The Co-Op Group bought our  "protected" leases in a secret deal from our Landlord and plan to force us to leave our independent businesses by expanding into our much loved shops. We have 18 months to make a difference and make them see there is no need for this unnecessary expansion when they already have a large supermarket a couple of hundred metres away.

This is a pattern of behaviour that they have been repeating across the country. They place no value whatsoever on preserving the local and independent character of the premium locations (as they see them) in which they are choosing to expand.  The history of our shop premises at Seven Cellars and Latina Cafe goes back to 1841 (the same year that Charles Dickens published the Old Curiosity Shop).  And now these historic shop fronts and premises from which local families have traded for the last 181 years will be gone forever. Is that really worth another Co-Op meal deal?

Please sign this petition and help us to show the Co-op that there is a value in keeping local independently owned shops with individual character.