Great Support At Public Meeting

It was standing room only at the Trinity URC Church in St Albans earlier this evening (Tuesday 29th April) as campaigners, politicians and local residents met to discuss the latest news about Tesco's London Road development and to show solidarity in opposing it.

Speaking at the meeting were:

Mike Dilke of Stop Tesco St Albans: In introducing the meeting, Mike spoke of the importance of the campaign focusing on finding a positive outcome for the former Eversheds site, and not being just against Tesco's current plans. He also emphasised the importance of immediate action, with a tight deadline for objections to be made.

Simon Grover of St Albans District Green Party spoke of the impact of the planned superstore on local shops and the vitality of the City Centre. Simon talked about the negative impact of Tesco on four other UK cities. In one, Cirencester, a new Tesco in a position around as far from the centre as that proposed for St Albans led to a 38% decline in local retail stores. He also spoke of the impact of superstores on local economies - with money being sent to head office rather than being spent in the local area.

Cllr Roma Mills, Labour Party Prospective Parliamentary Candidate, spoke of the impact on local people. She pointed out the massive local traffic problems and urged those present to write to Hertfordshire County Council as well as St Albans District Council to ensure that the County Council objected to the development vigorously on traffic grounds. She also spoke of the environmental degradation that a new supermarket would cause.

Sandy Walkington, Liberal Democrat Prospective Parliamentary Candidate spoke of his experience of campaigning in the area 20 years ago and the 'spick and span' houses owned by the Evershed family around the site - comparing them unfavourably to the current state of the area after 8 years of Tesco ownership. He also spoke of other campaigns around the country that successfully had opposed Tesco.

Nadia Davies, Conservative District Council Candidate, spoke of her experiences as a local resident, as well as the importance of using the site to ease St Alban's urgent housing needs. She also read out a statement from MP Anne Main, which concluded 'I am sure that most of you have already formally lodged your comments on the proposal with the Council, but if you have not I would urge you to do so as soon as possible. I sincerely hope that the Council feels, on balance, that it can refuse this proposal on good planning grounds.'

Ian Langford, one of Stop Tesco's planning volunteers, then shared some of the information he had obtained from Tesco's application. In particular, he argued that Tesco had significantly underestimated the problem of pollution in the area. To support this point, he produced figures that showed that Tesco's computer modelling of nitrogen dioxide levels in 2006 had underestimated the actual measured level by 18% and in doing so took the level under the EU 'safe' level. The same computer model was then used to derive even 'safer' figures for a 'post-Tesco' level. Unfortunately the computer model seemed to avoid pollution from stationary cars.

Mike Dilke then read out a message of support and encouragement from the Mill Road campaign in Cambridge - the campaign succeeded in preventing Tesco from opening an Express store in the city.

Peter Trevelyan of the St Albans Civic Society hosted a question and answer session, before Mike Dilke rounded off the event with a call to arms - and handed the Stop Tesco St Albans petition of over 5,800 names to the politicians present.

After the meeting, a number of volunteers signed up to deliver over 1300 extra leaflets and to help campaign in the City Centre. A significant amount of money was also raised to support further work. Thanks to all who attended!


UPDATE: Thanks to the Herts Advertiser for covering the event!

How Did This Get Here?

Sunday 7:29 pm 4/27/08 St. Albans, England
Originally uploaded by robinhamman

We know that lots of people have taken our leaflets and support the campaign - but how did this get into Tesco's in St Albans? Is there a mole? (Thanks for the photo Robin!)

What Local People Want Instead of Tesco

Over the past year we've had loads of comments and really useful ideas for making good use of the former Eversheds site suggested to us. We've taken some of them and overlaid them on pictures showing the last year of the Stop Tesco campaign. Click below to see them! (And thanks to Nick for doing this.)

Who's Coming to the Public Meeting?

We've finalised the list of speakers and expert guests for Tuesday's meeting. The meeting will be an excellent opportunity to find out more about Tesco's development and to ask questions of a wide range of experts. Please come along, even if you've never thought of yourself as a local activist! Although it may appear that a lot of people are speaking, we've asked them all to be brief and the meeting should take around an hour. (It's at Trinity URC Church, Beaconsfield Road at 7.30pm).

