Tenbury's Last Chance...

Dear Planning Committee Members,

You have a critically important decision to make on
7th March.

Just over a year ago, after a long and careful discussion, your committee refused permission for a large supermarket to be built on the cattle market site in Tenbury. You have now been asked to change that decision: please, please don’t. There have been no real changes to the application and the decision should be the same – a refusal. 

To do otherwise, would be inconsistent and unjustified. We are very lucky to have a diverse and vital high street in Tenbury; but make no mistake, it is very fragile and would not survive the effects of a large supermarket being built in the town.

• The current bridge closure, a minor event in comparison, has cost traders up to 50% of their turnover during the closure.

• Your own local plan says that we need only 18 sq M of additional food retail space – the application is for nearly 80 times that amount – far more than all of the current food retail space in Tenbury

• The Council for the Protection of Rural England has concluded that “it will have a strong adverse impact on the traders in the town and duplicate services offered”.

In these difficult times jobs are precious and any jobs lost are difficult, if not impossible, to replace.

• The British Retail Planning Forum, which is financed by the supermarkets themselves, has found that every time a large supermarket opens, on average, 276 jobs are lost.

• These figures suggest that if the development goes ahead we will lose about 100 jobs in Tenbury – that is a net loss of about 100 jobs.

The development will have a catastrophic effect on the conservation area and the historical setting.

• This committee thought so last year and refused permission

• The council’s own Conservation Officer describes it as a “large, single span, semi- industrial building” that will “certainly impact upon the Conservation Area”.

• English Heritage recommend that permission be refused

• The Council for British Archaeology is against the development

• The Civic Society has said, a “supermarket of this size ……. cannot be made to fit visually in a historic setting, particularly as this proposal requires the demolition of an important historic building”

• The Victorian Society is against the demolition of the Old Infirmary and so against the development


• Your own planning officers say that it would be “regrettable” to demolish the RBB building for this development – avoid those regrets and refuse permission, we will never be able to get it back

There are many other concerns...

• There are many, very real concerns about safety on the roads and pavements around the development – there has been an accident on the site in the last few weeks involving a car and a supermarket lorry

• A recent traffic survey has shown that more than 1,600 traffic movements already take place between 5pm and 7pm at this end of Teme Street

• The development does not provide anything like enough parking – the proposal is well below the national minimum standards


• There is not even room for a trolley to be placed behind a shopper's car whilst the shopping is being loaded into the car’s boot without impeding the traffic on the proposed access road

• There is no answer to how the bridge, a scheduled ancient monument, will cope with the extra traffic (estimated at up to 2,000 crossings per day by cars and many more by large delivery lorries) – when it fails to cope, as it frequently must, Tenbury will be regularly gridlocked

• Have no doubt about the strength of feeling in and around Tenbury. There have been many hundreds of written objections and only a handful of letters in support of this unnecessary and damaging development.

And finally...

Tesco has no interest in or understanding of Tenbury as a place in its own right, and, it would seem, has little respect for our local authorities.

Please refuse permission for this wholly unnecessary development that would do so much damage, in so many ways, to Tenbury. Make no mistake, the damage would be permanent.

The future vitality of the town's highstreet is in your hands. It is your decision.

Tenbury Futures is Consulted by the Local Media

Photographer with locals opposed to Tesco's Old Infirmary bulldozing plans.

Ludlow & Tenbury Advertiser asked us for our perspectives on the latest developments with the town's cattle market site. Here's the full unabridged response from us below.

1. Can you briefly outline for our readers your vision for the former cattle market site.

We ran a community questionnaire in March 2011 in which over 300 local and regional people fed back their preferences and ideas for the town's cattle market site. As part of our questions people could indicate their preferences for its redevelopment - including saying whether they'd prefer a large supermarket there. Over 200 of those who replied stated very clearly that they wished the site to benefit the town with both sensitive and sustainable development that broadly benefitted the community. There was a very clear rejection however of the idea of of using the whole site for one large supermarket 

On the back of this we researched and developed an outline set of plans that would best encompass these findings - which resulted in our PLAN B document that we published/distributed in July 2011. This document provides proactive suggestions in relation to the town that could enhance community facilities, tourism draw, local jobs, parking and highstreet vitality to name but some areas. Shortly after publishing, PLAN B received positive initial support from regional and national funding organisations - notably the Big Lottery Fund which then featured in their 'The Local' - a magazine about proactive communities.

