PEOPLE power has forced supermarket giant Tesco to fail in its bid to squeeze in an extra early hour of trading at its Express store in Baildon after a campaign to enforce planning rules.

The Otley Road store was first permitted by Bradford Council planners three years ago on the agreement it would trade between 7am and 11pm.

But last year its doors began opening from 6am, sparking complaints from residents to Councillor Debbie Davies (Con, Baildon).

"People were delighted at the arrival of such a convenient store at first," she said.

"But then delivery lorries began arriving in the very early hours and I got complaints from householders upset by the dawn racket."

She contacted Bradford Council's planning enforcement officers which resulted in Tesco re-submitting its application to include the 6am start.

But members of Keighley and Shipley Area Planning Panel decided to go against officers' recommendation to grant the application and refused to make the store a 17 hour day, seven days a week operation.

Cllr Davies spoke at the meeting and said there were areas of real concern in the area.

She said: "Tesco operated with no sanctions against it and every other similar Tesco in Bradford opens at 7am so why not the Baildon one?

"The new Sainsbury's Local in Bingley, Main Street is also opening from 7am.

"And, although it's not strictly a planning consideration, there is an independent news agents opposite which is open and that time for newspapers, bread and such things.

"As far as local residents are concerned, clearly the earlier a shop opens, the earlier its deliveries will be, so this was will be welcomed by them."

A Tesco spokesman said: “Clearly we are disappointed by the decision as we know that many of our customers would like us to be open earlier.

"We will review our options and in the meantime our team will continue to work hard to provide a great service to the local community in Baildon”.