Every Little Spin Doctor Helps, Tesco...

Tesco needs to hire more 'corporate affairs managers' (spin doctors), or else it runs the risk of them spinning themselves to death - if the busy schedule of Michael Kissman is true of all of them. Over the past few weeks he has been trying to spin around the country and support six different Tesco developments*, all of which seem to have massive local opposition. Just look at the last 2 weeks...

19th March - In St Albans, Michael comments on the St Albans Review poll that found 83% of people against Tesco's plans for the city.

20th March - Up North, Michael is commenting in Liverpool on Tesco's plans to redevelop Everton FC's stadium in the Liverpool Echo.

20th March - At the same time by miles away in Suffolk, Michael comments tackles concerns over gridlock in the historic market town of Hadleigh in the East Anglian Daily Times.

26th March - The Liverpool backlash arrives and Michael is trying to persuade locals via the Liverpool Echo that Tesco's plans will not lead to massive job losses and business failures.

(27th March - Michael is not available for comment to the Herts Advertiser, so non-Tesco consultant Eben Black is called in.)

31st March - Michael is speaking to the Suffolk Free Press, trying to answer the concerns of protestors in Hadleigh who are worried about the impact of traffic pollution on listed buildings and a nature reserve.

(*As well as those above, during March Michael has also been working on Tesco's unpopular developments in Mill Road, Cambridge, Halesworth, Norfolk and of course Gerrards Cross)

Perhaps this is why Tesco's St Albans application is STILL NOT IN?????

Our MP Criticises Tesco Pollution

Big thanks to Anne Main MP, who has publicised in the St Albans Review the fact that even Tesco's own figures show that a supermarket in London Road will increase pollution. Levels of nitrogen dioxide in the area already exceed EU limits and a projected increase of 70% in local traffic will make things much worse.

Stop Tesco's own report on pollution will be out soon as part of our response to Tesco's application - but of course we need to have an application in first... watch this space for more details!

Thanks also to all the local politicians who are keeping people up to date with Tesco's plans in their election literature - be they Green, Liberal, Conservative or Labour!

So, When Did You Say the Application Would Be In, Tesco?

The Herts Advertiser today follows up its story of two weeks ago, when Tesco's Michael Kissman told the paper that Tesco's revised application would be in by now. The council's planning portfolio holder Cllr Chris Brazier isn't happy with the delay, as he makes obvious in the article.

What does Tesco have to say about this? In the absence of usual spin doctor Mr Kissman, 'Tesco spokesperson Eben Black' says the missing details will 'be submitted very shortly, possibly in less than a week's time'.

We're not going to let up on this, and nor will the Herts Advertiser or Chris Brazier, although it is interesting that once again Tesco has not given an absolute date - we hope that Tesco's logistics people don't work with the same degree of uncertainty or we'd have lorry loads of food defrosting and going off all over the country...

PS: We assume this is Eben Black here - interesting that he doesn't actually work for Tesco! It seems that Michael Kissman has been occupied with another locally unpopular Tesco scheme in Liverpool - here's the view of the Liverpool Echo on the scheme.

Tesco Buys (and Closes) a Holiday Park!!

The Independent reports today that Tesco has bought the Lyme Bay Holiday Village in Seaton, Devon and immediately sent out redundancy notices to 152 staff.

The paper reports Lizzie Bewsher, head of a community group opposed to the plans, Stand Up 4 Seaton, as saying:

"In one fell swoop, Tesco have bought up and shut down Seaton's single biggest source of employment and income. A lot of businesses in the town rely on the passing trade that the holiday village brings in. The people who live in the holiday village face being made homeless and working parents will have nowhere to leave their children. The nearest nursery will be 10 miles away. The village also has the only gym and swimming pool in a town with very few facilities.