2. How will you convince the owner of the site to work with you rather than Tesco or another major retail outlet? 

This is a tough one, of that there's no doubt. If Tesco's latest application is turned down again then we'd like to start to talk to a range of parties who could come together to look at alternate development of the site. There has been interest in the site from other developers during the time Tesco's latest application has been considered by Malvern Hills. As such, we'd hope that we could help facilitate a blended re-development of the site that met with support from both the owner, funding organisations and potentially other developers who might consider a much more blended use of the site.

3. How will you realise your vision financially and are you planning to buy the land?

We are primarily looking to work with the current owners and interested parties. We would think it unlikely that we would be able to take on and fund the whole project on our own account.

4. What do you fear will happen to Tenbury if the Tesco plan goes ahead?

Our fears are multiple really.. In particular we fear it would heighten highstreet slowdown in an already challenging financial climate. and reduce employment, as large supermarkets have a far lower employment density than small shops.

Exacerbating highstreet slow-down and lessening footfall:
Most of us have seen the way that large supermarkets have affected other market towns such as Llandrindod Wells in which the shopkeepers are wondering why none of their number objected to Tesco's plans there that have contributed to their highstreet slow-down. The Rhyl Journal article "Traders hold crisis talks as Tesco hit sales" discusses this and one trader told our group:

"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”.

In addition, Tesco themselves say that over 60% of their shoppers will not go off into adjacent highstreets. Instead, it's more common to do a 'one stop shop' and get all shopping in one go. Once this shopping is in the car you're unlikely to leave it and go off down the high street. To further illustrate this you only need to to some basic research into adjacent highstreets and you'll find numerous references to businesses who simply can't compete with Tesco's corporate buying-power.

“We have reduced the price of the shop. We are definitely selling up... It’s [the local Tesco] devastated us as a business... We go and sit in the Tesco car park and watch all the customers who used to come in to us go in and out of there all the time.”
Julia Moore owner for 20 years of Moore’s Grocers in Madeley, Telford.  From “Every little helps, "Telford shopkeeper to throw in the towel", Shropshire Star, 21st Mar 2011

Little or no impact on unemployment numbers
It's unlikely that such a large Tesco would affect the long-term unemployment numbers in the town either, a report in the Cambrian News in 2010 [1] stated that after looking into 6x towns that had new Tesco stores that:

“The opening of supermarkets did not boost the labour market of any of the six towns sampled in terms of claimant count unemployment - despite hundreds of jobs being claimed to be created.”
Richard Stankiewicz of the Barnsley Council’s Spatial Analysis Team, Cambrian News, 3rd Mar, 2010.

Traffic Congestion
The area around the old Teme Bridge already suffers from congestion at specific times of the day. Additionally, most locals have witnessed large HGV's trying to pick their way across its unique bend while traffic backs-up. Despite recent ongoing works to strengthen the bridge it's simply not an effective traffic solution that will serve the Town well in any situation where the traffic is likely to increase. Instead, we're supporting the idea of a second [relief] bridge nearby downstream which could utilise the Cattle Market and bring people into the town there. For retailers and businesses on that site it could prove a real benefit while [via a managed one way system] relieving and helping future-proof traffic-flow to the town. Such a scheme could be looked into with contributions from the developer[s] via 's106 monies' as well as a pooling of both Shropshire and Worcestershire County Council's monies in this area. Without such a scheme, any development on the cattle market site -large or small- and subsequent potential traffic increases will probably exacerbate existing congestion causing more frustration and maybe even injury as desperate hauliers mount pavements to try to get through the bottleneck of the old Teme bridge.

