Tesco Decision: 100's Left Disappointed...

Listening to the roars of applause every time speakers or councillors mentioned anything against the Tesco plan last night, you'd expect it to have sent a clear message to the planning committee on local feelings. Sadly, after hours of often intricate debate, the plan was eventually accepted by a majority of committee members though [despite spirited arguments as well as votes by some of their number against the plan]. This came as a bitter disappointment to the many 100's of local, regional and national individuals who wrote to Malvern Hills DC to object to this plan. Naturally we feel down - but we're not out and our position is now as follows:

1. We still feel passionately this result will see the inevitable loss of one of the few remaining small country town highstreets with a butchers, bakers, fishmongers, veg shop and all the other independent stores that once thrived throughout Britain.
   
   
2. We are not convinced that Tesco’s suggested employment scenario will benefit the town and believe that more jobs will be lost than gained locally - in line with the British Retail Consortium’s own figures.
   
   
3. We will be taking professional advice in the next few days on the possibility of judicial review, particularly in the light of Malvern Hills change of attitude in granting permission for a larger store with even less parking provision than the Tesco plan they previously rejected.
   
   
4. The more appropriate solution for Tenbury would have been a smaller retail solution while creating parking and sensibly and sustainably re-using the town's distinctive heritage buildings in one of the town’s key tourist sites..
   
   
5. The decision to accept the plans has now committed us to traffic chaos around the bridge end of the town. We'd hate to be in a situation in which we'd have to say "we told you so".
   
   
6. Tesco's own development company rep Daffyd Williams has described the development in Tenbury as a "one stop shop" in which shoppers presumably park-up, shop and drive-off laden-down with Tesco goods. We can't see how this equates with other high profile Tesco claims that "the supermarket will encourage shoppers into our highstreet food shops".
   
   
7. We will also be asking whether the Council has achieved best value in terms of the s.106 monies when compared with similar towns, such as Southam – and whether a failure here would make the decision taken at the committee invalid were judicial review to be sought.
   
   
8. We would like to thank all our supporters for their help – for the letters they have written, for turning up to the planning committee (in which they made their preferences abundantly clear) and for wanting to do more than allow Tenbury to become another bland and soulless high street.

Now only time will tell what happens to the heart of the town in the orchard, Tenbury Wells.

Tenbury Futures, 8th March, 2012 

Merry Christmas from the Tenbury Futures Team...

Just a quick mail to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from the Tenbury Futures team. We especially want to thank the many 100's of local and regional individuals who have joined us in objecting to Tesco's plans on the town's Cattle Market site.

Here's hoping too that 2012 will bring a set of solutions to the town's Cattle Market site that best serve a whole range of our local and regional communities. You can be assured that we'll still campaign for a blended development solution to the Cattle Market site as the majority vote [over 200 of the 300 returns] in our 'community questionnaire' concluded in early 2011. 

A quick reminder of some of our key findings:

The majority view from the questionnaire was
to re-use the Old Infirmary/RBB Building.

The majority vote was that survey participants didn't want
a solely large supermarket solution to the site.

Other local issues we're interested in...

We'll also still encourage debate around this and other related subjects such as the Teme Bridge, traffic and parking as the new year progresses. Even now there's a new idea that we support to add a single track bridge across the Teme discussed in the Christmas edition of the Teme Valley Times. In this new idea the old Teme Bridge is kept in use but only for one-way traffic exiting the town while a new single-track bridge near the Burford fire station acts as the main way 'in' to the town. 

[Click to enlarge this image]

The proposed new single lane bridge featured in the latest Teme Valley Times.

Once again, thanks to those many 100's of people for their support in our campaigns - it's all very much appreciated by us.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year - we hope that 2012 will be a vibrant, sustainable and prosperous year for the town.

The Tenbury Futures team. 

