Tesco want to demolish the historic Old Infirmary building on the Cattle Market site [within the town's conservation area] to build a giant superstore. They then wish to add insult to injury and mark it's footprint as an outline in their potential car park and put up a large glossy graphical celebration of it and it's history alongside the town's workhouse on their potential big shop window.
Similar applications for demolition of the Old Infirmary [latterly Russell Baldwin & Bright building] were refused by Malvern Hills District Council earlier this year, and in 2010. The reasons given by the Council for the refusal were published as follows:
a. “Demolition of the building would be harmful to the character and appearance of the Tenbury Wells Conservation Area.” and
b. “The building is considered to be too important because it frames views into the former Cattle Market site from both Teme Street and the bridge over the river.”
c. “There is no satisfactory redevelopment scheme for the site that could mitigate against the loss of this important building, contrary to Policies CTC19 and CTC20 of the Worcestershire County Structure Plan, Policy QL8 of the Malvern Hills District Local Plan and guidance contained within PPS5 ‘Planning for the Historic Environment’.”Councillor David Hughes, Portfolio Holder of Planning at the Council was quoted at the time as saying:
“The Russell Baldwin & Bright building is an important building within the Tenbury Wells Conservation Area and its demolition would be harmful to the special character of the area.”
Don't let Tesco do this - please join the growing list of planning objections and stop the needless destruction of one of the town's heritage buildings.
What do I do next if I want to object?
It's quick and easy..
It's quick and easy..
• Please download one of the objection letters below,
• Print then print the letter out
• Then please sign and address it and then either send off to the Malvern Hills Council address marked on them or just drop them into Tenbury's Spar, Bowketts Supermarket or The Little Sweet Shop.
We'll do the rest!
This is shocking. Surely Tesco can't do this? If successful, not only will they have driven out our remaining highstreet food shops but now they want to destroy the towns heritage too?
ReplyDeletetesco dont give a damn about tenbury. they just want to take money out of the town
ReplyDeleteHOW DARE THEY! WE SHOULD ALL BE FIGHTING THIS
ReplyDeletePlan B - By FAR a better solution ,go away Tesco and never come back.
ReplyDeleteSupermarket job claims are unforgivably misleading.
ReplyDeleteWhy havent Tesco answered the straight question which is: how many full time equivalent jobs do their headline totals represent? If they did, we could compare the number of jobs created by them and the number which would be lost in the High St (eg Bowketts, Spar Co-Op etc ) and the supply/production chain.
Cost reduction and new self-scan technology are being aggressively applied by all the superstore multiples which means that employee numbers are steadily being cut back – despite a big increase in supermarket floor space. In the last year, Tesco and Sainsbury have expanded their retail floor space by over 2,750,000 sq ft while the number of people they employ has actually fallen by over 400.
When they are bidding for space, supermarket operators consistently exaggerate the number of jobs they will create in order to generate local support and tap into people's understandable anger at rising unemployment. For instance recently Tesco Accrington shed 100s of jobs before the new store even opened - to the fury of the local community who felt they had been completely misled.
And once again on the question of whether the High St will be adversely affected by a huge superstore, read this from Rhyl Journal 15/10/10:
'Since the superstore’s opening week of trading, shops have recorded an average loss of earnings of 25 per cent, with some specific businesses having lost up to 60 per cent in revenue.
""The supermarket has definitely brought shoppers from further away," said County Councillor Mike Hodges, owner of Hodges Food and Wine Store on Tremont Road, "but many of them do not visit the other stores after they’ve finished their shop."
“Roughly 60 per cent of customers who do their major weekly shop at a big supermarket will then go straight home,” said Cllr Hodges, who attended the traders’ meeting on Thursday.