"Tesco has done this without offering any assurances that these facilities will be replaced next January or indeed without putting forward any plans for what it wants to do after the closure. It is acting with breathtaking arrogance. We have absolutely no guarantee whatsoever that Tesco will not bulldoze the holiday village, put a big fence around it and leave it untouched for a decade. They are throwing around their financial weight but we are determined not to stand for it."

Local people believe the only reason why Tesco has bought the site is to stop Sainsburys opening a store there. If a Tesco is eventually built on the site it will apparently be the 10th Tesco within 22 miles, with no real local competion.

So come on Terry Leahy, Michael Kissman and Tesco - how does this help people and communities????

PS - it is now nearly 2 weeks since Michael Kissman told the Herts Advertiser that ' he expected the planning application to be back on track by the end of the week'. We are watching... and of course waiting...

UPDATE: The Daily Telegraph carries the same story today with a few more comments from local businesspeople. One thing that must really concern the people of Seaton is that, despite what Tesco might say, a holiday village will attract people from miles away, and that they will then spend money in other local shops, boosting the local economy. A supermarket is only ever going to recycle the money that already exists in the local economy and in Tesco's case, only 7% of this money will remain local! So the future for the community is not good...

Final Results from the Poll

Just heard from the St Albans Review direct - a total of 1607 votes were cast, of which 83% were against Tesco. Apparently the website only shows 472 web votes, of which 93% were 'no'.

Thanks to all who voted - an obvious message to Tesco that its store is not wanted!

St Albans Review Poll Update

As we enter into the last few hours of the St Albans Review poll (voting closes at 10am on Tuesday, if you still haven't voted!) it seems obvious that the people have spoken and firmly opposed Tesco. The facts (as of 5pm) are...

Online poll: Do you back the proposed Tesco store?
The results: Yes: 7.4% No: 92.6%
Number of votes: According to the paper, almost 1000!

Number of comments posted (in response to 2 articles): 81
Number in favour of Tesco: 3 (3.7%)
Number against Tesco: 67 (82.7%)
Number of repeat comments / for information: 11

Of course, Tesco's spin doctors will be revving up to oppose this - please let us have any suggestions as to what they will say...

Tesco and Free Speech in Thailand

Don't think of opposing us seems to be the message Tesco is sending in Thailand. The Observer reports that Tesco's subsidiary in the country is suing two anti-Tesco activists for £18 million for making an error in anti-Tesco speeches.

Hopefully, UK bosses will spot this and stop the lawsuits - free speech is a great British value and it is frankly stomach-turning to see this sort of process being used by Tesco.

A Letter from Cambridge

We've received good news from the Cambridge Mill Road anti-Tesco campaign, who have also had the pleasure of dealing with Tesco's Michael Kissman over the past few months. They write,

"Just thought you'd like to know that last Thursday the council threw out Tesco's application to build an extension, which they needed in order to open an Express on Mill Road. Tesco, in the usual form of our friend Mr Kissman, are now trying to claim that it was a victory for them because they have been given permission to put up a sign and install a cash machine and that they could open the store without the extension. Unfortunately for them, we have a copy of the email that they sent to the planners a couple of months ago, spelling out in some detail why they couldn't open the store without the extension. Oops."

If you'd like to find out more about the campaign, click here.

Say No to Tesco in the St Albans Review

The St Albans Review is running a major poll on whether people want Tesco in St Albans. Please take part (and say 'NO' of course...) by either...

1. Visiting www.stalbansreview.co.uk/news and clicking 'NO' on the poll about half way down the right hand side of the page.

2. Sending a text to 80360 saying 'Tesco No' (texts cost 25p plus your normal charge)

3. Phoning 09012 210207 (calls cost 25p from BT landlines, and may cost more from mobiles and other networks)

4. Emailing 'No' to revieweditor@london.newsquest.co.uk

If you'd like to leave a comment for the Review, please do so by clicking here.

The other news story today is that the Herts Advertiser has followed up the Tesco application rejection story - and Tesco's Michael Kissman has said that a new application may be in at the end of the week. See the whole story here.

