Loyal customers have launched a campaign to save Chatham’s Tesco store from the axe.

About 120 jobs are to go after the supermarket giant announced it would be one of 43 branches across the country to be shut down because it is unprofitable.

The news has left many people who live in Chatham, many of whom do not drive, wondering where they are going to shop.

Tesco's store in Chatham closed on April 4

Couple Fay and Mark Taplin have started a Facebook page calling for the store in The Brook to be saved.

The first post says: “I know this is a long shot people but let’s show how much people care about saving our local Tesco store. Let’s fight to keep it alive.”

Within 24 hours the site had gained more than 150 followers.

Mrs Taplin, 47, said: “We shop there every day. We always walk there and then get a taxi home with our shopping.

“That’s what a lot of people do. People cannot afford to get a taxi to the Gillingham store.

“A lot of people who use it use mobility scooters or have prams and go because it is easy to get to.

Fay and Mark Taplin want to save Tesco

“The only other supermarket in Chatham is Sainsbury’s and that’s too small and too expensive. It is too cramped to get round with a mobility scooter or a pram. Tesco are only thinking about people with cars.”

The Facebook page has been steadily gaining support in the past few days and now has more than 270 followers.

Linda Crewe said: “Chatham Tesco is the best in the whole of Kent. I am gutted that they are closing and they don’t even care."

As the campaign started, politicians were already talking about the future of the prominent town centre site once Tesco closes for business on April 4.

Many shoppers are hoping for another supermarket, such as Aldi or Lidl but Chatham MP Tracey Crouch has expressed her doubts about another supermarket on the edge-of-town site.

She said: “Tesco has failed to have a profitable store there, you have got to think that it might not be a suitable sight for a major supermarket.”

Cllr Jane Chitty, who is in charge of economic development for Medway Council, echoed these thoughts.

Cllr Jane Chitty

She said: “Another supermarket is going to face the same challenges that Tesco faced. It is away from the high street and people can be selective in their affections in terms of where they shop.”

Past plans for the site have included redevelopment and even a hotel. In the 2007 document ‘Chatham is Changing’ the site was earmarked as a “major development opportunity for a new foodstore and associated development.”

Cllr Chitty added: “It is an interesting site. It is one of the gateways into Chatham and it should be viewed as such when considering any development. There is the opportunity to do something special there.

“In the last 10 or 12 years that site has ben viewed in a number of different ways. A hotel was one of the options in the past and clearly this could be an option again. Housing would not work on its own. It could be a mixed development with housing and smaller units.

“But to come down in favour of one particular option at this time would be wrong.”

Labour leader Vince Maple said on Wednesday: “It is critical that this [the Tesco site] is not left abandoned as we have seen with other large sites across Medway when employers cease to operate.”