Herts Ad: Retail Study Firm Also Was Working for Tesco

When Tesco revealed it's plans for the Evershed site in St. Albans, they put much stock in a study, conducted by London based property consultants G.L. Hearn for the District Council, which suggested that the city needed another supermarket.

Well, today's Herts Advertiser carries an editorial that suggests that G.L. Hearn was, at the same time, also working for Tesco:

A FIRM which advised St Albans councillors on the district's needs for an extra supermarket was working for Tesco at the same time.

In a study carried out for the district council which was presented to its planning policy advisory group in November 2005, London-based property consultants G.L. Hearn, suggested that another supermarket almost as big as Sainsbury's in Everard Close would be needed in the city within six years.

At the time it was suggested that the proposal gave the green light to Tesco to press forward with their scheme for the old Evershed's printing works site off London Road which it already owned.

It has now transpired that at the same time the company was working for Tesco in other parts of the country, something it did not reveal to the council.

As part of the publicity for its current proposals which it has put forward for public consultation, Tesco points out that the study suggested the city needed an additional food store to keep people shopping locally.

Now we're not about to argue that this doesn't matter - many are likely to call into question the entire study now that the link between the land consultancy and Tesco has been revealed. However, in trying to shore up confidence in that very study, the consultancy reaffirmed on particular message from it: although the study recommended further retail space in St. Albans, that space should be provided in "centrally located site in St. Albans". The spokesperson from G.L. Hearn told the Herts Ad that:

"The findings of the study in connection with food retailing were that there was a need for a new store to serve St Albans and that, applying the sequential approach, that need should be met on a centrally-located site within St Albans."

Over half a mile away from the town centre isn't, we'd suspect, what they meant by centrally-located.