Why Have Councils (if government planners override them?)
A shocking story has just been announced, which has wide implications for council democracy nationwide. But first, a little background:
If you’ve ever read Paul Kingsnorth’s book Real England, you’ll know about the Norfolk town of Sheringham, a lovely little place with lots of independent shops and over 40 independent food shops.
The town sits on the North Norfolk coast, and became well-known in the news, for having a gigantic 13-year battle with Tesco, over plans to build a giant supermarket, when locals (mostly) didn’t want it.
When Paul wrote the book (over 10 years ago), the case was ongoing. It carried on, and a local entrepreneur even stepped in and offered to open a locally-owned supermarket, to answer all the reasons the council was giving for ‘locals to have a big place to shop for food’.
And can you believe it? The council at the time voted it down, and chose Tesco.
Today, the supermarket is busy, but of course many local shops have gone to the wall. But no fear, you can pop in and get your ‘blue plastic token’ to pop in a box to help the local community, that Tesco has helped to destroy.
The Pizza Chain vs Council vs Government
But what has just happened in July 2025 is even more concerning. Again, Dominoes Pizza (responsible for all those littered white plastic sauce pots on streets) applied to open a chain.
And again, the locals said no, because many local shops have already gone to the wall, and Sheringham already has over 40 independent food outlets, so no more are needed, period.
This time (thankfully) the council sided with the people, and refused planning permission in May 2025.
So the pizza chain went to the national government planners, and protested.
And in July, the national government overrode the local council, and now the town is going to get a pizza chain that it doesn’t want.
So even if it’s just a minority and tourists who use it, the town is going to have more indie outlets go out of business, and lots more litter to clean up (paid for by their council tax presumably).
The world has gone made. Hopefully locals (unlike what happened with Tesco) will do a mass boycott. The argument for Tesco was that the town needed a place to buy affordable food. But Dominoes Pizza (a whopping £16 for a bit of dough and a few toppings) is not a necessity. So hopefully the outcome this time will be different.
