More Herts Advertiser Letters

A great letter from supporter Ian Langford in the Herts Advertiser today, pointing out that the council-commissioned retail report that Tesco has used to support their application actually opposes it when you read in detail! The letter reads...

"Malcolm Edward's letter (Herts Advertiser April 5th) highlighted that the St Albans District Council report which Tesco claims supports the building of a superstore on the Evershed site does nothing of the sort. In fact chapter 13 of the report states: 'Shoppers are using the Sainsburys, Morrisons and Waitrose stores outside the city centre for their main food shopping needs to the detriment of the city centre as a whole'

"The proposed Tesco development is a similar distance from the city centre as Sainsbury's so the same conclusion must apply. Building a Tesco outside the city centre will be to the detriment of the city centre as a whole.

"Far from supporting the building of a Tesco on the Eversheds site, the council retail assessment report warns against it".

Angela Nicholls of Stop Tesco also writes to reassure a previous letter writer that Tesco is beatable. Her letter reads.

"I would like to offer some reassurance to your letter writer Graham Murphy (‘Ready for Battle’, Herts Advertiser, 5th April). He argues that ‘Tesco are very experienced in fighting and beating local opposition across the country’. However, our research shows that that up and down the country Tesco is being defeated. Our website www.stoptesco.com records recent setbacks for the company in Barnet, Hillingdon and Tolworth, and the website www.tescopoly.org lists many other examples where local campaigns have defeated planning applications.

"As your correspondents Roma Mills and Chris Oxley suggest in their letters (‘Homes Crisis’ and ‘Primary Places’ respectively) it is obvious that St Albans needs affordable housing and school places rather than another supermarket.

"We would encourage anyone opposed to Tesco's proposal to support the Stop Tesco action group by volunteering to collect signatures for our petition in the City Centre during April, signing the petition themselves, or putting a poster in their window. Please email us at tescocampaign@yahoo.co.uk, phone 07758 589 499 or visit www.stoptesco.com/volunteer to help".