P.S. You can comment on this post by clicking the 'comments' link below or why not mail us on our e-mail: tenburyfutures@gmail.com

Tenbury Town Council Rejects Tesco Plans [Again]

A delighted public gallery rang with applause on monday night after Tenbury Town Council voted to reject Tesco's superstore plans for the town's cattle market site [again]. In addition, the Town Council revealed the results of a recent 'local businesses' survey related to the Tesco plans.

Tesco Rejection.
The Council voted to reject Tesco's latest plans after a vote of Councilors ended at 5-4 against the plans. There were mixed opinions voiced from the Councilors on the Tesco issue during debate with some citing the local business survey which appeared to show a majority support for a Tesco. One Councillor, an architect by trade, argued that the consequences of additional traffic from a store of the proposed size would cause substantial traffic congestion around the entrance to the site and the site itself - which would have clearances of only 50cm when Tesco delivery HGVs drove through the store's car park. Another Councilor countered that deliveries would only happen between key time windows. Sadly though, we know from the experiences of many staff at Tesco Ludlow that these delivery windows are routinely flouted by both Tesco and their 3rd party HGV deliveries. Also mentioned was that the bridge would now remain in it's present format so existing Teme bridge queues would be exacerbated substantially too by potential store traffic and deliveries.

Feedback from the local community on the decision.
The decision by Tenbury Town Council was commended by many locals in later correspondence with our group. Examples of these include:

"Fantastic news – well done!" from Mrs H, Nash, Tenbury Wells.

"Was a pleasure to be there yesterday evening and see democracy in action.  I had little experience of how these things work. Yes for sure the size is way over what is needed in tenbury and my main argument has always been why can't we get a sensible scaled down tender from a different superstore (eg, Sainsburys or Waitrose)..?" Brigid O'Hea-Eakins.

"Just wanted you to know how thrilled and delighted I am after reading your email. I know just how strongly you all feel about the 'Tesco issue' as my sister and nephew... live and work in Tenbury and it means so much to them to keep Tenbury unspoilt and the delightful place that it is." Gail Cooke.

"This is a good result. I was interested at the meeting in the Mary Portas comment - when people were asked to describe their ideal small town they basically described Tenbury! Sometimes people don't recognise what they've got until they lose it - at which point it is too late and there is no going back." Mrs Averil Opperman

"Tenbury Town Council have clearly realised the scale of the threat from Tesco to the town's independent shops. I'm pleased that they've made an informed and considered decision on this issue..". Mrs S, mother with young family, Tenbury Wells.

Local Businesses Survey.

Regarding the local business vote, there has been much subsequent discussion about whether it accurately reflects the views of general businesses or local shopkeepers. If you were to think about how many shopkeepers there are - numbering in the region of 35, and focussed a poll just on them we believe that the results would have been very different and either much nearer a 50/50 vote or possibly majority against the Tesco plans. Consider too that the shopkeepers in the main feel directly threatened by Tesco and their plans as opposed to many of the other businesses such as the vets, the dentist and the pubs who won't feel the same threat to their livelyhoods from the plans. This was very much a perspective reflected by Clr Eric Hudson who claimed that the poll didn't really reflect the views of the local shops.

Kibbler's Cobblers.

Having attended the TTC meet on monday 26th Sept ourselves, we have to take issue with Adrian Kibbler's 29th September Tenbury Wells Advertiser account of the proceedings in which he claims that the Lady Mayor 'told the audience ...to be quiet'. We don't recall this at all, the mayor may have reminded all at the start that the audience couldn't speak as this was an extraordinary meeting but we recall no such overt reprimands once the meeting was underway.

Intimidation?

The Tenbury Advertiser's thu Sept 29th article seems to centre on alleged 'intimidation' towards Councilors. If you read it through though - there is no actual evidence or details of 'intimidation' discussed, it's purely only suggested or implied. In reality no one in that audience either: ran up to a Councilor during session and physically or verbally heckled them, stood over them while they voted in a secret ballot or cornered them outside the meet before the vote [or anything of that nature].. Indeed if anyone had acted in such a manner they would have been ejected from the chamber - but no-one was.

