Tenbury Wells - Teme Bridge Letter

Please see below a copy of a letter sent to both Peter Blake, Head of Integrated Transport, Worcester County Council and the Shropshire County Council Bridge Section.

Dear Sir/Madam,

 

Teme Bridge Tenbury Wells

 

I write to express my concern at the treatment of the refurbished Teme Bridge, Tenbury Wells as suitable for unrestricted use in both directions simultaneously.

 

Department of Transport and SCC literature indicate that a normal two-way road should be at least 5.5m wide and that below this width a road should not normally have a centre line. Indeed, I understand that Worcs CC has specifically refused to provide a centre line elsewhere in response to more than one request from a parish council on the grounds that the road is less than 5.5m wide.

The Teme Bridge at the kink in the middle of the bridge appears to be 4.9m; in Shropshire just before the bridge proper, 4.8m - yet the bridge has a centre line.

The maximum permitted width of an HGV (excluding mirrors) is 2.6m if refrigerated, 2.55m if not. The maximum permitted width of a bus is 2.55m.

Therefore two full-size lorries (or buses) can only pass on the bridge (or on the approach) if at least one uses the pavement.

Given the above, would you please explain how this part of the A4112 can merit a centre line or indeed how it can even be considered a two-way road.

If you do consider the road to be suitable for two-way simultaneous use, would you please advise how you reconcile this with the clear safety (and legal) issues of one or more of two passing HGVs or buses having to mount the pavement.

 

You may not be aware, but at least three accidents occurred in the first 24 hours of the bridge being open again, in my view simply underlining the safety issue.

I look forward to your response; clearly time is of the essence if an injury or, worse, a fatality, is to be avoided.

 

Yours sincerely,

The Tenbury Futures Group.

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.

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!