Before Tesco - Teme Bridge Congestion

HGV mounts pavement behind disability scooter.
(Click to enlarge picture).

The reworked Teme Bridge has certainly seen work undertaken, but it's now even narrower in places than in the past. Many in the town have seen HGV's mounting the pavements in the past to try and get around the bend in the bridge but here's another example [above] which happened recently despite 'improvements' to the bridge. Of concern in this example is the senior citizen in the disability scooter who is clearly unaware of the large HGV looming-up behind him while it tries to get around the bend in the bridge. Issues around congestion and safety of pedestrians on the structure have been voiced before and clearly aren't going away .


The bridge has always seen busier periods in the day - this image showing just one of these in a late morning on a weekday. Tenbury Futures have long raised concerns about the Teme bridge's ability to cope with the growing modern traffic numbers if faces and here is just one of many ongoing snarl-ups caught on camera.. It's worthwhile pointing out of course that all this is happening before either any works are carried-out on the town's cattle market site or increases brought on by subsequent store traffic.. 


We raised the spectre of "Massive additional congestion" on our past posters in the town if a supermarket was given the go-ahead.. The bridge is clearly suffering issues around both traffic and safety of pedestrians even before a supermarket build - were we right to raise concerns? 

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 

Another Hundred Tesco Objections go to Malvern's Planners...

The latest tranche of Tesco planning objections.

Another 100 Tesco planning objections is about to wing it's way to Malvern Hills.. Participating shops taking in objections in Tenbury have reported a steady flow of planning objections coming in - both bespoke hand-written, bespoke word-processed as well as completed pro-forma objections as offered-up by Tenbury Futures.

One of the participating shops we spoke to today confirmed that in a just couple of weeks alone they had already received and passed-on over 300 individual Tesco planning objections to Malvern Hills planners. While we can't reveal individual names on the objections we can confirm that they are coming from all sections of local society - including parents of young families, the elderly and both residents and local businesses. Well here's another hundred for the pot [above] and there's still a number of weeks until the end of the consultancy period.

Even as we were taking these pictures today additional planning objections were still flowing in to the participating shops we spoke to. Yet again this is very clear evidence of the unerring strength of feeling within the local community against a large supermarket of this type on Tenbury's cattle market site.

We'd just like to take this moment to thank all those 100's of local people who have already made their feelings against Tesco's plans very clear again in written objections. We'll be monitoring the rest of the objections coming in and will report on them again at the point that they're no longer accepted by Malvern Hills Planners.

Remember too that Malvern will be accepting objections for a number of weeks yet [we now believe the cut off is Nov 2nd 2011]. You can still download our pre-written pro-forma objection letters from this site using the buttons at the top left of the site or just click these below:

Tenbury Futures: The People's Plan - Your Designs Wanted..

Last month we successfully balloted the local community and visitors to the town on what they would like to see happen with Tenbury’s old Cattle Market site. Now via the People's Plan we’re inviting everyone to contribute to design ideas for the site [See 'Download' links top right of this site].

The initial Tenbury Futures survey* returned nearly 300 replies with some definite wants, some conclusive not-wants, and some ideas on which there were mixed views.

* You wanted:

Those in the survey's 300 replies mainly wanted the re-use of the old infirmary as a museum and tourist information centre, the construction of a riverside walk and café. Then came additional parking and an area to accommodate Tenbury’s many events, popular with locals and visitors – such as the unique mistletoe market, the apple fest, the food festival, the fair and the popular car boot sales. Also rated highly was improved and enlarged recycling facilities.

* You didn't want: 
There was very little support in the 300 replies for a single large retail supermarket development and the majority opted for ideas that would benefit the wider community. There were mixed views on small-scale retail or commercial development and on a hydro-electric micro-generation plant for the town.

The People's Plan:

Drawing skills:
There’s no need to be good at drawing though; what we want to see is your ideas and rough designs. Once the survey is complete (there is a closing date of 30 Jun 2011) we will collate the responses and look into having plans drawn up based on the most popular site layouts.