Instead of the so-called 'intimidation' splashed across the Advertiser's front page, the audience merely clapped after Clrs pointed-out concerns about the plan themselves followed by clapping and cheers towards the meet's end when it became clear the the secret ballot was against Tesco's plans. Hardly the 'intimidation' as painted by the Advertiser.

It strikes us that these claims are just tabloid creative writing though to try and beef-up a thinly-veiled pro Tesco article masquerading as (supposedly) impartial journalism.

And finally.

We'll end on the view of another Councilor who passionately aired his worries towards the end of the meet and said:

"...if they [Tesco] come here then it'll cripple this town".

Dear Tenbury Town Council...

On monday 26th September at 7pm in Tenbury's Pump Rooms Tenbury Town Council will debate whether to offer-up their support to the latest Tesco superstore plan on the cattle market site in the town. Tenbury Futures and a number of individuals have submitted a paper for the Councillors and Lady Mayor to consider during the session. The text from this paper is copied below. We'd urge any locals who share our concerns about Tesco supermarket development on the cattle market to come along on the night to offer up support to the many 100's who have already objected to this latest plan. Their concerns must not be swept under the carpet by either town, district or county councils..

[Paper reads]

FOR THE CONSIDERATION OF TENBURY TOWN COUNCIL, Fri, 23rd Sept, 2011
Tenbury Futures has clearly already explained its objections to the latest Tesco planning application with a widely-used pro forma planning objection letter. This letter has [and still is] being used by 100’s of people from across the local community – both parents with young families, residents and businesses from the town and adjacent settlements as well as many of the elderly in the community. We do however feel the need to additionally alert the Town Council to a number of other commonly voiced concerns about Tesco and their mode of business.

1.    Supporters of the Tesco application say that the RBB building should be demolished as it is not worthy of retention. 
This is totally contrary to English Heritage’s views (and they presumably can be seen as knowing something about historic buildings), where they say that the RBB building contributes ‘positively to the character and appearance of the Tenbury Wells Conservation Area and that it should be retained’. In addition, the building is still in good order and could provide a new bespoke site to house a larger, more accessible Tenbury Museum via Heritage Lottery funded re-development.

2.    Those in favour of the application state that it will open up the previously hidden river frontage.
Again, English Heritage has specifically stated that the existing riverside frontage should remain intact and untouched. In fact English Heritage go so far as to reject the apparent widening of an opening celebrated in the new proposals – ie. the very issue that Tesco’s supporters believe is a benefit.

3.    Tesco is said by its supporters to be offering one hundred free parking spaces.  
This is illusory: the spaces are already there and in use on the site. In reality the development offers no extra spaces and – worse – the spaces that are currently free all day will in future be restricted to two hours use. The true figure is then further reduced with Tesco staff using some of these spaces as well as the multiple existing on street spaces that Tesco wish to remove from in front of the Spar building on Teme St.

4.    We are told that Tesco will bring back shoppers who currently go out of town. 
There is no doubt that those who shop out of town may be drawn to the new store. Inevitably though, those who currently support the town’s existing traders will use it as well – meaning a loss of trade to those local businesses.

In its financial forecasts Tesco estimate a weekly income of £280,000. This simply cannot derive from the few more retained shoppers that Tesco believe they will attract back. The clear majority of this figure has to come from the tills of independent high street shops of the town – most of which the Tesco store will now compete directly with for custom. Unfortunately though few of the local shops have Tesco’s buying-power and as such will not be able to compete on a level playing field.

