A FIFE faux pas in the new Tesco store has seen a poster go up promoting St Andrews, leaving Dunfermline in the shade.

Many visitors to the Carnegie Drive store, which opened three weeks ago, have noticed a poster highlighting that Tesco ‘loves local’ – a nice touch except for the fact that it actually pictures St Andrews, around 35 miles away.

The Press made the suggestion to Tesco that they run a competition in order to find an alternative poster which would showcase what Dunfermline had to offer, rather than the distant St Andrews, and the idea quickly gathered support from the community.

Artist Ian Moir is the exhibitions manager next-door at Fire Station Creative and believes that would give Tesco the chance to engage with the community. “I’m willing to write a submissions brief for local schools and work with Tesco to select the best image that best sums up the magic of Dunfermline,” he said.

“It’s the type of thing that local schools in Dunfermline would be interested in and it would be engaging for the public if they could come along and see a prize-winning painting from a local pupil on a large scale.” Dunfermline North councillor Helen Law also thought the idea was worthwhile. “First of all, Tesco has been very well-received and we’ve had lots of positive feedback about the store and its location,” she said. “A competition would be a very positive way to get a nice Dunfermline picture up in the store. I’d be very supportive of a competition and I think there are fabulous photos out there. The night-time lights around Dunfermline have a real ambience and there could be some stunning pictures that come forward if Tesco are up for it.” Dunfermline area services manager Joe McGuinness said, “We were up prior to the official opening and pointed it out, that we’re Dunfermline, not St Andrews. They’ve taken it on board and we’ve supplied them with some possible photos of Dunfermline and I believe it’s progressing with the store manager.

“At the end of the day it’s a corporate design team, maybe based in London, who have come up with St Andrews as being one of the main places in Fife. They’re willing to make amends to correct the mistake and have responded to us in a positive manner. They’ve taken it on board and it’s been passed on to the new store manager to take forward.” Tesco responded to the Press when we pointed out the poster but stopped short of agreeing to the contest.

“The image of St Andrews in the Dunfermline store is part of a series of 11 vinyl window coverings which represent Tesco Scotland through iconic images,” explained Richard Holligan, corporate affairs manager for Tesco Scotland. “The ‘Love Local’ tagline refers to our commitment to sourcing products from Scotland and our relationship with around 180 suppliers across Scotland.

“We’ve had positive feedback about this image and the others throughout the store. Our customers tell us that they’re pleased Tesco is celebrating Scotland and the Kingdom of Fife.

“We’re very happy that Tesco Dunfermline Fire Station has got off to a fantastic start and that the people of Dunfermline have given it such a warm welcome. We’ll continue to support the community in different ways and will be looking at how we can do this with local organisations like our neighbour, Fire Station Creative.”