Tesco, Negative News and Negative Reputation

One of the interesting things about the Internet is the access to information you get from it. Just a few years ago, keeping people informed about Tesco's expansion plans around the country would have been almost impossible. Today, however, thanks to Google News feeds and the like (like the one that sits at the top of the blog) we can see and report Tesco's struggles around the country.

For example today, here are the top Google stories about Tesco....










As you can see, all is not good for the company - stories report opposition to stores in London, Ireland, Radford, Manchester, Hyndburn in Lancashire and Cambridge, as well as the tale of a former Tesco senior executive who left the company after (she claims) suffering intense pressure and abuse from senior managers. The final story covers the media backlash over the company's use of (legal) tax avoidance.

We'd like to link all this negative news to our ongoing survey (on the right of the blog) which shows that Tesco's reputation in St Albans is nose-diving. Tesco claims to want to work with local communities, but surely there comes a point where we have to say that the company is not listening to the people of Britain at all. And at that time, we probably have to look for alternative sources of food...

Friction TV takes up Sandy's Oppostion to Tesco

Here are the views of local Lib Dem MP candidate Sandy Walkington on Tesco, as seen on opinion website Friction TV.

Wacky and Weird Surveys Get Weirder

The Adroit e-Research survey of 2 weeks ago, which Tesco used to try to spin the fact that two-thirds of people were against its planned store into a 'silent majority' in favour, has now been followed up by a further one from the bizarrely named research start-up.

The company now claims (via thisishertfordshire) that 'only 18 per cent of local people are opposed [to the Tesco store], and nearly half are positively in favour' (without specifying what 'nearly half' means, of course). Adroit Director Johnathon Brill tells the website 'The improvement is statistically significant, while admitting that 'responses such as "I don't care" or "They should just get on with it" were not included in the results, even as neutral responses'.

The fact is that this 'shift' reveals that the survey is in no way representative of public opinion. During the period between the two surveys, Tesco has taken no positive action to promote its store, and in fact is currently infuriating local people even more by wasting more time with its incomplete application. Yet we're expected to believe that a 'significant' number of people have changed their mind! Just to reiterate our other points from last time - we know that people want something to happen to the Eversheds site, and we know that shoppers might initially be in favour, because they like the Tesco brand, but once they look at the impact on local people and the community, and consider the alternatives, they rapidly become opposed. Our petition of almost 6,000 people is evidence of this.

We'd also like to suggest that Tesco's Michael Kissman stops wasting his time with these desperate surveys and spends some time getting the Tesco application in, so that it can be rejected and we can start doing something better with the land.


UPDATE: We've just heard on the grapevine that Tesco paid for the second survey, but not for the first one. Now you can all draw your conclusions about the results. Congrats of course to Mr Brill, who has snared perhaps his first blue-chip client.

Yet Another Tesco Plan Rejected

Not a happy time for Tesco's planning people at the moment, we fear. The Macclesfield Express reports that the company's plans for Poynton, Cheshire have been rejected. Interestingly, part of the reason given by the council for the rejection was that Tesco had refused to deliver a 'retail impact assessment', explaining the impact of the store on local traders.

Well done to the protestors of Poynton!

Another Environmental Reason to Oppose Tesco

Supermarkets have come under fire recently for handing out billions of plastic bags, which then damage the environment for many years. Unlike its rivals, especially Marks & Spencer, Tesco is playing hardball and refusing to take significant steps to reduce its use of bags.

In response the website thisislondon (part of the Evening Standard) took a look around the country to see where some of the bags ended up, taking these pictures. Do people really want these scenes repeated in St Albans? Does anyone think that a school and housing would produce anything like as much rubbish?

On an unrelated topic, we've not heard anything new about Tesco's rejected application yet, although we have heard that there were quite a few mistakes in it... Hopefully the company will recycle the paper at least.