Both the Conservative Think-Tank 'ResPublica' run by Philip Blond and Labour Leader Ed Miliband have expressed concerns over the 'Tesco-isation' of our highstreets, ResPublica says:

"The rise of these vast supermarkets, with the infrastructure needed to sustain them, a bias in the planning system and their enormous purchasing power has crowded out competition. These developments have made it impossible for small retailers to grow. We now have a situation where it is unimaginable that a small family-owned shop could grow into a retailing powerhouse like Tesco, or Sainsbury."
More on ResPublica can be found in the Guardian article 'Ed Miliband Backs Greater Voice for Locals on Spread of Supermarkets', 1 May, 2011

As with Tesco Ludlow, any large supermarket on the Cattle Market site will act as a ‘one stop shop’ which will start to polarize trade in the town to the Teme Bridge end. Once shoppers at Tesco Ludlow have bought all of their groceries, loaded them into their cars and eyed the limited remaining time left in their parking allotment the majority opt to get their goods home to fridges and freezers as quick as possible. Leaving chilled goods and groceries in their car and wandering-off up into town then becomes a very unlikely scenario. This scenario can only be replicated if a supermarket of this size is allowed to be built in Tenbury – independent town shops already unable to compete are unlikely to see much if any associated trade.

Margaret Edwards, of EJ Poyners in Broad Street, said: “... are terrible now. The trade is just finished up this [non Tesco] end of the town.”
Details on trade polarizing to the Tesco/Aldi end of Ludlow and independent retailers losing profits up town can be found in the Shropshire Star Article: “Town Suffering as Trade Evaporates”, Thu 13th May, 2010.

 Tesco is not a Tenbury business: it provides mainly unskilled low-paid jobs, and takes its profits out of the area. Whereas money spent with independent shops circulates within the local economy up to three times longer than when it’s spent with national chains, research by the New Economics Foundation has shown [Quote below].

"This means that every £1 spent with a local supplier is worth £1.76 to the local economy, and only 36 pence if it is spent out of the area. That makes £1 spent locally [in independent shops] worth almost 400 per cent more."   
Sourced from: "Buying local worth 400 per cent more", 7 Mar, 2005 

 We can find many references to Tesco moving in to small towns and their high streets declining [sometimes swiftly] but we could only really find the one reference that suggested Tesco had ‘improved’ a town and this was in Beverley – strangely enough quoted from ex Tesco boss Sir Terry Leahy. However scratch the surface and the town’s locals tell a different story:

 “Beverley didn't need Tesco, it was already a prosperous town. Tesco came to plunder not regenerate. They came to take money out of the economy of an already thriving and wealthy market town.”
Richard Wilson, retired lecturer and Beverley resident [taken from ‘Checkout Chuckout’ – Corporate Watch, 2006].

In this area you only need to look at Llandrindod Wells which is a larger market town with a wider range of shops. No-one there bothered to object when Tesco submitted plans for a supermarket – they all thought that it would ‘benefit’ the town. Within just a few months though the local traders realized their mistake culminating in emergency meetings of their Chamber of Trade trying to address the sharp downturn in both profits and footfall. One local trader and member of their chamber related the story as follows:

 "In the first 3 months they [Tesco] have devastated the local high street to the tune of a 35% to 64% downturn... They are actively targeting the local Boots store [35% to 40% down] and the local Co-Op [formerly Somerfield 65% down]. Most other retail businesses are experiencing between 15% and 30% decline... some 4 months after Tesco opening. The biggest problem has been the reduction in footfall, people are using Tesco as a one-stop shop and not walking or even driving into the old town centre..."
Further details can be found on this story in the Rhyll Journal article of 15th Oct 2010 “Traders Hold Crisis Talks as Tesco Hits Sales”.

5.    It is claimed that the development will enhance the street scene – although this claim is without support.
In fact English Heritage specifically states that the development will have a detrimental effect on the character and distinctiveness of Tenbury Wells’ historic environment.

With the town’s constant desire to try to increase its tourism draw and related incomes from this sector - surely the town council ignores this advice at its peril?