“We’re losing 25 per cent, week on week, which has surprised a lot of people because they thought our business wouldn’t be affected.”' (http://www.rhyljournal.co.uk/news/94468/traders-hold-crisis-talks-as-tesco-hits-sales.aspx)
Knock it down... it's an eyesore
ReplyDeleteIt's a perfectly sound heritage building.. It'd make a great new and larger venue for a town Museum and could be combined in various ways to enhance the town's unique riverside location to improve the tourism draw.. A much more blended and sustainable re-use of buildings in the town's conservation area than leveling it all and plonking a giant supermarket on the unique site..
ReplyDeleteit is a usless building if tenbury futures want it just move the building brick by brick elswhere
ReplyDeleteTenbury futures go away you are holding tenbury back with your stupid ideas
Given the right circumstances the restoration and conversion of this building in a prime tourism location next to the River Teme could be a real winner for the town. The riverside could be made into much more of a tourism draw, the old bridge and the 'beach' could combine to make this spot our own 'Ironbridge'.. Tenbury needs all the additional tourism draw it can muster - demolishing this perfectly sound building and covering the land it sits on with tarmac would be the town's loss - as Malvern Hills' planners have already said [as has the head of planning there - see above].
ReplyDeleteutter nonsense
ReplyDeletemore tourism more traffic more congestion u cant have it both ways
tesco are coming the people of tenbury wants it
Tenbury futures why dont you show the minutes from your meetings reason i dont think you have meetings because you are being funded by spar
Wrong anonymous unfortunately..
ReplyDeleteThe upscaling of tourism we anticipate by careful redevelopment of the Old Infirmary would have to be massive to vaguely compete with the increases in traffic over the old bridge caused by any potential Tesco superstore.. The two scenarios just aren't comparible..
As we say on our website, we're a mix of mainly local residents who are concerned about any impending superstore on the CM site along with some of the local highstreet businesses. While a couple of these local shops share our concerns they have no 'sway' over what we do or say as a local group. We're certainly not their mouthpieces and if they wish to say something then they'll do it via their own means.. If you feel there is some kind of money changing hands then we'd like you to provide evidence of this - we think you'll find it a challenge!
We've seen towns decimated by Tesco previously - they're the very worst offender in undermining and eventually closing local highstreet food shops. Ironically their much trumpeted retail research 'sponsored by Tesco' [i.e. biased] at Southampton University reveals that the very worst affected of towns by an influx of a large Tesco are those with a large proportion of bespoke local food shops.. If that doesn't ring any bells then just think about how the Food Hall, Clockhouse, Swifts, Barn Farm shop etc make up a decent proportion of the high street in our town.
As a local butcher in Malton Yorks has said in a recent article about TV personality Selina Scott fighting to save their market town from Tesco in the Daily Mail:
"Who’ll come and buy a pound of sausages from me when they’ve been to Tesco? It’ll kill us."
how many tenburypeople are members of your joke gang
ReplyDeletename the people i know you live in burford i am getting fed up with idiots like you telling people what should happen in tenbury.
If there weren't so many examples of Tesco destroying small towns then we don't think we'd have a great deal to say.. Unfortunately the truth is that they are the very worst offenders - they don't give a damn about our small businesses in the high street that help make up our community. They're not bothered that times are hard financially and that some highstreet businesses are finding it tough times. Neither are they picky about undercutting our food shops - it's all par for the course for them, business as usual..
ReplyDeleteOver 400 campaigns against Tesco throughout the UK from different communities surely give a clue that people are getting fed up of their shark-ish behaviour in our towns.. They want to get into Tenbury just to try and cream-off cash from the town and take it down to their leafy corporate HQ in Cheshunt, Herts. Local shops don't do this though - the money largely stays local and benefits local people, families and supply chains - helping make and strengthen our community. Tesco don't give a fig about local supply chains, local suppliers, the families that are employed by them and local food though - it's all done via their giant central distribution networks..
Where are we telling people what to do? Instead we're putting out the facts about the business shark that is Tesco - there's plenty of these to choose from.. People need to make an informed choice about these things and not in isolation.
