Tesco Tries To Spin Local People

In the interests of openness we print below Tesco's latest press release about its revised scheme - oh, with some comments in red. If you'd like to download your own copy of this, please visit www.tescostalbans.co.uk - where you can also keep in touch with Tesco's new plans - as and when it releases them...

"We've listened" (but did you hear what was being said?): Tesco revises scheme to keep Alma Road houses

Following detailed community consultation (see our scepticism about this below!), Tesco has this week indicated that it has revised its proposals for the redevelopment of the Eversheds site, on London Road. Tesco has made a number of changes and improvements to its plans. Full details will be shared with the community for further consultation in the near future. Tesco today said that the two main changes are:
• the locally listed buildings on Alma Road, previously to be demolished, will now be left as they are; (not doing something unpopular isn't really worth giving too much credit for, but we're sure that the people who live there will be happy that Tesco as landlord isn't going to throw them out and might actually invest some money in repairs now!)
• the store has been redesigned and will be significantly smaller. (as Ian Langford points out in his excellent letter today in the Herts Advertiser here, it was quite predictable that Tesco would start with a massive scheme and then revise it down - the new store is still pretty big though and doesn't in any way meet the needs of local people for housing and a school - in fact the amount of proposed housing looks like it will be reduced!)

Full details of the revised scheme will be released shortly, following further discussions with St Albans District Council. (then why issue this press release now, if not just to get some positive coverage?)
Speaking on the changes, Corporate Affairs Manager Michael Kissman said:

"After conducting in depth consultation, we have reviewed the comments we've received about the scheme. Among a number of issues raised, there was particularly strong feeling about the Alma Road properties (actually, the number one issue we found from local people is traffic - which hasn't been addressed yet by Tesco - but we are aware that the council planning officers were very unhappy about the idea of knocking listed houses down!), and we’ve taken this on board. In response, we've re-worked the scheme to keep them.
"The new proposals will have a number of changes, not just keeping the locally listed houses on Alma Road. To keep these houses, we've redesigned the proposed store, which will be significantly smaller than previously proposed.
"We are still speaking to the Council about our latest plans. (hopefully with one eye on the Information and Options document which suggests that there are already too many supermarkets to the South of St Albans?) Once these discussions have happened, we will be in a position to go back to the public with full details on the revised scheme for further comment."
Tesco consulted on the scheme earlier in 2007, holding a public exhibition, as well as meeting with local residents and interest groups (see our comments below about the people it met!). Considerable work has been underway since comments were received. Tesco intends to come forward with the revised scheme within the next few weeks. (after 7 and a half years, what is another 'few weeks' of uncertainty for local people - as we've pointed out before, every part of the London Road area has developed well over the past few years, except for the Tesco land (and the Odeon site of course!))
Other comments in the consultation confirmed that there is appetite (how big?) for a local, full service supermarket within 10 minutes' walk of the main City Centre shops. Support was particularly strong from those without private transport. (we'd be very interested in hearing about what form this support took - the council reports that 75% of representations it has received were against the store, and local politicians say 90%+ of local people are against it. We're also not surprised that people with cars are very much against this - they are the ones who would be stuck in their roads and drives!)
Mr Kissman further stated:
"The scheme we took to consultation in January was in draft and we were pleased to get so much feedback on it. Since then, a vast amount of work has been done to review the proposals in light of these comments. It's a complex scheme, so this has been time-consuming. We would have liked to have come back with revised plans sooner, but it's more important to get the proposals right." (as we've said before, we have no idea what consultation Tesco undertook between February and June - no-one seems to recall meeting them over this time!)

Notes to editors

1. The consultation included:
a. public exhibition
b. leaflets to neighbouring homes
c. website (which didn't let people send their views through on at least two important occasions - here recently and here at the very start of the consultation!)
d. newspaper adverts
e. elected representatives, in Parliament and in the Council (all Parliamentary prospective candidates, our MP and all local councillors oppose the development - so this presumably didn't help!)
f. liaison with residents groups and individual residents (when we met Michael Kissman a couple of weeks ago, we were the only local residents group he'd met - and we aren't in favour)
g. local businesses (we know the Chamber of Commerce President has been persuaded in favour, but we know that the vast majority of local businesses (83%) are against the development)
h. charities (we're not sure about their relevance, except for one - the Civic Society - which definitely opposes Tesco's plans)
i. police (not sure what their views are, but we expect they'd be interested in this story!)
j. stakeholder groups (vampire-killers?)