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.