You wouldn't make a large purchase like a house or a car without doing some homework would you? What if the result of that homework made it clear that the car or house [although it looked and sounded pretty] was in fact a bad bet in the long term, had dry rot or had a dodgy clutch? You'd think twice wouldn't you? Well that's what's happening with Tenbury Futures, we're not telling anyone to do anything.. What we are doing is informing and putting both sides of the story across but it's up to locals and Malvern's planning community eventually.
Interestingly, locals have sent in many hundreds of planning objections [again] to the proposed Tesco store.. On top of that out of 300 local people surveyed in March this year over 200 said they wanted the town's Cattle Market site developed to best suit the community with a blended development that re-used the heritage buildings on the Cattle Market site.. Where's this poll then that says 'Tenbury People Want a Tesco' as you've claimed then? At least we can evidence people saying otherwise with our poll [which was totally open and all contents copied to TTC and MHDC so it could be independently verified].. You can see the results online on our blog too.
You need to back up what you're claiming anonymous with statistics and clear evidence to support your claims.. Without that your comments sound pretty hollow.
why dont tenbury futures become a tory spin doctor you will be good at it full of [moderated].
ReplyDeletename your members or i name you to the people of tenbury
and take legal action on the information you are hiding in your lies not giving the members names to the public domain
We're people from across the local community, some just local residents, some highstreet shop keepers concerned about the way Tesco has negatively impacted upon other like towns..
ReplyDeletePolitical?
As such we straddle a range of political perspectives while including members interested in Green politics and the Transition movement.. You could say Red, Green, Blue and Yellow as such.. We're not affiliated to any single political movement though.
Secretive?
Our members have spoken at various local events in public including delivering papers against Tesco's plans at town Council meets, at District planning committees as well as on BBC local radio and in local papers.. That's hardly the workings of a group in hiding is it?
Lies?
If we make a claim about Tesco's business practices in any of our literature, posters or blog then it's normally accompanied by a clear link or ref to the source or who is being quoted and in what publication and when.. If you have any issues with their validity then we suggest that you tackle them via one of the many sources quoted..
Anonymous
ReplyDeleteAnd who are you?
You seem to want to name everybody but wont disclose who you are .You must be one of the so called silent majority
Where were you hiding at the MHDC planning meeting last January ?
Where were you hiding at the Tenbury Town Council meeting in September ?
Or were you looking for 1p cans of baked beans in Tesco
Put up or shut up !!
go back to wales if u dont like it welsh wizard
ReplyDeletewho is paying for tenbury futures where are they getting there funding from the latest campaign is another joke IT HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH PLANNING plus alot of objections are out numbering the people from tenbury ie stockTon upon tees what haVE IT GOT TO DO WITH THEM
ReplyDeletei know because they got second homes and pay half rate council BIRD tax AND TO KEEP THEIR HOUSE PRICES HIGH
that what it is all these people are home owners and [moderated, no personal refs here as per the Tenbury Blog].
Funding
ReplyDeleteI think you'll find that [despite your hopes of the shops paying monies] there's actually no-one funding TF's - it's just done by a set of concerned residents etc..
Planning
We suggest that you read through our objection letters for either the Old Infirmary or the main Tesco application on the TF blog. They are all written in planning terms.
Objections
As previously mentioned, there's so many groups now opposing Tesco's highstreet takeover all over the UK it's no real suprise that people from both the locale and further afield want to put a stop to Tesco's plans. It's a free country after all and a democracy..
Threats
Threats or intimidation against any of our members will be looked into and [if then thought appropriate] will be referred to the police to investigate properly.
Who is this anonymous [moderated] ar£e? They dont av any idea of wot tenbury peeple want. Keep tesco in ludlow or order online its free + easy 2 do.
ReplyDeleteanonymus u do not av aclue. reel tenbury people wont our shops to do well
ReplyDeletea TESCO wud knackr thm
Anonymous
ReplyDeleteI was born in Wales ,do you suggest i still keep an eye on developments there, or is the fact that i made my home in Tenbury justification for getting involved in trying to stop a superstore wrecking the town.
