Tesco's attempts to build a new store in the village have been defeated yet again - but villagers are holding their applause, because the final battle is still to come.
At a planning meeting of Hillingdon Council last week a second application by the company for The King's Arms garage site, in Rickmansworth Road, Harefield, was thrown out by councillors.
It follows an application last year in which Tesco attempted to secure permission for a ground floor convenience store and three one bedroom houses, which was also refused.
The company appealed to the Planning Inspectorate and in the meantime revised the plan, to try to meet councillors' approval.
This involved lower roof eaves where the roof meets the Grade II listed Coach House which is part of The King's Arms next door, and also redesigning the parking spaces so lorries could make deliveries on to the forecourt.
Pauline Crawley, chairwoman of Harefield Tenants' and Residents' Association attended the latest meeting and said: "Tesco were claiming lorries would only come in to the store from the direction of Rickmansworth. We thought that was codswallop.
"Their plan for the deliveries was to use some of the public parking spaces, but it was felt they could not guarantee these would not already be in use.
"That would mean the lorries having to park on the road and total congestion being caused."
Atul Sodha, manager of Peverills Londis, in Moorhall Road, has fought the application for months, with the help of many people and fellow traders.
He said: "Our argument stays the same: it does not matter how many times they rejig the plan the site is totally unsuitable for a supermarket."
The appeal against the original refusal will be heard at a two day hearing at Hillingdon civic centre on May 19 and 20.
Mr Sodha added: "We will be there and we will fight it all the way.
"We can't believe they were able to appeal when this was turned down because of scale and congestion.
"We had 108 letters of support from customers calling for Tesco to be refused. These people must be listened to."
Carol Leslie, spokeswoman for Tesco, said: "We were disappointed with the latest refusal and are presently reviewing our plans for the site.
"We are still pressing ahead with the appeal and will hope for a better out-come in May."