Community-wide feedback:
We’d like as many people to participate as possible and are hoping for feedback from individuals, schools, community groups, churches etc – in fact anyone who is interested in the future of Tenbury's Cattle Market site.

The plan:
We have drawn up a simple site plan [not to scale] for participants to complete [below] to get the ball rolling, the information is accompanied by some sketches of possible options – although these are only ideas to stimulate debate.


[Click image to enlarge]

Sample site plan

These ideas also potentially help generate a set of facilities that compliment Tenbury's existing ongoing developments [Regal Cinema etc] while helping to enhance both local community facilities and local tourism further.

Particularly significant could be a new or supporting venue for our unique mistletoe market, food fair or applefest while also providing a new outdoor performance space, riverside cafe and market site or designer-maker units/shops. The site may also provide a space for a new bespoke Community Centre too.

[Click image to enlarge]

Tenbury Cattle Market: Artist's Impression - Angle 01

Artist's Impression - Angle 02 [Some riverside trees omitted only for clarity].

Community Trust:
The development could potentially be created by a community-driven trust in the same way as Ludlow's successful Millenium Green re-development. Their trust has a long list of local members who both help raise monies and help with the running. In addition, they've raised thousands of pounds to assist with the re-development and secured grant monies to help fund ongoing work.

Returned Ideas:

These are some of the returned visual ideas that have been passed to the Futures group. 
[Click images to enlarge]

From Mr K, Tenbury Wells

Mr K whose points include that the RBB Building should be refurbished as the new location for the Tenbury Museum. Additionally, Mr K believes that the site could be used for a new social centre and large festival site.

From Mr R, St Michaels, Tenbury Wells

Mr R suggests that nr Durban in South Africa they created a riverside esplanade with a beautifully designed complex which housed all kinds of craft industries such as jewellers, artists, potters, booksellers, bars and restaurants - all selling cheap/reasonably priced services/products.

[Click image to enlarge]

Mr S, Tenbury Wells

Community boating on a raised pool
Mr S wanted to follow-up comments on the Tenbury Blog by creating a quick visual of an idea that had been raised some years back about a possible raised slow-moving stretch of water for a community boating area. The idea was apparently dismissed at the time [and this really is just an additional bolt-on idea - no formal funding ideas offered-up] when it was raised. But in the light of attracting additional tourism and monies to the town's local shops - this sort of idea could potentially assist. Much like Ludlow where [despite the Teme being SSSI] town council-run boats have been hired-out on the river by the popular car park underneath the castle. Not only could this be open to the public but it could be used by local clubs and societies for kayaking etc - for example, the local scouts, maybe Bockleton Hall outdoor persuits centre and Tenbury High School's outdoor club. In these days of uber health and safety though and people litigating at the drop of a hat this sort of an idea might be a hard sell - but it's an idea and ideas are the currency here.

Combined with micro hydro power generation
As a postscript though it could also be made to combine with micro hydro power generation at the weir end. This incorporation of micro hydro has already been given planning permission at an existing weir further down the River Teme  as well as the weir re-build ongoing upstream on the Teme at Bromfield - specifically to incorporate micro hydro electricity so there are clear precedents for this. The power generated [one of the areas where govt devt grants haven't been totally pulled] could power some or all of the Cattle Market development maybe. It could even generate some spare capacity to feed in to the national grid - at which point it could also help pay for itself too by receiving hydro electric feed-in tariffs.
[Click images to enlarge]

The weir being rebuilt at Bromfield on the River Teme
for hydro electric power generation [taken May 2011].

The public information board placed next to the weir re build.
It claims it will create enough consistent power to supply the equivalent
of 420 average homes.

"Your plan is very good"
Mr J, Tenbury Wells [from returned forms]

[Click image to enlarge]

Mr S, Orleton ~ Solar PV Panel Shadeports

Solar PV Shadeports
Mr S explains that the US has been using 'solar shadeports' for car parking since 2009 and that this sort of power generation scenario could be applied to the Cattle Market site [and/or any open car parks in the town] too. Although this is only a rough visual, solar arrays of the scale above could generate up 124272 kWhrs.per annum. There is a chance that finance towards development of this sort of scenario may be possible too. Using new technology it's even possible to get 240v 50Hz direct from these sorts of panels. With solar feed-in tariffs this sort of scenario could also either help additionally pay for itself or maybe even earn the site monies if a surplus to the local requirements were generated.

