Fairplay? Highstreet Shopkeepers on Tesco

These are all genuine accounts from recent UK newspaper reports. Each features a quote from a small highstreet shopkeeper who either sees the writing on the wall or who are facing closure as a result of a Tesco store near them taking their customers or through Tesco undercutting them.

Shopkeeper 01

“We had lots of regular customers but we haven’t seen many of them for months - since the new [Tesco] store opened... We’re going to see if it picks up, but we are really worried we may have to close.”
Priti Patel, owner of Churwell Food Market for 16 years in Churwell, West Yorks. From “Churwell shopkeeper’s fears for future after Tesco opening”, Morley Observer & Advertiser, 13th Oct, 2011 Read more...

Shopkeeper 02

"Who’ll come and buy a pound of sausages from me when they’ve been to Tesco? It’ll kill us."
Melanie Fox, daughter of Derek the butcher whose family has traded for 200 years in Malton, Yorks [now threatened by a Tesco Superstore].

From Daily Mail article: ‘Don't let Tesco wreck my town says Selina Scott..’ 25th Nov, 2011
Read More...

Shopkeeper 03

“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
Read More...

There has been suggestion that a Tesco supermarket in Tenbury would "benefit Tenbury's shops"...  Is this the sort of "benefit" the town's food shops need?

"Don't Let Tesco Wreck My Town.." Selina Scott, Malton, Yorkshire

 

From the Daily Mail, 25th November, 2011

'Plans have been submitted to Ryedale District Council for a supersized supermarket covering the area of a football pitch to be built in the heart of Malton, on the site of the town’s car park.

Residents are unequivocal in their condemnation, certain it will destroy the fragile balance of local shops and community spirit that has been the hallmark of this special little town since the middle ages. Like many other market towns in Britain, locals are banding together to try to stop the developer, Leeds-based firm GMI Holbeck Land, obtaining planning permission.'

And

'It is not as though Malton, with a population of just 4,000, doesn’t have a supermarket. It has three. 

But if a 50,000 sq ft store gets the go-ahead then the hundred or so small shopkeepers who are already struggling will be driven out.'

"Who’ll come and buy a pound of sausages from me when they’ve been to Tesco? It’ll kill us."

Melanie Fox, the daughter of Derek the butcher — whose family has traded here [Malton] for 200 years.

'Malton is the latest town to attempt to resist the power and money of the supermarket chains which steamroller over local sensibilities. From the Herefordshire town of Ledbury to the Welsh market town of Machynlleth and Scotland’s Castle Douglas, local people have manned the barricades.'

Read more in the original article...

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...

Tenbury Council Mystery U-Turn on Tesco Plans.

The confusion about Tenbury Town Council's decision-making regards Tesco became more compounded as of monday night's extraordinary meeting. As we recall, they rejected the Tesco plan recently, they then did a re-run and supported it - the validity of both meetings and results was clearly called into question after that so a third meeting was called. What was different about this third meet though was that Tesco PR rep Sophie and their planning representative from Cardiff had been drafted-in to help try to sweet-talk wavering Clrs regarding the way they'd vote.

Who invited Tesco's PR spin team?
What wasn't clear (and we suspect that there are those that would just say that this is 'sour grapes' on our part) was how Tesco reps came to be in the Town Council meeting in the first place. One assumes that they were 'invited' and if so then by whom? It could of course be one of the Councillors who did this but we stand to be corrected if anyone knows more specifics.

You're either an audience member or you're not surely?
There were 3x 5 min talking slots from 'the audience' allowed as a standard. These individuals could address the Clrs and Lady Mayor to put across their position on the Tesco plan. Two locals spoke about their grave concerns related to the plan. Subjects such as severe traffic congestion, undercutting of town high street shops and Tesco's unique kind of 'benefit' [read loss of jobs and highstreet trade] to other towns were covered. Then came the third audience member to talk - but this wasn't another local airing concerns or support - instead they were two fully paid-up Tesco employees. While the points they tried to raise were garbled at best they were able to act as both 'audience' as well as being the applicant and proposer of the planning application.

The audience must remain quiet.
After these 15 minutes of 'audience' pointers and concerns were read out we [inc the Tesco representatives] were told in no uncertain terms that we should 'remain quiet'. From here on there would be a debate between councilors, we were also told that we would be ejected from the chamber should we talk or interrupt the debate. As such the audience respected this ask and kept quiet while the debate was underway.

Were facts used to support debate or just supposition?
There then followed the expected debate between Clrs. For a while there seemed to be uncertainty as pro Tesco Clrs argued with Clrs who were airing various concerns about the plan still. To confuse the matter further there were various points raised by pro Tesco Clrs that were presented as 'fact' to the chamber when they were plainly not presented accurately. One example being that Ludlow was put across as being the 'same or similar' to Tenbury. In reality, Ludlow is very different from Tenbury though. Take for example the fact that Tenbury's population is about 3,500, that's less people that Ludlow's Council Estate of about 4000 people alone. Ludlow has a population of around 10,000 in total - that's nearly 3 times that of Tenbury. Ludlow has cleverly marketed itself in tune with the growing national interest in slow and locally produced foods - Tenbury hasn't that we're aware of. Ludlow has a the remains of a castle that administered the whole of Wales for 200 years - Tenbury hasn't. Ludlow has a vibrant cattle market which for many years has brought money and individuals into the town - Tenbury no longer has an cattle market in town. Ludlow's tourism industry has been cultured over many years and runs on a very different scale and with a larger array of assets to that of Tenbury's. 

In short, you can't compare like for like - the two towns are substantially different. Although Ludlow has had recent news reports about the polarisation of trade to the superstore end of town it is never the less more resilient because of this broader mix of references at it's disposal. Those who are pro Tesco of course claim this resilience is down to a Tesco store in town but the many additional benefits the town has would seem to suggest otherwise.

Commendations to Clrs who aired their concerns.
Commendations do have to be given though to those local Councillors who raised concerns about the plan - both in terms of potential traffic congestion, ill thought-through superstore parking arrangements and the fact that the Clrs possibly weren't paying full attention to the many concerns raised by locals that had been passed to them to consider.

All pigs are equal but some are more equal than others.
What many in the audience couldn't square though was that during this debate some members of the audience were allowed their say and a right to reply when others who were on the public speaker list weren't. Pro Tesco Clrs asked if they could talk to the applicant as audience members and ask them further questions. The same facility to further detail and clarifiy wasn't extended to the rest of the audience or speakers though - many of whom who would have been able to clarify some of the claims put across as 'fact' in support of the Tesco application. 

So was the meeting conducted fairly?
In the event, Tesco representatives then had the chance to both clarify and even expand upon points raised by mainly pro Tesco Clrs. No one else had the same facility offered. Was it conducted fairly? You'll have to draw your own conclusions.

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".