A £5,000 GRANT towards keeping Tavistock town centre alive as it faces 'possibly its biggest threat in 20 years' was requested at a meeting in the town last week. Addressing the town council, Nigel Eadie of the Brook Campaign Group — opposing the building of a Sainsbury's store at Plymouth Road — said the group was looking for support in its fight to protect the vitality of the town centre. The council was asked to consider displaying 'Keep Tavistock Special' posters in the town and giving a financial contribution of £4,000 to 5,000 to the Brook Campaign. The campaign is backed by the chamber of commerce and is made up of traders, businesses and residents. As well as challenging out-of-town development, the campaign group will be making representations regarding West Devon's core strategy, which will include a blueprint for all future development in the town. The Sainsbury's supermarket proposal for the 3.8 hectare Brook site includes a 4,873 sq mtr store, a 349-space car park, petrol station, 17 business units and a possible new police station. The application is being opposed by the group on the grounds of its detrimental effect on the town centre and that the land is designated for employment purposes, not retail. Mr Eadie, who is chamber chairman, said Tavistock had a vast range of independent shops and the town council was effectively a landlord, owning sections of Duke Street and the pannier market. 'The tenants would expect the town council to protect their livelihood and at the same time the council would want to protect their own rental investments,' he said. He added that a store like Sainsbury sold everything from white goods to insurance services: 'A big organisation like that does not want a little sector of the business of the town — it wants the lot.' He said it was also predicted that 1,700 extra vehicles would use Plymouth Road each week if the supermarket gets the go-ahead. If the supermarket proposal was rejected it would almost certainly go to appeal and the cost to the Brook campaign of fighting that appeal would be £15,000 to £20,000 at the very least, Mr Eadie told the council. Members of the group had already raised £7,000 in preparation. 'We seek your assistance in a fight which affects us all in safeguarding future sustainability of this unique and premiere town of Tavistock,' Mr Eadie told the council. 'We respectfully request your verbal and financial support against possibly the biggest single threat Tavistock has been challenged with in the last two decades.' Cllr Michael Harper said: 'We need to decide what Tavistock really is. Is it an out-of-town retail town or is it the pannier market? What we are going to create if we are not careful is a supermarket bunfight that will destroy the pannier market. 'Sainsbury's £22 million turnover will have to come from somewhere and the majority will come from the town centre.' Tavistock town council has neither formally rejected or supported the Sainsbury's proposal but raised comments on issues such as loss of employment land, oversaturation of the A386 and flood threats. The Brook Campaign's request will be discussed by the council's finance committee on July 22.