Did Tesco influence the Local Plan?

One of the interesting thoughts raised earlier by campaigners and made more plausible by reading the documents recently issued by the NNDC is that Tesco influenced the Development Committee in May 1996 not to include the Station Road site in the Local Plan as a suitable site for a supermarket. This was despite a Planning Brief being approved for the site in March 1996 and the Council Estates meeting with Budgens about a possible sale. It is no coincidence that in February 1996 Tesco had submitted plans for supermarket on Holway Road. They new that if the Local Plan included the Station Road site then their application was dead in the water.
More recently the revised Whole Settlement Strategy for Sheringham included the Station Road site as part of the Town Centre, the Development Committee itself called for a new Planning Brief to be prepared for the Station Road site. The recent investigation lacked the powers to get to the bottom of this and other issues. The council should revoke the deal with Tesco and start again.