Plan B for Hay meeting

Monday night was busy! It was the evening of the regular Town Council meeting, and I was told there were about 30 members of the public there, in the Chamber and standing outside on the staircase, including Richard Booth. I'm not sure whether anything useful came out of the meeting, as I couldn't be there myself.

However, the Plan B for Hay group also met that evening, and they do now have a plan of campaign worked out in some detail.
The first step is to try to delay the signing of an option agreement with Gaufron, the property developers. They don't see much chance of success on this one, but if an agreement is signed, then the planning process will have started, and there will be something concrete to deal with.
They want to commission an independent impact assessment to look at the potential effects a second supermarket on the present school site would have on Hay, as well as real effects supermarkets have had on other market towns. The developer/supermarket is obliged to pay for their own impact assessment, but if the developer is paying for it, it can't be seen to be independent.
They want to invoke the Freedom of Information Act to keep as much information about the development in the public domain as possible.
There will be a petition.
They want to approach the chief executive of the Co-op to see what his opinion on the situation is.
They want to find sympathetic candidates to stand for election to the Town and County Councils.
And if a development does go ahead, they are planning a local and national media campaign.
They are also quite clear that they want a new and better school for Hay - and there must be a way to have that without having a supermarket.