A report has accused four leading supermarkets, including Bradford-based Morrisons, of using aggressive tactics to wipe out local competition from small independent businesses.

The investigation by the All Party Small Shops Group, titled High Street Britain: 2015, said most small retailers will be pushed out of business by 2015 if action is not taken by the government to curb the growth of supermarket chains.

As reported in the Telegraph & Argus yesterday, the research, which consulted several groups, including retailers and employees, competition authorities and academics, said consumers would be left with a lack of choice if supermarkets continued to dominate the market.

It showed that supermarkets were out-pricing smaller businesses, including small shops, grocers, newsagents, chemists and petrol stations, by setting up huge retail outlets on cheaper land on the outskirts of towns and villages and also snapping up smaller convenience stores in urban centres.

The theory is being put to the test in Queensbury, where a planning application for a new Tesco, one of the 'big four', has been given the go-ahead.

The supermarket will be built on the site of the Black Dyke Mills, on a slope on the outskirts of the village centre.

Bernard Kearns, the owner of Queensbury Village Cobbler on the High Street, said that the proposed new Tesco would be detrimental not to only his own business, but also to other traders in the village .

"In my opinion it won't benefit the area because there is talk they are going to end parking on High Street.

"If that's true, when they stop the parking on High Street there goes the village and community," he said.

Mr Kearns said there had been long-standing concerns about traffic flow through Queensbury, and he said supermarket traffic would add to those pressures.

His shop - which sells bags and belts as well as providing a key cutting and shoe mending service - would be threatened by the competitive prices of goods sold at the new supermarket.

And although he admitted the income from repairs and key sales was less likely to come into direct competition with Tesco, Mr Kearns said other shops suffering and closing due to the direct competition would eventually drag his own business down.

"All the businesses will be threatened and the more competition in the area the more difficult it will be to keep going," he said.

Parking space at Tesco would draw people away from the village centre.

"Who's going to walk from down there to here?" he said.

But Agnes Brook, a volunteer at Age Concern, a charity shop opposite the cobblers, said she was looking forward to what the supermarket would bring.

"I think it will help the shops because more people will pass by, people will park there and walk up to look at the shops," she said.

Mrs Brook said customers had been pleased with the idea of a supermarket.

"We had a petition in favour of Tesco and people couldn't wait to sign it," she said.

And she said she hoped the new supermarket would spark the council into addressing traffic problems in Queensbury.

"It's a bad road anyway. Iif it would help the road at all then it would be good," she said.

Councillor Michael Walls (Con, Queensbury) said businesses were already failing under the threat of Tesco's competition.

"The last butcher in Queensbury has gone because his lease was up for renewal and with the plans for Tesco he decided not to sign it," he said.

Max Curtis, corporate affairs manager for Tesco, said a public consultation in Queensbury showed overwhelming support for the new supermarket.

Leaflets were sent out to 5,000 households and 782 were returned with 89 per cent in favour of the store.

He said: "People now have a reason to stop in Queensbury and when they are doing their shopping it's an opportunity for local businesses.

"In answer to the small shops report, you cannot say any time a business goes under that it is in direct relation to Tesco."

Bradford Council's planning department has so far received 13 letters of objection and a petition against the development signed with 44 names.

The office has also received seven against the building and a petition signed by more than 350 people in favour.

It may be too late for the objectors in Queensbury to do anything about a new supermarket being built on their doorstep, but if the All Party Small Shops Group's recommendations are taken into consideration by the Government it is possible future supermarkets will be stalled if they pose a threat to local economy.

The group's suggestions included:

l Implementing a freeze on further mergers and takeovers until the government has brought forward proposals to secure diversity and vitality of the retail sector

l Establishing a retail regulator

l Getting local authorities like Bradford Council to adopt a retail strategy

l Delegating greater power to people locally

l Encouraging the transformation and innovation of the Post Office network

Otley MP Greg Mulholland (Lib Dem, Leeds North West), who is a member of the group, warned the "big four" would damage both the district and national retail market if the Government did not act on the recommendations. He said his own Leeds North West constituency would suffer if action was delayed.

He said: "At the moment Otley still retains a good number of independent retailers and specialist shops, which add a huge amount to the appeal of the town as well as the choice offered to shoppers.

But if the Government doesn't act and implement some of the suggestions in the report then the reality of it is that it will become another clone town."

But Shipley MP Philip Davis (Con) said he believed customers were making decisions about the future of retail.

Mr Davies, who worked in Asda's marketing department before becoming a politician, said smaller shops would only stay open in the future if customers were prepared to shop with them.

"Nobody forces customers to shop anywhere. Supermarkets do not have a lasso which they wrap round customers' necks and drag them kicking and screaming to the shops," he said.

"I'm a big fan of small shops. I like local bakeries and local butchers and I would encourage anybody to support their local shops, but if people want their local shops to flourish all they have to do is spend their money in them.

"The customers are the kings and queens, they decide which shops open and which shops close," he said.

Mr Davies said he believed supermarkets targeted customers from their direct rivals, but were not interested in poaching customers from smaller local businesses.

The chairman of the Bradford Area Planning Panel, Clive Richardson (Con, Thornton and Allerton), said the recommendations to hand more power to local authorities would mean better decisions could be made in view of the competition effect of a supermarket application on nearby businesses. But he also backed Mr Davies' opinion that customers would lead the direction of the future of retail.

"Something that gives the edge to smaller businesses over supermarkets is to be welcomed particularly if it helps small businesses to survive in the village and town areas.

"But at the end of the day small shops need customers and if small shops are not providing the goods people want they are not going to survive," he said.

Morrisons declined to comment.