6.     Supporters of Tesco claim that it will provide healthy competition. 
There can be no rational person who believes that a multinational giant that is famous for its maltreatment of suppliers and that has been proven to operate predatory pricing is healthy competition for family-owned shops. What small enterprise is there that chooses to set up next to a Tesco?
 
If the application is accepted, the supermarket’s aggressive discounting capabilities will soon start to affect local shops and supply chains in Tenbury. It won’t just be the shops that suffer but their network of local suppliers who will also start to lose out. Indeed Tesco has a very poor record on stocking local foods and simply just couldn’t offer-up local Tenbury apples from the supplier in the same valley as independent grocery shops could in the town. In fact, due to Tesco’s huge central distribution network, if they wished to stock Tenbury or Teme Valley apples the journey of these apples would be as follows:


1.    Road transport from Teme Valley to UK port on the east coast.
2.    Transport by ship to Eastern Europe where they will be cleaned and packaged + misc transport by road on the continent.
3.    Transport back to the UK again by ship.
4.    Road transport to Coventry distribution hub.
5.    Road transport to cold storage at Avonmouth.


Only after travelling the final 80 miles from Avonmouth to Tenbury will these Teme Valley apples be ready to sit on a Tenbury Tesco shelf. Those apples will have travelled 1000’s of miles when they could have been brought from around the corner. This is food miles gone mad and a PR disaster for Tesco when the unsustainable methods they use are exposed yet again.

Further details on Tesco’s poor record on food miles can be found in articles: "From here to eternity: 340-mile journey for clotted cream made two miles away". Guardian, 3rd Sep 2010 and "Tesco criticised for selling Peruvian asparagus in British home of the vegetable". Daily Telegraph, 11th May, 2010.

7.    Tesco’s supporters have put forward the widening of the bridge as being a reason to accept the development.
In fact there is to be no widening – which presumably means that this is a reason for the application to be rejected. WCC said in their public meeting at the High School that they have their ‘hands tied’ by English Heritage whose duty it is to police the bridge in accordance with its status as a unique Scheduled Ancient Monument. 

We’ve all seen lorries and buses mounting pavements to get around the bend with just one car coming the other direction. This situation just gets amplified at peak times – times that will become much more frequent with the increase in road users and HGV traffic if Tesco are allowed to build on the Cattle Market site. The bridge can’t be improved – it is beyond help. Do not condemn the townspeople to traffic misery by inviting in Tesco and their massive potential traffic increases.

8.    Supporters of the development also state that Tesco is to contribute to the public realm works. 
To date Tesco has made no such statement – and the simple hope that it might contribute money is just that – simple hope.

In this context, Planning Gain = Legitimate Bribery 

For more information on Tesco and the pressure they levy on local council planning services and 'planning gain' please see the Corporate Watch article "Checkout Chuckout: Tesco and the planning system".

9.    Supporters of the development claim that the store is an ‘eco development’. 
On analysis this PR claim clearly doesn’t ring true either. Commercial use of sustainable technologies such as Solar PV, Solar Water Heating, Wind Power, Ground Source Heat Pumps, Heat Exchangers, and Wood Chip Boilers utilising chipped waste or quick growing woods is now widespread in large developments. 

The furniture superstore Ikea runs 52 wind turbines in France and Germany, is presently building a wind farm to power 17 new Swedish stores and has an end goal of running their stores on 100% renewable energy. In contrast, Tesco’s proposal that they use ‘glass and wood’ on this build -utilising the simplest renewable technology, that of ‘solar gain’ - and that this will supposedly constitute an ‘eco build’ is both an example of gross tokenism, PR gloss as well as Tescos’ arrogance. Their plans are about as 'eco' as a Saudi Prince's personal fleet of Hummers.