G.A. suggests a blend of 'Futures' ideas with a Superstore.

G.A. suggests keeping the RBB Building but allowing Tesco to build on the site - creating a mix of refs which may appeal to a broad range of Tenbury's residents. They suggest that the car park be made available by the supermarket to assist with local festivals, Mistletoe Sales and Carnivals etc too.


An Alternate Teme Bridge and Relief Rd.
[Click image to enlarge]

Suggested replacement bridge and relief road - Tenbury.

Possible Semi-Pedestrianised Teme St

Possible Teme St One Way Scheme and Semi-Pedestrianised Area
Allied to the New Relief Rd Idea

Possible Traffic Light Array: Crow Turning

Possible Traffic Light Array for Option A [Above]

As discussed on the Tenbury blog recently, the old Teme Bridge in Tenbury has been identified as needing substantial repair work to the tune of millions of pounds just to make it safe. The discussion suggested that as the old bridge was the 'lifeline of the town' and that we should really think about securing easy future access to the town as opposed to short term sticking plasters on the old bridge. To do so could be to divert the majority of those millions and put them towards a plan that better allowed Tenbury to flourish and grow into the future instead of constantly dealing with the bottleneck that is the old bridge. The idea being that the old Teme Bridge [which is a unique Scheduled Ancient Monument] would then have the stresses of increasing HGV usage, increasingly regular traffic jams due to the 'bend' in it and the resultant increases in structural problems on it removed as traffic transferred to an alternate modern crossing of the Teme.

Such a crossing and relief road would cost many more millions - that's clear. But maybe there comes a time when the local authorities need to take the long view and invest accordingly to secure the long term future of the town.

As a spin-off, the old bridge's use could be scaled-back so that it accommodates pedestrians, cyclists and emergency vehicles only. This would make this end of the town much quieter and the combination of this, the picturesque river location and the unique bridge architecture could have a dramatic effect on local tourism. In fact it was mentioned on the blog that there might be similarities to the situation at 'Ironbridge' in terms of tourist draw [not that the Teme Bridge in Tenbury is quite in the same league but we understand it's one of only 2x SAM's which are bridges with curves in them in the UK].

The points on the rough drawing refer to: 

1. Burford Hospital. Pulling out of this blind corner can often mean risking an accident or worse at peak times with vehicles speeding towards the hospital largely out of view. Hence adding a roundabout here and a [raised] relief rd across the fields to a new bridge could serve a number of purposes.


2. The Old Teme Bridge. This could be 'retired' and actively help increase the town's tourism draw if a new bridge and relief rd were put in.


3. The Crow Hotel Turning. All traffic that passes over the present Teme bridge passes this way around the tight corner - often creating jams with longer HGVs. If the relief rd were plumbed-into the B4204 that comes into the back of the town from Rochford then it could [option A] be diverted to this junction where minor works and a traffic light system could enable a suitable traffic flow. The idea illustrated above using traffic lights may actually allow a wider swing/turning circle for HGV's than the present two way corner at the Crow Hotel.


Alternatively [option B], the traffic could initially come onto the B4204 and then via a new relied rd to the south join up to the Bromyard Rd near the 'S bends' near the business park. With the addition of minor works and a new mini roundabout at the junction of the Bromyard Rd this would take away from the town centre the mainstay of HGV traffic. On the theme of tourist attraction, Teme St could then potentially be semi-pedestrianised too [while still allowing access to the Cattle Market etc] - thus creating an airy and  attractive public realm space or more overt 'tourist zone'.


4. A New More Accessible Teme Bridge. This could be in one of various modern formats  - cantilever etc or strictly just governed by cost and utilitarian needs.