5.  What do you say to those people living in Tenbury who have voiced their desire for a supermarket so they don’t have to drive to Leominster or Ludlow?

Locals seem to shop using multiple methods now with many combining a supermarket shop nearby with additional goods and foods from the town's highstreet. Additionally, some drive the 15 mins to Tesco or Aldi etc in Ludlow, some choose to drive over to Morrisons, Aldi etc in Leominster, some use Lidl at Stourport, others make use of the cheap online deliveries from Tesco etc. In addition, it's worth noting that the town already has three supermarkets already with Bowketts/Nisa, Spar and a Co-op within walkable distance of many in the town and Burford. So in essence we're well served anyway and many use existing supermarket deliveries. Add  to this that many work in outlying towns to Tenbury and who shop while there anyway and it’s not all that make special journeys to shop either.

6. What do you say to those who feel they can’t afford to shop entirely from independent retailers – how can Tenbury deliver an affordable weekly shop for them?

We would highlight again that there are shops locally who cater for a range of budgets, in addition, today's shoppers can [and very often do] make use of online shopping options and deliveries that are available to the town and surrounding area.

7.  Are you in contact with anti-Tesco campaigns in other parts of the county and do you see yourselves as part of a nationwide movement?

Yes, we're in contact with a number of other regional groups who oppose similar supermarket large developments. We're not sure whether you could say there's a 'national' movement as such but the campaigning website 'Tescopoly.com' estimates that there are over 400 similar anti supermarket campaigns now active in the UK [interestingly, mainly relating to Tesco]. It's clear that many thousands of people nationwide are more and more concerned at the power large supermarket chains wield and the negative effects their unchecked growth has on our highstreets.

8. Is there any way you would be prepared to work with Tesco or another major developer on an outlet which you would find more acceptable?

We've already been approached by other developers in relation to the cattle market site. Our perspective has been the same with each in that we'd meet with and listen to their plans and then we'd put them to a vote of the Tenbury Futures mailing list members. If the majority were in support of the ideas then we'd ask for further discussions to see if we could lend our support. The present [Tesco] application for the site just aims to build a very large supermarket. Broadly if there are other developers whose plans tally more with the findings of our community questionnaire [i.e. blended developments including smaller retail, re-use of key historic buildings etc] then we would be keen to look to see if we could lend our support.

9. Why can’t Tesco work for Tenbury in the way it has for Ludlow?

Has it worked in Ludlow and if so then by what measure? The reason it is now where it is on Corve St is that there was a campaign by locals there too against it which lasted for many years. They too feared negative impacts on their highstreet shops and today's location was very much regarded as the lesser of a couple of evils.. It's a false argument though - the idea of ‘in town’ or ‘out of town’ - to us they're both bad for the highstreet. It's a little like asking "what would you prefer to be eaten by - a lion or a crocodile?". There are some who might suggest that Ludlow's Tesco has helped the town thrive but in reality the two towns are very, very different with Ludlow having a vastly different demographic population to Tenbury [Ludlow’s main housing estate alone has more people than the whole population of Tenbury]. Additionally Ludlow thrives due to clever marketing as a rural ‘foodie’ capital which brings in visitors, tourism and associated monies. Ludlow also has its cattle market which additionally brings in people, money and passing trade.. In short they're very different entities. To compound that there is evidence that trade is polarising towards the Tesco end of Ludlow now that there is a clutch of supermarkets there. The Shropshire Star ran an article:“Town Suffering as Trade Evaporates”, in which:

Margaret Edwards, of EJ Poyners in Broad Street, said: “... terrible now. The trade is just finished up this [non Tesco] end of the town.”  Thu 13th May, 2010.

10. Do you think an independent supermarket is more suited to Tenbury?
We do have an independent supermarket already in the town but have no overt preferences as a group. One of our aims is to promote [and if possible to help facilitate] the blended use of the town's cattle market site. We accept that additional retail will need to play a part in this process but we're asking that it should be appropriate, sensitive and sustainable. This combination has been achieved in other towns so why not Tenbury? We believe this message is clearly re-enforced for the third time by the 600+ individual planning objections from local and regional residents to the latest Tesco scheme filed with Malvern Hills' planners.