Ref: http://inhabitat.com/ikea-building-its-own-personal-wind-farm-to-power-17-swedish-stores/

We urge Tenbury Town Council to reject the advances of Tesco in the town and so help safeguard the independent shops in the town’s high street – especially in this time of difficult trading. We also urge you to consider the massive increases in both traffic and congestion that this development will generate now that the Teme Bridge is to remain in its current format. Surely the cattle market site should be sensitively and sustainably developed so that it provides a benefit right across the community and helps with the town's tourism draw? The Future is in your hands.

On behalf of the Tenbury Futures Group.

Please Object to The Latest Tesco Supermarket Plan

OR WELCOME IN...

• Closures of highstreet shops and businesses & overall loss of local jobs*. [* National Retailer Planning Forum [NRPF] 1998 study].

• Massive increases in local traffic congestion in the highstreet & on the old Teme bridge. Over 2000 additional journeys per day (with HGV deliveries to store and potential home van deliveries on top of this number)**. [** Based on Tesco’s latest published retail and traffic figures].

• Parking chaos as present town parking levels are reduced & existing Teme St parking is removed by Tesco***. [*** 150 parking spaces required for a development of this size, Tesco claim they will put in 100 spaces which is already well short of the required number, then they wish to remove Spar's parking spaces off Teme St. This results in less than 100 spaces associated with the development].

PLEASE VOICE YOUR PLANNING OBJECTION..

Want to object against the new Tesco application but don’t understand all the planning criteria and wording? If ‘yes’ then get our pre-formatted objection letter for free:

1. You can then change it and add your own additional comments or just print, add your address to it.






Which you can download and print/sign if you'd prefer.









• Letter Return by Post to:

Ms R Kirby
Planning Services
Malvern Hills District Council
Council House
Avenue Road
Malvern
Worcs WR14 3AF

or

• Letter Return in Tenbury: Please drop your signed and addressed letter back into one of the following shops in Tenbury:

Bowketts, Spar, or the Little Sweetshop

or

2. Pick Up a Pre-Printed Letter. Alternatively, you can pick up a pre-printed letter from one of the following shops in Tenbury:

Bowketts, Spar, or the Little Sweetshop

3. Sign & Address It. All you then need do is sign and address your letter [you can add to the MS Word file if you wish to before printing out].

4. Letter Drop Off. Then just drop off your signed and addressed objection letter into one of the shops mentioned [above] by 12 Midday Mon 5th September.

5. We’ll do the rest!

Tenbury Futures' PLAN B

Thanks to all those who sent back People's Plan/Cattle Market development ideas for consideration & discussion on the Tenbury Futures blog. There were some great ideas returned and we didn't publish all of them on here but selected a few that we felt we could visualise and which would prompt further discussion. On the back of these ideas and along with the earlier 'Community Questionnaire' results, we've produced our vision of how we'd like to persue re-development of the Cattle Market site with our 'Plan B'.   

Central to this plan are the range of values that we possess within the Futures group - these include those of developing and enhancing facilities for the local community, improving Tenbury's tourism appeal and creating a sustainable, healthy and vibrant environment in the town for people to live, work and visit.

[Download "Plan B" as a multi-page .pdf file by clicking on the link below]

[Click to download PLAN B]

Mary Portas' New Review of High Streets

Mary has been asked by central government to do a review of our highstreets and look into what makes them vibrant places for people to shop and on the flip side the challenges to them [such as out of town and large supermarket competition].

You can see her website and the initial discussions on this [here].

Channel 4 Documentary on Tesco's Working Methods:

Final Tenbury Futures Community Feedback Results

Based on a total of 289 Respondents.
Including  the final 49 additional returns - final week of February 2011:
[Click to enlarge] 

* Surrounding settlements include [but not limited to]:
Boraston, Kyrewood, Oldwood, St Michaels, Stoke Bliss, Rochford, Bickley, Nash, Leysters, Eardiston, Little Hereford, Brimfield, Hanley Broadheath, Clifton-upon Teme, Upper Sapey, Clee Hill and Ludlow.

[Click to enlarge]

Graphs that fed into the final overview graph:

[Click to enlarge]