RESIDENTS backing Sainsbury’s bid for a Bishop’s Waltham store say nearby traders will not be the big losers if it opens.

Instead, it will be supermarkets in neighbouring towns that feel the pinch, campaigners say.

Bishop’s Waltham Another View (BWAV), the group backing the store, has seized on a report from independent retail analysts Nathaniel Lichfield and Partners.

The London-based firm has just published a 62-page study, requested by Winchester City Council.

The authority is assembling material before ruling on the planning application for the supermarket, which Sainsbury’s submitted in June.

In Bishop’s Waltham the report said convenience stores would see the biggest impact, but most could survive alongside Sainsbury’s.

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It said: “The Budgens store is not expected to close due to its current healthy trading performance. The Co-op stores are more vulnerable to closure, but it is unlikely both would close.”

The report estimates that Bishop’s Waltham traders would lose a total of £790,000 per year in trade to Sainsbury’s.

However, shopkeepers could claw back some if not all of the losses due to extra customers heading across from the supermarket, it added.

The report said: “Most of the proposed Sainsbury store’s turnover is expected to be diverted from other large food stores outside of Bishop’s Waltham.”

Peter Watson, who chairs BWAV, said: “We really do believe the cracks are showing in the ‘Say No’ group’s reasons for objection.

“The statutory consultees for the planning application are experts in their own field and they believe that there would be no significant detrimental impact as a result of Sainsbury’s proposals.

“This is in stark contrast to the negative picture that objectors have been painting which is completely unverified.”

Opinion is divided in Bishop’s Waltham on the proposed store, with several hundred residents speaking out against the scheme.

Around 450 people packed into the Jubilee Hall when Bishop’s Waltham Parish Council discussed the issue in August.

Parish councillors voted to oppose the plans, with the majority of residents at the meeting speaking against the store.

Bishop’s Waltham Action Group is the main residents’ group fighting against the proposed supermarket at Abbey Mill.

It argues that Sainsbury’s would take away trade from independent firms, create traffic problems, and ruin the character of Bishop’s Waltham.

No date has been set for the ruling.