Some Videos For Your Consideration:

BBC Whistleblowers: Supermarkets

Channel 4: Supermarket Secrets

The End of Suburbia [Documentary Film]

The Story of Stuff

The Transition Movement

A New Town Square

Mr L, Burford, Tenbury

Mr L suggests a combination of new Town Square with central monument, space for market stalls, training allotments for local schools, parking and a new orchard.

New Central Plaza Celebrating Tenbury's History

Ms P, Burford Suggests a Central Plaza area.

Key to above concept.

Ms P from Burford says that the Tenbury has become very traffic orientated with no central focal point and increasingly busy routes through the town centre. The redevelopment of the former old cattle market provides a key focal area to encourage this and make the most of the River Teme and it's historic bridge.

A central walkway through the area linking all the components and river wlakway/plaza containing seating areas, uplighting and architectural plants would provide a mixture of hard and soft landscaping highlighting and creating key focal points within the site. Planting could compromise of raised timber planters containing Phormiums, Pampas Grass and other architectural species such as Yucca's and Stipa species [grasses].

Low lighting could be used to highlight key paths with surfacing compromising a mixture of slab paving, timber and gravel creating unique character to the the courtyards and site identity. 

Within the centre either a central water feature or monument/sculpture or art piece could be incorporated to reflect Tenbury's history or the site's former uses.

The site could almost become a gateway leading the tourist to some of the highlights and history of Tenbury such as the Pump Rooms, Regal Theatre and the Butter Market.

Interim Analysis: 13th February, 2011

25 Additional Returns From The Following Areas:
[Mostly] Tenbury, [then] Burford followed by individuals from: Broadheath, Boraston, Kyrewood, Stoke Bliss, Newnham Bridge, Clifton on Teme, Knighton on Teme, Clee Hill, Kimbolton and Stanford Bridge. Also with individual visitors from: Bayston Hill nr Shrewsbury, Wolverhampton and Bilton nr Rugby

[Click to enlarge]

Individual Graphs That Fed Into The Overview Graph Above:
[Click to enlarge]

Interim Analysis: 5th February, 2011

45 Additional Responses collected from the following settlements:

Approx 80% from Tenbury Wells and also individuals from: Burford, Boraston, Rochford, Kyrewood, Stoke Bliss, St Michaels, Angel Bank, Clee Hill, Cleobury, Little Hereford, Eardiston, Stanford Bridge, Newnham Bridge, Knighton On Teme, Ludlow, Stourport, and individual visitors from: Whitton, Kidderminster, Halesowen, Newtown, Knighton, Willenhall Warks and Exhall Coventry.

[Click to enlarge]

Supporting Graphs Related to the 6x Suggestions on the Questionnaire [total 165 responses, 5th Feb, 2011]:
[Click to enlarge]

Interim Analysis: 29th Jan 2011

Overview Graph [Please Click to Enlarge].
• 32 Additional returned forms.
• Based on a new total of 120 form returns.
• Copies of all forms will be passed to both MHDC and Tenbury Town Council end Feb/early March for ref in further discussions on the site.
• All reported figures represented here can also be double-checked via these copies if required by both organisations. 

Geographical Response Area:
• Additional responses from: [mainly] Tenbury and also Burford, Ludlow, Eastham, St Michaels, Milson nr Cleobury Mortimer, Rochford, Oldwood Common, Lindridge Priory, Brimfield, Upper Sapey and Kington.

Supporting Graphs relating to the 6x Suggestions on the Community Form [Please Click to Enlarge]

Interim Analysis: 25th January 2011

Collected 25th Jan 2011 from participating Tenbury shops. These interim statistics from a sample of 88 completed forms.

We will add further interim details [added to those below] at another point in February to keep a track of the returns coming in.

Geographic Response Area:
• Responses mainly from Tenbury but with individuals from surrounding settlements such as: Burford, Ludlow, Clifton-on-Teme, Cleobury Mortimer, Sutton, Eardiston, Little Hereford, Frith Common, Stoke Bliss, St Michaels, Upper Sapey, Bredenbury and [out of the 88] one from each of the following: Knighton, Bayton nr Kidderminster, Kingsland and Staffordshire. 

Supporting Individual Responses
• Accuracy to within + or - 2 counts per option on recording.