Tim Lord, chairman of the Soho Society

A SUPERMARKET that was listed as an “asset of community value” five months ago is under threat once again from a developer.

Residents are gearing up for “Round 2” of a “Save Our Supermarket” campaign after discovering the Dean Street Tesco could be replaced with a store almost half its size.

The Soho Society is objecting to the new retail and office plans but councillors will have to vote against borough officials advising them if they are to reject the scheme at a meeting on Tuesday.

Developer Hines has come back to the city council after its first plans to replace the supermarket with a shopping “bazaar” were rejected by planning chiefs last October.

It followed a backlash from Soho residents arguing there are not enough low-cost food shops in the West End. The Dean Street Tesco, the largest supermarket in Soho, was listed in January in a way that was supposed to give it greater protection from developers.

The developer said that there will be space for a “medium-sized” supermarket in the new scheme and Sainsbury’s had expressed an interest in leasing the space.

Tim Lord, chairman of the Soho Society, said: “The replacement supermarket will be 46 per cent smaller than the current one which was listed as an asset of community value [ACV] in December 2023 precisely because of its size, range of goods and lower prices which were all a function of its size.”

In its official objection, the society added: “If the range reduces much, we’ll end up with (another) convenience store which is mainly aimed at buying bits and pieces but not for the main shop, and for office workers to pick up a sandwich at lunchtime. Size matters.

“We need a proper size supermarket.”

It said the Dean Street Tesco is the largest supermarket in Soho, at just under 750 square metres, and the Soho Society’s objection said, “the supermarket is recognised to offer the ability for local people to purchase groceries locally at cheaper prices compared to the other supermarkets in the vicinity”.

The developer submitted a report saying that shoppers would not notice the difference between “the price of the basket of goods” in larger and smaller stores, adding the actual floorspace would not be dissimilar to the current Tesco.

City council officers are recommending the scheme is approved, and said: “The applicant has submitted an expression of interest from Sainsbury’s which advises it could deliver a format which provides a wide range of produce and pricing.

“This would be similar to a store on Charing Cross Road and the existing store on site. In the circumstances it is not considered that permission could reasonably be refused on the basis that the designated ACV would be lost.”

A “bazaar” that was originally going to connect Dean Street with a building in neighbouring 7 Soho Square, which has an Art Deco façade, has been scrapped in the latest plans.

And Hines’s application said its plan “had been redesigned in terms of bulk, height, massing and detailed design” following the decision in December.

It added: “The design proposals for 2-4 Dean Street & 7 Soho Square aim to create a unified architectural response to the brief while addressing two distinct contexts within Soho, each with their own architectural challenges.”

The developer will have to pay £268,000 towards the council’s “carbon offset fund” and £25,000 towards the provision of public toilet provision in Soho.