Tenbury Futures, Jan, 2012

Please Object to Tesco Demolishing Our Historic Infirmary Building

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..

• 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!

Supermarkets - Fair to Our Farmers?

The Church of England's Ethical Advisory Group's 2007 report "Fairtrade begins at Home: Supermarkets and The Effect on British Farming Livelyhoods" makes for interesting reading..

"This report makes it quite clear that the business practices of the major food retailers have placed considerable stress on the farming community through the use of methods which we believe to be unfair and of which consumers seem to be unaware. Farmers seem to be unwilling to complain or to expose these practices for fear that their produce may be boycotted by the major retailers."

"The low inflation which the British population has enjoyed for a number of years appears to have been generated, at least in part, at the expense of the livelihood and well-being of the farming community. We are moving towards a situation where we will be unable to be self-sufficient in basic foodstuffs, such as milk, and have to rely on imports which are produced on a cost basis which is not viable in the country.

The landscape and life of Britain are intimately related to the use which we make of the land. Although this has constantly changed over the centuries, we may soon find ourselves living in an age when herds and flocks are no longer seen, and in which virtually the whole population is totally disconnected from any contact with the production of the food which it eats. The link with the land, which is a powerful theme in theology, scripture and folk-lore, may well be lost and with it an essential part of our national heritage and identity."

From Foreword by The Bishop of Exeter, The Rt. Reverend Michael Langrish

[Click on the report's cover to download the full .pdf file - freely available online]

Selected additional quotes

"... the review identifies a number of invisible and pernicious practices that the consumer is largely unaware of, and which have been accepted by farmers as a fait accompli as part of the price of doing business."

"... these practices include labelling that obscures the country of origin of the primary ingredients of some products labelled as British but often only processed or packaged here; flexible contract terms that seldom work to the advantage of the farmer; flexible payment terms that, subject to arbitrary change, have often put farmers to increased cost and financial loss; facilitation payments; deductions and a range of financial inducements paid to the retailer or processor at the farmer’s expense. There is little evidence that retailers share the benefits of promotions with farmers, and much evidence that farmers, in the main, bear the costs."

"... we conclude that farmers do not seek special treatment, but a genuinely free market that is not skewed towards a few retailers with enormous buying power. There is visible inequality and dysfunction within the supply chain, which in our view requires attention."

"... Farmers are asking for no more than a fair price for a fair product which requires a connection to be made by the British consumer that fair trade begins at home with British produce, reared and farmed by British producers."

Additional quotes from Executive Summary pages 4 & 5.

Read more and download the full .pdf document.

Tenbury Wells in The Big Lottery Fund's 'Village SOS' Magazine

A page from the magazine - Tenbury is first in a list
of the Big Lottery Fund's enterprising communities.

The campaign by Tenbury Futures and 100's of local community members to sustainably develop the town's cattle market site has been picked up by the Big Lottery Fund's 'Village SOS' magazine.

The magazine is the latest output from the Village SOS stable and follows on from the BBC TV programme of the same name hosted by Sarah Beeney. The magazine 'celebrates enterprising communities' and 'the people making a real difference to the places where they live'. Additionally, the magazine is part of a wider campaign by the Big Lottery Fund's Village SOS organisation and is joined by a national roadshow and £5 million of competition funding to help community-led enterprises get off the ground, revive their areas, create new jobs and improve the quality of life of local people.

The Big Lottery Fund's campaign group were particularly interested in Tenbury Futures' proactive 'PLAN B' document - which promotes sensible and sustainable development of the town's cattle market site (which we discussed on this blog in an earlier post). 

The roadshow comes to Worcester on Dec 2nd and will offer supporting discussions and talks as well as advice on developing and evolving community projects.

Read more...

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.