Before you reply, make sure you use that thing in your head.........its not there to keep your ears apart .
Well said tractor factor shop online i do .
ReplyDeleteWelsh Wizard - well done - you are very restrained in your response. This anonymous person doesn't have any idea about anything really. Perhaps he would like to put gates up around his little area and keep anyone that wasn't born in Tenbury out. It's the only way he will achieve it and he really hasn't heard of the UK. If everyone who lived within half a mile of Tenbury - "went back" - there'd be no-one left and I guess if he checked his family tree he would see some of his own were from somewhere else and some probably live somewhere else now - don't they get a say in where they live or a say about any part of the UK for that matter. Such a ridiculuous comment from a ridiculous person who just sounds foolish. I am proud to be English and Welsh Wizard is proud to be Welsh - NOTHING wrong in that. NORMAL.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous who said: AND TO KEEP THEIR HOUSE PRICES HIGH
ReplyDeletethat what it is all these people are home owners and [moderated, no personal refs here as per the Tenbury Blog].
It sounds like you are bitter because you
are not a home-owner. I don't think it works this way and you obviously don't know because you haven't got one. Another foolish comment.
i must agree Tenbury has got to change to survive keeping as it is will be the death tenbury futures must move forward and look at the true outlook do they want tenbury to die with tesco or die with out it
ReplyDeletethere are towns that are busy with tesco within towns
tenbury futures are confused it is out of town stores that suck the life out of towns
You'll find that there's few [if any] members of the Tenbury Futures group who don't want to see the town prosper and evolve.. We don't want to see Tenbury preserved in aspic.. Out angle though is that there's 'development' and 'development' and we'd like to see sensitive and sustainable development in the town that best benefits a wide range of the local community.
ReplyDeleteThis is why [rather than just accept that all we could do as a town with the Cattle Market site is default to a large supermarket solution] we commissioned a survey of locals back in Feb/March 2011. This ran over a period of a month, was open to all to put their thoughts across and results were published on this blog incrementally over that period. We said that we'd support whatever the majority view was with this survey. Out of approx 300 returned sheets we found over 200 [the vast majority] to want a blended solution to the CM site. One that helped improve the town's tourism draw further by making best use of the unique riverside site, one that potentially sensitively re-used the unique heritage buildings on the site and one that potentially provided a range of new jobs that weren't in direct competition with our existing highstreet shops [as a Tesco supermarket would].
There were of course individuals locally who weren't prepared to believe these results - it became an inconvenient truth to them. As such we said from the start of the feedback campaign that we'd pass on a copy of ALL returned sheets to both Tenbury Town Council and Malvern Hills District Council - which we did, so there was absolutely nothing to hide.
We then researched and produced our proactive PLAN B document that set out a vision for an alternate blended use of the CM site based on similar successful community projects. This document was then scrutinised by various organisations and received supportive comments from both the local LEADER funding organisation as well as the Big Lottery Fund who featured it in their magazine "The Local".
In short, we've polled local and regional opinions re the site, we've produced a subsequent proactive development plan and have already had support from both regional and national funding organisations.. We hope as such that this helps show that we're both forward-thinking and proactive and very much want to see the town and highstreet prosper. We just want to see it happen in a manner that benefits a wide range of the community.
Just a polite notice..
ReplyDeleteWe've had one individual offer-up threats to individual TF members on this blog recently. We exist in part to encourage debate about the CM site and to discuss proactive alternate options. We're happy to put up all perspectives as part of this debate but personal threats cross that line.
The timings and contents of these threats have been passed to the local policing team. It's probably worth mentioning that we can trace-back communications to individual IP [computer] addresses at this point from this blog [whether anonymous or not].
Further examples of such personal threats to TF members will now be fully investigated by the local policing team in the category of "Malicious Communications".
Please do keep sending your thoughts and comments from whatever perspective on our posts though. As long as these don't result in personal threats then we're happy to publish them.