Last week (10th May) a brave soul called Robin James wrote to the Herts Advertiser arguing in favour of both the Tesco development and the proposed Park Street Rail Freight Interchange. His (or her?) letter, titled 'Always Moaning' argued that the two projects would bring employment to the area without unacceptable additional amounts of traffic. Robin also argued that London Road, the site of the Tesco proposal, needed a makeover and a 24-hour petrol station.
Not surprisingly, the letter generated a big response from local people rebutting these arguments. Extracts from letters from Simon Hepburn, Ian Langford, B.Wilkinson, Bill Hammond and David Redcastle are given below. Find all the letters here.
"Robin James thinks he/she knows what St Albans residents want better than they do themselves. Robin James does not even live in St Albans.
"I don't think there is anything wrong with the people of St Albans. They are entirely right to protest when they believe they are being offered a pig in a poke or can see when the supposed benefits offered by a developer are either entirely illusory or are far outweighed by negative impacts which the developers prefer to gloss over.
"The Herts Advertiser editorial on April 19 pointed out that due to high house prices 'St Albans supermarkets cannot find staff for checkouts at certain times'.
"Superstores such as Tesco actually reduce the number of retail jobs in an area. A study by the British Retail Planning Forum found by 276 jobs per superstore.
"A Tesco superstore would be hard put to find enough staff - they would probably have to drive in from Luton or north London. What do desperately need...to provide affordable homes for young people, is housing.
"Given its position and the current housing shortage in the city, I believe this site would be far better used for residential use, including a percentage of affordable housing.
"I wonder if [Robin James] can think who might be responsible for [London Road] needing a drastic makeover. Could it be a certain company called Tesco which owns a number of buildings down there and has allowed them to become derelict.
"The Tesco proposal does not include any petrol station - let alone a 24-hour one - so in fact there is a loss of amenity to the local community from this scheme.
"Very few buses currently use London Road. There is no suggestion in Tesco's plans that it would create a bus stop in the development. Whether bus companies would really want to divert their buses along an already busy road through a supermarket car park is also doubtful.
"A couple of short filter lanes on London Road will not be able to magic away the peak 500 cars per hour plus delivery lorries visiting the site.
"This isn't moaning, it's about protecting this area of St Albans from a significant development in an inappropriate place.
"It recently suited Tesco to argue to the Competition Commission that local shopping should be defined as within 30 minutes drive... The Tesco Extra in Hatfield is easily within a 30 minute drive of everywhere in central St Albans under normal traffic conditions... Ergo, we don't need a Tesco in St Albans." (phew..)
Thanks to you all!
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