New Tesco Superstore Planning Documents Now 'Live' For Scrutiny

To alert you to the fact that the latest application by Tesco to build a superstore on the cattle market site in Tenbury is now 'live' online for your scrutiny. The store is an 'A1' class superstore - which means that it could easily include [or add at a future date without great issue] a pharmacy, post office and hardware/homewares on top of the large range of discounted food goods it will stock. This of course could potentially affect a large percentage of the remaining embattled shops in the town instead of just the food shops which we feared on the last application. If you wish to look available documents over then you can do so by undertaking the following:

1. Firstly go online and copy-in the following address to your browser:

http://e-access.malvernhills.gov.uk/eaccess/Applicationsearch.asp

This should take you to Malvern's Planning Application seach page.

2. The tap in the following reference for the new application in the 'Application Number' box: 11/00887/FUL

This is defined as: "Erection of Class A1 Food Store, Associated Car Parking, Open Space and Landscaping and Access Improvement Works" [They will have to apply separately again to try to demolish the Old Infirmary Building - which we'd expect at the 11th hour so that as few people could digest it and offer-up objections as possible].

This should then display a page titled: "Planning Application Summary", to look through documentation look on the left hand side of the page where you should see a set of blue links to follow-up/review.

3. These documents are also available at Tenbury Library for review as hardcopies too (where you can take photocopies for more in depth scrutiny if you wish). When we spoke with the duty planner there today she assured us that as she was posting the 'Planning Application' signs around and near the site today and that this will allow the required 21 days from today's date [16th August] for individuals and organisations to formally object in writing or e-mails to them. The likelyhood though as this is such a massive development that the process will be open more like 13 weeks.

4. Objection Letter Pro Formas
We're presently pouring through the documents ourselves in order that we get a full picture of the new application. In the first instance we'd encourage individuals to write to MHDC's planners themselves explaining their concerns and objections. We must be clear though in that only letters dealing with planning-related issues will be taken forward to formal objections [i.e. emotive or passionate requests that Tenbury be left alone will not be counted as a formal 'planning objection' (although we'd understand the temptation).

If this all seems a bit of a minefield of documents and forms then we'll soon upload a pro-forma objection letter addressing the salient concerns on the Tenbury Futures blog site [and we'll alert you that we've done so] that you can simply just print, sign and send or drop in to a local highstreet shop. This proved a very effective method of getting a large number [apparently over 800 people locally] to object formally in writing which had a very definite sway from such a small community on the last occasion.

5. And Finally
There is much discussion in the town about this potential Tesco taking over from Tesco's home delivery van operation that currently operates out of the Ludlow store. This may account for the fact that the proposed new Tenbury store [pop 3,500] is even bigger than the last. Needless to say, if this happens then the additional strain on town and bridge traffic would be tremendous on top of that we already forcast.

Tesco's are more than happy to change the use of their stores once they've been built and indeed did just that at Tetbury in the Cotswolds. They'd sold their plan to the town as creating a large number of shop floor retail jobs. Within months of opening though the Tetbury store closed much of it's floorspace and turned the rest over to warehousing which supported it's Tesco Home online catalog business. The consequence of course was that less staff were required on site and the staff were thinned-down to a small fraction of the original number with most of the remainder put on to short term or part time contracts. It does make one look at the new site's massive floorspace in an entirely new way..

References:
You may like to follow-up these references too if you're keen to learn a little more about the company who wishes to parachute in a superstore in the town [these just a sample - there are many, many more out there]:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/05/john-harris-fight-against-supermarkets

http://www.thisislancashire.co.uk/news8489610.Fewer_jobs_on_offer_at_Accrington_s_new_Tesco_store

http://www.tescopoly.org/

http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefings/super_markets_corporate_bullies.pdf

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/8687519/Tesco-caught-operating-two-tiered-pricing.html

http://www.rhyljournal.co.uk/news/94468/traders-hold-crisis-talks-as-tesco-hits-sales.aspx

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/sep/03/food-miles-environment-impact

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1277180/Tesco-selling-asparagus-Peru--town-famous-producing-vegetable.html