At the meeting we will be revealing the impact of Tesco's proposed development on local air quality. Representatives from all four political parties will show their support, and although MP Anne Main is unable to make the meeting as she is needed in the House of Commons, she has prepared a letter of support to be read out. We will then outline the key steps that we can all take to Stop Tesco and answer all of your questions!

Speakers will include:

• Simon Grover, St Albans District Green Party
• Cllr Roma Mills, Labour Party Parliamentary Candidate
• Sandy Walkington, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate
• Nadia Davies, Conservative Party
• Mike Dilke and Ian Langford, Stop Tesco St Albans
• Peter Trevelyan, St Albans Civic Society

PS - many thanks to the volunteers who are spending this weekend delivering thousands of leaflets and campaigning in the City Centre, and to the many market traders and residents who are displaying our new posters.

Please let us know if you're around to help next weekend - with the tight deadline for responses we need to get as many people out and about over the Bank Holiday Weekend.

Some Interesting Tesco Claims

Our planning team have spent the last couple of days poring over Tesco’s mammoth application. They’ve started to unearth some really interesting and highly controversial Tesco claims. We’ve listed some of the most amazing below…. although we’re sure we’ll have more of these by Tuesday’s public meeting.

1. Tesco claims the site is highly accessible by public transport, although no buses pass the store and the nearest bus stops are at least 300 metres away from the store. Tesco say they might try and get operators to change the routes and stops although buses currently avoid London Road because it is too congested. There’s also the problem of where to put a bus stop? Blocking the Tesco filter lane? Under the store? The report also regularly mentions the store closeness to the railway station as more evidence of accessibility to public transport. As local people we really don’t think that people will travel from Radlett, Brighton or central London by train to shop at Tesco St Albans!

2. Apparently Tesco says in the report that, "it cannot be disputed that the existing site is of extremely poor visual quality and is in dire need of redevelopment" – perhaps this might have something to do with 8 years of ownership and lack of investment by Tesco?

3. There has (apparently!) been extensive community engagement by Tesco (we’d heavily dispute this!) Tesco claims that Stop Tesco is 'operator specific' (i.e. is just against Tesco) – despite the fact that we’ve made it obvious from the start that we oppose ANY supermarket development on the site.

4. In a slap in the face for local people, Tesco claims that the 5,500 plus petition should carry little weight as its revised proposals demonstrate that it listened to Stop Tesco concerns and amended the scheme accordingly! A couple of points here - these were our concerns after the meeting, and the petition clearly states that people object to ANY supermarket development on the site. A slightly smaller supermarket than initially proposed does not invalidate the views of thousands of people!

5. Tesco also admits for the first time that its own first public consultation showed 63% of people against the store. And although they mention the second consultation exercise they undertook we can’t see any actual results in the application! They do claim that their business survey that showed 13 of 16 businesses supporting their application is valid – although this took place well before the petition was finished - surely they should have done the survey again once they had changed the design?

6. Finally for the moment, Tesco’s traffic assessment covers only Friday peak times, not Saturdays when everyone knows that London Road is busiest.

The Objections Have Started

Thanks to those people who have already written to register their objections to Tesco's development and copied us in at tescocampaign@yahoo.co.uk.

Janet Theakston has kindly let us post her comments, which cover many of the areas that local residents are very worried about. She wrote,

'I object to the Tesco proposal to build a supermarket on the old Eversheds site. There is no need for a further supermarket in St Albans - we are well served already. A supermarket where sited would draw custom away from the town centre, which, like other centre sites are underthreat from out of town shopping sites to the detriment of the heart of our historic city, which must be preserved. I object to the destruction of some of the houses/buildings in Alma Rd/London Road as being unnecessary and altering the character of the area.

