A COLEFORD trader has launched a petition in favour of getting a budget supermarket to open up in the town.

When planners rejected the scheme for a 1,254 sq metres Aldi store in Tufthorn Avenue in July Peter and Clare Hilgart, who run a computer shop, set about launching a petition in favour of the scheme.

And just two months later, some 1,500 people have signed the paper petition circulating around the town.

Mr Hilgart explained that the general feedback is that a budget retail supermarket was needed to keep people spending in the town.

He added: “Our investigation into the situation has uncovered that a large percentage travel out of Coleford into the neighbouring towns of Monmouth to shop at Lidl and Waitrose and Ross-on-Wye to shop at Morrisons and Aldi and to Lydney for Tesco.

“It’s been estimated that millions of pounds is being spent by people leaving the area to shop elsewhere.

“And as people are already leaving the Forest of Dean to do their shopping, I am confident that if the store were to be built, people would travel the 800-yards to the out-of-town store to shop locally.

“Coleford people are fed up with the limited choice from the only supermarket in town.”