The battle against the proposed supermarket in Epsom's Upper High Street gathered pace as campaigners took part in a Sunday morning protest meeting, promising to escalate the fight.

The protestors, who held an open air meeting in Epsom's Upper High Street car park, were joined by Chris Grayling MP, who pledged his support.

A steering group has been drawn up and is due to hold its first meeting this week to plan further action against the proposal to build a supermarket on the site of the old Iceland store and part of the Upper High Street car park.

And a public meeting is to be held at Epsom Town Hall on June 30 at 7pm, which planning officers and representatives from the Helical Bar development company are expected to attend.

The scheme to build the proposed supermarket, with a delicatessen, an in-store bakery and a fresh fish counter, will be considered by Epsom councillors at their planning meeting on July 21.

If the proposal is approved the development, which would extend into part of the Upper High Street car park, will absorb 68 parking spaces in the council car park. But a 521-space multi storey car park will also be built as part of the supermarket development.

Resident Beryl Blake, one of the campaign organisers, said: "We are totally opposed to this. We think that some retail development is needed but on a much smaller scale.

"People feel very strongly about this. The traffic it will generate will be absolutely horrendous." The group is planning to request correspondence between Epsom and Ewell Borough Council and Helical Bar under the Freedom of Information Act.

Helical Bar says that it carried out a telephone survey of people in the town and claimed that 73 per cent of people who responded said they would use the supermarket.

kbarnes@london.newsquest.co.uk