'The traffic problems on the London Rd/Alma Rd junction are already terrible - I pass this junction twice daily on my way to the station - it is regularly blocked. Tesco's "solution" of an extra traffic lane on London Rd is a joke - it would do nothing to relieve the huge amount of extra traffic generated by a supermarket, certainly not massive delivery lorries. The noise, light and air polution would be awful.

'There could be so much better uses of that large site: housing, especially low cost housing for key workers in an expensive area would be great; also we need more primary school places - the housing on the old Oaklands College site will add to this need. This would be a much better site for a cinema/arts/theatre/community use development than the suggested site at the back of the Alban Area.

'Come on St Albans Council - think creatively - our lovely historic city is worthy of something much better than an unwanted and much opposed commercial development which will bring misery to those who live nearby. Be the ones that stand out against the Tesco land-grabbers and listen to what local people have to say. Sir Terry Leahy might not be impressed but St Albans residents will be! Please reject this proposal.'

Stop Tesco Announces Public Meeting

Next Tuesday (29th April), Stop Tesco will be holding a public meeting at Trinity URC Church, Beaconsfield Road, St Albans. The meeting will start at 7.30pm.

The meeting will provide an update on the campaign against Tesco, including brand new information about the increase in pollution that the proposed supermarket could cause. Local politicians will demonstrate their support and the petition of over 5,500 local people will be formally handed over.

The meeting will also give you a chance to take positive action against Tesco, including writing a formal letter of objection or volunteering to help in other ways.

Further details of speakers will be posted over the next few days - please watch this space!

New Tesco Store Cuts 33% of Jobs Weeks After Opening

We've been banging on for a bit about Tesco's claims to 'create' jobs, pointing out that all a new store does is to displace existing jobs, while transferring local money to Tesco's Head Office (where some of the money seems as if it will be used to pay redundancy for Tesco managers, ironically...).

In Nelson, Lancashire, the job losses are coming very quickly, but from Tesco itself, reports the Lancashire Telegraph. Within 'weeks' of a new store opening, 40 people, one-third of those hired, have been laid off. The comments beneath the article are interesting as well!

Tesco To Cut Jobs Locally

Not good news for Michael Kissman and his friends at Tesco's head office down the road in Cheshunt it appears. The thisismoney website reports that Tesco may cut 1 in 10 jobs there, 300 in total, with a focus on middle managers.

The article also repeats Tesco's claim that they 'create' jobs. People are becoming increasingly aware that a new supermarket merely transfers a proportion of existing retail jobs to shelf-stacking roles - there are far fewer people working in the grocery retail sector than there were before the rise of supermarkets!

Thanks to the volunteers of Stop Tesco for all your work over the last few days, especially...

1. Those who braved the wind to inform shoppers of Tesco's latest actions in the market yesterday

2. Our web designers who have updated www.stoptesco.com to make it very easy for people to object to Tesco's application, and added a countdown clock...

3. The designers who came up with our new posters (lovely colours...) and leaflets.

4. Our communications people who are arranging a public meeting for Tuesday week (29th April) - more details to come.

5. The planning team who are putting the final touches to our objections document.

6. All those who have made donations or volunteered to help over the next two weeks.

If you'd like to help us, please email us and let us know what you can do!

What You Can Do To Stop Tesco

Tesco's plan is finally in, and we need everyone to help us ensure that the council rejects it. Here are the key things you can do to help....

VIEW plans, Ref Nos 5/2008/0369 and 5/2008/0370 . (Click on the link to find them - or you can go to the Civic Centre Council Offices in person if you're in the area)

OBJECT, in writing, to The Head of Planning and Building Control, Civic Centre, St Peter’s Street AL13JE or email planning@stalbans.gov.uk giving your full name and address. Make use of the planning points below, and quote the reference numbers. The date by which objections must be received is 7th May 2008. Remember, if you don’t write, you waste all your previous campaigning efforts!

DISPLAY our campaign posters, which you can download here.

WRITE to the local papers, the St Albans Review and the Herts Advertiser, setting out your objections

VOLUNTEER to help the campaign by delivering leaflets or manning a city centre stall by clicking here

KEEP IN TOUCH. Keep visiting the website or sign up on the right of the blog for email updates.

