already a Sainsbury's and a Co-op and plenty of excellent independent shops.

"People are rightly concerned about the threat to the community garden - such a well-loved feature of a neighbourhood that is so short of green space.

"They are also concerned at the impact of another supermarket on the diversity and character of the area.

"The fact is chain supermarkets drive out competition and kill off smaller shops.

"We don't need another supermarket here.

"Tesco will naturally aggressively expand as long as they are permitted to by the Government.

"So the best way to approach this is to talk to them and try to persuade them to look elsewhere, while at the same time lobbying government to change the planning rules.

"So I am also putting pressure on Eric Pickles the Tory Communities and Local Government Secretary to introduce legislation to protect high streets from the impact of the giant chains.

"In particular I want to see urgent reform to the antiquated planning system to ensure that the diversity of the retail landscape becomes a planning consideration, which it isn't at present.

"For example, legislation could make the identity of the proposed retail occupier a consideration for planners.

"The Government could introduce a local economic yield test to assess how much any new development will benefit the local economy and a retail diversity test to ensure that all types of shops are protected.

"It could force planners to assess the contribution to the community of a proposed development, for example whether it would increase accessibility to healthy food for families on low-incomes."

"I hope we can succeed in persuading Tesco but if we fail to persuade them I, with my Green council colleagues, will encourage a community boycott of the store."

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Notes

For more information please contact the Brighton and Hove Green Party office on 01273 766 670.

In a letter to Mr Pickles and Planning Minister Greg Clarke, Caroline said: "The Competition Commission concluded that the dominance of any one retailer in a local area has a negative impact on consumer choice.

"It recommended a competition test to stop supermarkets opening a new store in places where they already control the local market.

"I am disappointed the Government is now delaying implementation of the competition test."

(1) The Community Garden was opened in 2009 by Guerrilla Gardeners on the derelict site of a former ESSO petrol station. It is in constant use as a local meeting place and for community events

(2) Keith Taylor MEP and a former Brighton and Hove Green councillor negotiated a leave of stay for the garden last year when developers locked the site gates. Green councillors have regularly attended meetings and events at the gardens and Caroline Lucas addressed a rally at the garden opposing the supermarket plans.

(3) Greens have launched an online pledge on boycotting the stores should it be built. http://www.brightonhovegreens.org/localsites/bh/campaigns/pledges.html