• ON Heath Street, Hampstead, Tesco provides a service for most of us. It’s the only grocery store in town with reasonable prices.

It’s useful as it opens at 8am and convenient as it’s open till 11pm, good for most people’s lifestyles. We’re also OK with the fact that they can sell alcohol between those hours Monday to Saturday, with a later start and earlier finish on Sunday, Christmas Day and Good Friday. Those times also comply with Camden’s licensing policy.

But that’s not good enough for the mighty Tesco.

They’ve applied to start selling alcohol from 6am every day. They’ve made blanket applications for Tesco Heath Street, and stores in Belsize Park, Goodge Street and Tottenham Court Road.

Police and residents are not happy, and if Tesco thought the strong opposition shown to a previous application for extended hours had gone away, they will be disappointed.

The Met Police Service say they “…are concerned as to why Tesco continue to apply to increase their off-sales to sell alcohol other than for a financial gain. The MPS feel that an established business such as Tesco… must be responsible in the sale of alcohol. The times applied are outside Camden Council’s framework hours and are wholly unnecessary”.

Tesco say they have CCTV and are fully aware of their “responsibilities under a range of health and safety related legislation…”. They say they have a “good neighbour policy” that “seeks to ensure that the premises play an active part in the community”.

What? Tell that to us who witness the appalling behaviour of their enormous delivery lorries that cause long traffic jams, at the height of the rush hour, and tall loaded cages on pavements that small children have to navigate on their way to school.

They could be a valued local shop but their high-handed, faceless, corporate attitude, makes us resent their presence.

Things were different when they first took over the mini supermarket; they were eager to please and had a series of good managers who really did want to work with the community – we erected a communal notice board, staff took part in festivals and worked with the neighbouring school.

When I complained about the danger of their lorries, they made an effort to change the delivery hours. They admitted there was no need to use such large vehicles but could deliver using smaller ones throughout the day.

That didn’t last long, managers moved, the notice board is defunct, no one knows who the manager is, and he/she is never there anyway. They would prefer to pay the parking fines rather than observe the rules.

LINDA CHUNG, NW3