WATCH OUT for the date of the crucial Plans Referral Committee meeting – and be there!


PLANNING POINTS - these are our key objections to the Tesco plan. You might want to use some of this information in your letter, but please don't just copy and paste it.

• Traffic in the London Road area is already very bad. This proposal will make it much worse, with 70% more lorries and cars on London Road. Air quality would be adversely affected – nitrogen oxide levels already exceed EU limits.

• A supermarket would drain trade and vitality from our main St Peter’s Street shopping area, and be a real threat to the City Centre and our historic 1,000 year old markets. 83% of local businesses oppose Tesco.

• It would have a damaging and irreversible effect on the character and tranquillity of a unique group of Victorian residential streets in the Conservation Area. Some houses are to be demolished. Over 5,500 local people have signed a petition against the development.

• Once on site, Tesco may apply for extended opening hours – or, as in Hertford, to double the size of its building. It has to be stopped NOW!

• The Evershed’s site was once given planning permission for housing – there are much better uses for this site which can truly revitalise the area and add to St Albans’ economic and social development, including a much-needed primary school. The area is one of the last big development areas left; the opportunity could be lost forever. Over 80% of local people polled by the St Albans Review opposed Tesco’s plans.

Many thanks!

A Story in which Tesco Shows that it lacks a Sense of Humour...

We've covered before the opposition to Tesco's plans to knock down houses in Liverpool to create a new superstore with attached Everton Football ground. Of course, the people living in these houses are not happy with the idea.

Today, one of them, Dot Reid, has come up with the impressive idea of applying for planning consent to knock down Sir Terry Leahy's house in Cuffley and build a 'community area', reports the BBC. She, quite reasonably, told the Beeb,

"These are more than just houses, they are homes. I have been living under the threat of losing my home for 18 months now and it is very stressful. I want Sir Terry to have a taste of what we have to put up with."

Rather than either acknowledging Mrs Reid's ingenuity or taking her situation seriously, a 'Tesco spokesperson' once again responded to individual concern by claiming the support of 'the majority'. He or she tells the BBC,

"This is just a publicity stunt*. Unlike this application, for our application we spoke to hundreds, if not thousands, of residents in Kirkby, the vast majority of whom recognise this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity which will create 2,000 jobs**."

This, of course, invites two interesting questions.

Firstly, even assuming that most local people are on Tesco's side (and we know what its surveys are like...), why should the opinion of a few local people outweigh the right of someone to stay in their home of 18 years?

Secondly, does this mean that Sir Terry would go along with the plans if local residents think that converting his home into a community area would be a good thing?

To try to answer the second question, we've put a poll up on the right of the blog. If you think that turning Sir Terry's house into a community area would be the right thing to do, please tick one box. If you think he should be allowed to keep his house, tick the other. We'll send the results of the survey to Mrs Reid to see if they can be used to support her campaign.

Some notes:

* - Tesco's spin doctors may see this as a 'publicity stunt'. I doubt they would be so flippant if they were told that a house that they (or perhaps their mother?) had lived in for 18 years was being knocked down for another supermarket!

** - of course supermarkets don't 'create' jobs. People have always shopped for groceries, so jobs are just moved around and taken from existing retailers. In fact, as supermarkets provide efficiencies of scale, they need fewer and less skilled workers - research shows a new supermarket will on average cost 276 jobs. That's where Tesco's impressive profits come from.

UPDATE: The poll we did on this subject is now closed, but we have sent the results up to the campaign group in Liverpool. Of the 75 people who voted 89% (67) thought that the best use for Sir Terry Leahy's house would be a community area, while only 10% (8) thought it was best used as his house. So, Sir Terry, the community wants you out - will you go along with this?

TESCO PUTS IN APPLICATION (WE THINK THIS IS THE REAL ONE!!!)

We understand that Tesco has now submitted a complete planning application. We will post details here of what you can do to object as quickly as we get them! To be the first to know, please sign up on the right for email updates!

