Letter: Tesco St. Albans Could Worsen Traffic & Blight Community

We received the following email from Jill who lives on Cornwall Road in St. Albans. She's worried that a Tesco on the London Road site would make traffic worse, harm the environment and blight the community in which she lives and shops:

I've been reading the website with great concern, and too few locals really seem to know much (if anything) about this threat to our community. Tesco would ruin the environment, they have no concern for the consequences. Look what happened to Gerrards Cross!

Every week (approx) I walk, or cycle, from home (Cornwall Rd) to Lattimore Rd to shop at Buongiorno Italia (Tony's deli). This takes me past the empty houses which Tesco has allowed to deteriorate and the old cinema. Yes the area looks scruffy now and in need of regeneration, but what would a 2-lane road of Tesco traffic do for it?

Ian Langford is right. During the morning and evening rush-hour cars are bumper to bumper along London Rd. Evenings too, the other week it took me 10 minutes to reach Holywell Hill traffic lights at 7.15pm. Doing away with the existing business will do nothing for any of us. The one and two bed flats they propose to build will not compensate for the loss of existing (locally listed) Victorian houses.

Tesco spokesman Michael Kissman was quoted as saying: "We know that people aren't shopping in the town centre and this proposal is in line with Government policy to bring supermarkets back into town centres."

What rubbish! Presumably he thinks that London Rd is the town centre? Has he ever been here, and seen the city centre, wall-to-wall with shoppers on Saturdays? Wednesdays are almost as busy. In suggesting that shoppers could walk up into town after shopping at Tesco, leaving their cars in Tesco car park, they recognise that the town centre is some distance away. But they don't mention the 2-hour parking limit - which would make it impractical for most people.

Tescos would be a blight on the area and ruin the environment.

Jill Bennett, Cornwall Rd, St Albans

Thanks for writing Jill. If you have comments about the Tesco development, please send us an email. We won't publish anything on the site before asking so you can also email us privately, as many have already, to wish us luck, offer your skills, etc: tescocampaign@yahoo.co.uk