The battle to get at least one more supermarket in Marlborough is hotting up said campaigner Lisa Farrell, who fears some people might think it has lost its impetus.

Mrs Farrell, of Five Stiles Road, said there had a lull in campaigning because of the elections but her Marlborough Matters group is keeping the pressure on several leading supermarket chains to come to the town.

Marlborough, which has a population of about 8,000 but acts as a service centre to an estimated 50,000 more, has been left with just one supermarket, Waitrose, although Tesco has a small presence in the town because it owns the One Stop shop and Post Office in the High Street.

The town has always sustained two supermarkets over the past four decades and at various times these included a Co-op, Nortons, International Stores, and latterly Somerfields which closed three years ago to be replaced by a Marks and Spencer Simply Food store that lasted less than two years.

With the closure of Woolworths and M&S the High Street is left with two of its biggest shops empty with no sign of new businesses taking them although there are regular rumours of household names like Iceland and Wilkinsons are moving in.

There is a potential site for an out of town supermarket in Salisbury Road with on the new business park or in the field opposite which Crown Estates wants to redevelop but although the possibility of homes and a supermarket on the farmland has been discussed there is no planning permission as yet.

Catering manager Mrs Farrell, together with friends ,set up Marlborough Matters to make direct contact with the supermarkets and to put pressure on the councils to try to encourage more stores to the town.

She told the Gazette: “We have been speaking with Crown estates about the land up in Salisbury Road, we are going to be talking with the business park owners and we have been in touch with several supermarket chains.

“The most promising seems to be Tesco but all they would tell us was that they were in talks but would not tell us where they might be going.”

Mrs Farrell added: “People might think that we have come to a stop but there is a lot going on behind the scenes.

“We have not been able to do much over the last few weeks because of the elections and now we are waiting to see who will be fighting our corner at the new Wiltshire Council.

“They are the ones who will be making the decisions and they are the planning authority, too, so that’s who we are going to put pressure on.”