In the meantime, what can you do?

• Let us know if you would be able to help during the campaign (which will include petition signature gathering and leaflet distribution), even if it is just for 30 minutes. if you can, click here to register and we will contact you again.

• Consider drafting a letter of objection to the Council (maybe get it ready to send, but don't send it until you can refer to the specific application by number - we will send this as soon as we have it). Please mention in the letter that you believe that there are better uses for the site, there will be a significant traffic problem, pollution will increase, and the development will kill our City Centre market and businesses.

• Please contribute to our campaign - we need to book venues for public meetings and to pay for posters and campaigning material - you can send cheques to Stop Tesco St Albans Limited, 33 Alma Road, St Albans. AL1 3AT
  

Thanks for your continuing support. Our voices need to be heard loud and clear in the coming weeks.

Tesco's Lawyers Sue Guardian

Following Tesco's recent lawsuit against people who oppose its stores in Thailand, the company's UK lawyers now have The Guardian in their sights. Apparently, Tesco objects to recent articles that alleged it was using offshore banking to avoid paying £1bn in corporation tax (it appears to admit to using it to avoid paying £50m+ of stamp duty though, which is a lot of tax to most people!). A Guardian spokesperson commented,

"Instead of frankly explaining their position and/or engaging in a public dialogue Tesco has taken the extraordinary step of suing for libel in a clear attempt to close down the debate and discourage others from looking too closely.

"It's hard to think of another large public company which would resort to such bullying tactics."

The full story is here. There's also an interesting commentary on the issue in Director of Finance magazine here, which points out that when large companies sue, they can often suffer badly!

Pete Asks Why Tesco Houses Are Still Unoccupied

Local resident Pete Milne wrote to the St Albans Review earlier this week with a history of Tesco's houses in London Road. Here's the letter in full. Thanks Pete!

The Tesco-owned houses in London Road have been a disgrace to St Albans for years. Tesco have done a token tidying up but the houses are still boarded up and decaying. Three years ago the district Council started talkng about restoring the houses under new powers but have done nothing, as the following extracts from the Review illustrate:

Sept 16 2005 - The council says it is looking to use an amendment to the Housing Act which comes into force this autumn allowing it to manage [the London Road houses] with a view to providing accommodation for tenants on the housing register.

Mr Pollard said this week: "Last autumn Tesco assured me that they would press on as quickly as possible with their plans to develop London Road, promising not to leave empty and boarded up valuable properties which could be used to house local families desperately in need of accommodation.

Jan 5th 2006 - Mr Pollard said: "I have asked St Albans District Council to use its new powers in the recent Housing Act to take possession of these derelict homes, do them up and then offer them to homeless families. A council spokesman said: "There are two areas we are exploring. Under section 215 of the Town and Country Planning Act we can make efforts to tidy up the appearance of the area..... Councillor Robert Donald has also written to Verulam Properties a subsidiary of Tesco which owns the properties to request that action is taken to improve their appearance."

Jun 19 2006 - COUNCIL leader Robert Donald has pledged to take action over the empty homes and shops in London Road if the stymied supermarket scheme does not progress this year.

Dec 1 2006 - Council leader Robert Donald said the firm had improved the appearance of the area since the beginning of the year.

Oct 15th 2007 - With the company rethinking its plans for a store, district council planning chief Chris Brazier .... is asking council officers to use the 2004 Housing Act to take over the properties temporarily.

Feb 19th 2008 - [Tesco] says it will renovate six of the homes it owns in May or June, and all should be occupied by tenants by the end of this year.

Why have the council let Tesco drag their feet for so long over the derelict shops when they have the power to do something about it? Who believes that Tesco will actually do something in May/June? Their houses in Alma Road remain badly neglected, even though Tesco claim they no longer want to demolish them.

How many times have Tesco promised - and failed - to submit their planning application for the store?

When will the council stop listening to Tesco's empty promises about the houses and get on with what they talked about in 2005 - take over the houses and make them habitable!

PS - The new application still isn't in...