When Leeds supermarket protestors had 'no reason to shop at Morrisons'

Demonstrators opposed to the building of a Morrisons supermarket in Kirkstall took their protest to the streets in March 1997.

Members of the Kirkstall Valley Campaign conducted a series of 'road crossings' in an attempt to draw attention to the effects the building of the supermarket would have on traffic in Burley and Kirkstall.

And your YEP photographer was on hand to capture the protest at the pedestrian crossing outside Netto on Kirkstall Road.

It was the latest episode in a long running saga over the future of the Kirkstall Valley stretching back to the late-1980s.

Developers drew up plans in the autumn of 1988 to redevelop Kirkstall Valley and create a 400-acre site involving industry, shops and leisure facilities. It was at the time the biggest ever commercial planning application in the history of Leeds.

The proposal included a retail sales area ten times larger than most existing supermarkets as well as 5,000 car parking spaces.

The plan sparked outrage in the community which led to packed public meetings allowing angry objectors to raised their concerns. One objector described the scheme as a "planner's dream and everybody else's nightmare"

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