Banchory bags Campaign

[Christina Brown]

The bulldozers are busy, so it looks as if the Tesco Store is finally going to be built on the outskirts of Banchory.  There are very mixed views among residents about this. The main concerns are that it will adversely affect the High Street shops and the visual appearance of the store will spoil what is regarded as the entry to beautiful Deeside.

Tesco do say that it will be an Eco-Store and they are talking with the Community Council and other bodies about the impact it will have locally.  However, they have put up some very ugly blue fencing around the site while building is going on, and have plastered advertisements all over it.

My main responsibility was what their policy regarding single-use plastic bags would be  and I have had an email stating

In terms of our previous discussions regarding bags, the offer made was that we would keep single use plastic bags out of sight, encouraging the use of reusable bags.  However, if requested by a customer during a transaction then we would meet this request to supply single issue bags. Doug [the Corporate Affairs Manager for the area who has agreed to meet with me in early September] will no doubt discuss this in more detail, but Tesco also offer ‘green Clubcard points’ as in incentive to customers who reuse their bags.

I  hope that he [Doug Wilson] will be able to confirm this commitment – i.e. customers will have to actually request a bag.  They will not even be asked, ‘Do you need a bag’.