Mole Valley District Council has been inundated with objections to the proposed new Tesco supermarket in The Street, Ashtead.

People determined to defeat the second planning application from the supermarket have swamped the council with letters and emails and now Ashtead Residents Association has called a special meeting for its members to debate the scheme.

It has invited a representative from Tesco to talk about its proposal. Gary Rhoades-Brown, development control manager for Mole Valley District Council will speak about the planning process and Roy Guy, chairman of the Trustees of the Ashtead Peace Memorial Hall, which will be affected by the scheme will also be there.

Other speakers include Bryan Elphick, chairman of the Ashtead Village Traders Association and Quentin Armitage from SAVE - Save Ashtead’s Village Environment.

The huge influx of objections to the proposed supermarket mainly complain about the size of the store, its impact on the village,other traders and parking and traffic.

Some say that a Tesco supermarket would be inappropriate in what they describe as an attractive village.

Some continue to say they would welcome a supermarket run by Waitrose or other supermarket group other than Tesco which is not a planning issue that can be considered by Mole Valley District councillors.

Mole Valley is still accepting objections which will be put in a subsidiary report to be put to the councillors at their planning meeting in February.

The second Tesco proposal is 24 per cent smaller than the original but if it is not accepted Tesco could go to appeal on the first proposal for a larger store.

To read the objections that have been lodged see mole-valley.gov.uk and visit the planning section.