2. Democracy in Action

"And that concludes the update from the Transport Working Group, Mr. Chairman. Could I just remind councillors that volunteers for the Speedwatch survey are still required. No remuneration, of course, but a worthy cause and part of our long-term aim to make Cherringham's roads safe for all."

Sarah watched Arthur Bassett remove his glasses, fold his notes, and sit down.

By day Arthur was a funeral director. Once a month he was transformed into Chair of Cherringham's Transport Sub-Committee.

"Thank you, Mr. Bassett," said Ken Wickingham, owner of the newspaper shop on the High Street and this year's Chairman. "Next item on the agenda, Correspondence and the Clerk's report ."

Sarah sat back in the gallery of the hall and ticked off 'Transport' on the agenda that had been handed to her when she and Chloe took their seats.

That had been an hour ago - and they were still only halfway through the agenda items. She looked around. The gallery area was packed, as was the main body of the hall.

The members of the Council sat at a long table that had been set up in front of the stage, each of them behind a microphone.

Amongst them, apart from Arthur and Ken, she recognised Adrian Sloane who ran one of the biggest building companies in the area, and Tony Standish who had been Parish Clerk for some years.

Most of the others she knew as familiar faces from the shops or school events or the Huffington's Tea Rooms.

A while back, she'd known most of the Parish Council personally - but there'd been rather a scandal over a twinning exercise with a French town and afterwards nearly all of the Council had resigned.

She and Jack had been responsible for bringing one or two Councillors to justice - one of their early cases.

She turned to Chloe next to her - poor kid must be getting so bored .

"Don't worry Chloe," she whispered. "This stuff will be over soon, and we'll get onto the supermarket."

"Are you kidding Mum?" said Chloe, leaning close. "This is amazing! I never knew all these things got decided here."

Sarah smiled in surprise - and once again thought how little she knew her daughter who was growing up so fast.

As the Chairman talked through the month's correspondence, Sarah drifted off into a reverie of recalled family moments, holidays with both her kids, school sports days, barbecues, then-

A ripple of applause and a couple of shouts from the gallery.

She tuned back in to the Chairman who leaned into the microphone, "Which brings us to the only item on the planning agenda this month. The application by Zakro Corporation to build a retail development on Five Acre Field, comprising a sales area of 40,000 square feet and associated landscaping, roadways, and further affiliated developments including social housing ."

As the Chairman spoke, Sarah saw an impeccably dressed woman step forward from the front row and walk over to a lectern that stood at the side of the councillors' table.

She carried a laptop and a folder, which even from here Sarah could see had the famous Zakro logo.

"Now we have with us tonight Ms. Eva Weiss who has come here from the Zakro head office to talk through the application with the council. And I'm sure at the end of the meeting she will be available for comments and questions."

There was a bubble of chatter from the audience and one or two indistinct comments - which Sarah could tell weren't complimentary.

Sarah watched the Zakro representative wait at the lectern until the room fell silent again. The woman had a groomed look that Sarah knew took a lot of time and money to perfect.

Classic Brussels politico chic, she thought. Spend a thousand euros on the outfit but make sure the brand is anonymous.

Eva Weiss opened her folder and stared calmly at the room.

"Mr. Chairman, Councillors, thank you. And people of Cherringham, thank you for the warm welcome you have extended to me-"

"You ain't seen half of it!" came a voice from the crowd and Sarah saw a ripple of laughter run around the hall.

Eva Weiss smiled and waited for silence again, then began to speak.

"The Zakro Corporation owns and runs over ten thousand supermarkets across the European mainland. We offer consumers consistently low prices, and we promise our workforce a regular wage that usually exceeds local hourly rates. Our building construction is low-impact, and we comply with all social directives in our target locations."

Someone from the back snorted: "'Target' location. That what we are?"

The Zakro rep paused again - one cool customer.

"The new, exciting, Cherringham Superstore will be no different. It will revolutionise the Cotswold retail experience. And now I will show you some slides, please."

Sarah watched as Eva stepped away from the lectern and a young man with a laptop at the hall's media desk - presumably her assistant - lowered the lights and started a slideshow.

"God, not a PowerPoint presentation," whispered Chloe next to her. "This is like being at school."

"Devil's in the detail," said Sarah. "I think we ought to have a record of this."

And she took out her phone and started to film the presentation.

Slowly, Eva took the audience through the project, various slides showing maps and overhead photos. The land by the river that would be purchased. The new roads that would be built. The social housing that Zakro would donate - gratis - to the village. The jobs that would be created. The benefits. The savings. The limited environmental impacts.

"Mum, that woman makes it sound like they're a charity come to help us," said Chloe under her breath.

"That's why the arguments against it need to be made properly," said Sarah. "They're putting a lot on the table."

"You don't think they'll do all that social stuff?"

Sarah shrugged but carried on filming.

In truth though, she didn't have much confidence in the ragtag army she'd seen outside to be able to fend off a project this massive - and this slick.

With so much money being thrown around.

How much could it be, she had to wonder.

And that worried her.

Eventually the presentation was over, the lights came back on and Eva Weiss closed her folder.

"Thank you, Ms. Weiss for that very informative talk," said the Chairman. "Now, can we have questions from the floor?"

*

An hour later and finally the questions - many of them hostile - from the audience dried up.

It seemed to Sarah that most people were against the superstore, but Eva Weiss handled everything without getting a hair out of place.

"Thank you again, very much, Ms. Weiss for that comprehensive presentation and for answering our questions. The Council will now make its judgement."

Sarah saw the Chairman give her a nod to sit down, then the councillors conferred with their microphones switched off.

The hall filled with the sound of conversation and argument. Sarah suspected that most people didn't know how these council meetings worked. But she knew that this, right now, was the crucial moment.

She was surprised when the Chairman reached for the gavel and hit it three times on the table for silence.

They've only been discussing for a minute, she thought. Surely they haven't made a decision .

But it seemed they had.

The Chairman waited for the last of the muttering to die down, then spoke into his microphone.

"Parish Council has decided to support the application and that support will be made known to the District Council in due course. Any other business?"

But the Chairman didn't come close to hearing what other business there might be, because chaos instantly broke out in the hall.

Sarah saw people all around standing up and starting to shout.

"Are you out of your minds?!"

"Bastards have bought this council - it's a total sham!"

"Turn it down! Kick it out!"

"Build it somewhere else!"

"No Zakro here!"

"Not in our name!"

Down below on the floor of the hall, Sarah could see the Chairman waving his arms and trying to restore some kind of order. Tony Standish picked up the gavel and hit it hard upon the table but in the din Sarah could hardly even hear it.

The members of the Council seemed to be frozen in their seats by the unexpected turn of events.

Sarah saw Eva Weiss and her young assistant scoop up the laptop and head for the rear exit, mission accomplished.

She's certainly been here before, thought Sarah. What an escape artist!

Then a man Sarah didn't recognise ran to the front and grabbed at one of the microphones from a female councillor.

The old lady fought him bravely, but in the end Sarah watched as she had to surrender.

Dressed in an ancient Barbour, with long straggly grey hair and a beard, the man looked to Sarah like the last hippy left over from the...