It is a remarkable response to a planning application but 500 people campaigning against them is probably a very small number compared to the thousands of potential customers they'll expect to cover with this branch so I doubt they'll cut and run that easily (especially if they conclude that those 500 weren't likely to form part of their customer base anyway).

I'm with Stefan though - why cant this topic be debated more openly and respectfully? We don't all think alike but that shouldn't stop us using proper debate to help us understand the various views on offer.