WEALTHY landowners Trinity College have been asked today to withdraw proposals for a Tesco superstore at Felixstowe – and help save the town centre.

The plea has been made by action group Walton Felixstowe Community First in a personal letter to the master of the Cambridge college, Sir Gregory Winter.

The group believes the 30,000sq ft store, part of a 30-acre project at Walton Green, will have a devastating impact on the town centre and shops in Walton High Street.

In a letter to Sir Gregory, Mary Wyatt, of WFCF, said: The local development plan does not show the need for such a store as the projected need for extra convenience shopping space is much less.

“The proposal contravenes many paragraphs in the national policy and planning framework.

“Felixstowe Town Council, taking this into account and acknowledging the strong opposition by local people, has voted overwhelmingly to oppose this application.

“Will you now withdraw this application or will your agents and Tesco persist in pressing for this development?

“We are asking your college, which is a major landlord in this area of Suffolk, to consider whether this is a moral stance to take.

“Felixstowe is surrounded by Trinity College land and the college makes considerable income from the Port of Felixstowe and farmland.

“The local people see very little benefit from this state of affairs and indeed many view your college as a rapacious institution which has done very little for our town.”

Senior bursar Rory Landman has said the matter will be put to the college council.

No-one was available from Trinity College to comment