We Won! 10 Reasons Why The Council Said No!

Around 300 people attended the Alban Arena tonight to witness a major step forward for our campaign and the future of St Albans. Tesco's plan was rejected on 10 grounds, with two being added during the debate! The application rejected on the following grounds (quickly paraphrased!):

1. The plan does not reflect local distinctiveness, is not integrated with its local context, and harms the visual amenity of the street scene.

2. It includes the loss of locally listed buildings

3. The development would have a negative impact on highway safety, capacity and free flow of traffic.

4. The entrance gates to the servicing area interfere with free and safe flow of traffic.

5. The development would overshadow and overdominate 3-27 Alma Road and cause harm to the residential amenity of the people living there.

6. The size and extent of the car park would harm the amenity of local residents through noise and disturbance.

7. The potential of risk of pollution to 'controlled waters'

8. The harm to community facilities caused by the increase in living space.

9. The effect of traffic on air quality

10. The principle of the vitality of the City Centre.

Thanks to Ian Langford, Peter Trevelyan of the St Albans Civic Society and Cameron Lavin of the Whitecroft Residents Association who spoke during the 10 minute public session. A massive thanks to the councillors from all political parties who raised key issues and spoke against the development.

Above all, thanks to you all for your support...

HOWEVER,

As Churchill said, 'this is not the end, it is not the beginning of the end, but it is the end of the beginning'. We have shown that Tesco can be defeated, but it now has a number of options - it can appeal the council decision or it can bring forward another application. Either option will need renewed opposition - we will let you know all developments and what you can do to continue to support the Stop Tesco campaign.

UPDATE: Here's the St Albans Review's immediate report!

Tonight's The Night!

Please make every effort to show your support for the campaign tonight at the council Planning Meeting. Please be at the Alban Arena by 7pm (we'd suggest arriving a few minutes early as there may be a lot of people).

If you can't make the event, but have access to a PC, you can follow the live webcast which you can link to from www.stalbans.gov.uk (click on 'Planning Meeting Webcasts').

PS - thanks to BBC 3 Counties Radio and Chiltern Radio for talking to us about tonight!

Isn't This the Best Place for a Supermarket?

The Herts Advertiser reports that the site of St Albans Police Station is up for sale. We've already written to the District Council asking for them to consider this as the best place for a medium-sized supermarket that will meet the needs of the growing City, while being extremely well placed for public transport. The site is just opposite the Maltings car park and very close to the main bus exchange.

This would leave the London Road site free for the housing and primary school that is needed in the area! And with a high likelihood that we'll get a sensible cinema design for the centre soon, we could solve three of the major problems affecting St Albans in one fell swoop.

If you think this would be a good idea, why not let your local councillor know!

UPDATE: Chris has emailed to suggest the London Road site as ideal for a police station with the school and affordable housing behind it - what do you think?

Local Traders Saved as Tesco Rejected

In what must be a hopeful omen for our case on Monday, local councillors in Worcester have rejected a Tesco plan - this time on the grounds that local traders would suffer from a new Tesco.
The Worcester Standard reports one local trader, David Jones, as saying,

"Shutters are already pulled down and shops are permanently closed - and Tesco would just force even more to shut".

Barack Obama - Tesco's Latest Enemy?

Tesco appears to have provoked the ire of the man who could well be the next US president. The Guardian reports that Barack Obama has written to Tesco CEO Terry Leahy 'to urge the UK grocer to start talks with a US trade union over workers' rights at its new California-based business'.

Senator Obama is apparently unimpressed that Tesco's American workers are not entitled to contracts, which means they could be dismissed without warning, and that staff have to count sick leave as holiday.

Message of Support from our MP

Thanks to Anne Main MP for sending us this message.

Dear All,

I just wanted to let you know that, unfortunately, I will not be able to be present at the planning meeting on Monday 30th when the Tesco proposal will be decided. I do not usually attend these Council meetings, but obviously when there is a big decision such as this I do my best to attend. Nevertheless, I have just received the Parliamentary business for Monday and it appears that we will be voting late into the night, as we often do, so I will be obliged to be in Westminster .

I hope that, in making their decision, the Council pays attention to the pollution and retail needs studies, as well as the potential of this development to “suck the life” out of St Albans, and squarely refuses this proposal. My understanding from recent conversations is that an officer at the Council is recommending a refusal of the plan and I hope that the committee accepts this recommendation.

I congratulate you on running such a good campaign against this proposal. However, as with many of these large proposals, I would anticipate that Tesco will appeal if the proposal is thrown out, and in that event we need to make sure that we get all our representations to the Planning Inspectorate to ensure they are aware of the strength of feeling in our community about this, and the strong arguments for the proposal to be rejected.

With best wishes,

Anne Main MP
Conservative Member of Parliament for St Albans
House of Commons

It's Actually 1,200 Letters of Objection from 1,400 People! (Still 2 (that's just 2) In Favour)

Thanks to all of you for putting your opposition to Tesco in writing - and of course to Pete who spent the morning counting them in the Council Offices.

He reports that there are 1,200 letters and emails - and that 15% of them have more than one signature, making over 1,400 objectors in total. He's also had a go at analysing a sample - as you can see from the graph below, traffic and the damage to local trade are the biggest problems.


(PS - there are still only two letters in favour - one focuses on the need to sort out London Road as soon as possible. We agree that something needs to be done - but disagree that Tesco should benefit from creating the problem in the first place!)

'Largest Irish Tesco' Rejected

As if Tesco wasn't having enough trouble in England, the Irish Planning Service has dealt it another blow by rejecting a 130,000sq ft store at the Bridgewater Park complex near Banbridge in Northern Ireland, reports the BBC. Again, the biggest issue was the potential damage to small local traders.

Local Traders Association spokesman Joe Quail said,

"If this application had been successful then our town would have been ruined with the loss of hundreds of jobs and the closure of many local independent retailers in the town centre who would have been unable to compete with such a vast store."

Appeal Upgraded - Let's Pack the Arena!

The Herts Advertiser prints the news today that the Tesco planning committee meeting has been moved from the council's offices to the Alban Arena - thanks to the massive and overwhelming number of objections from local people (thanks to you all!)

The Arena seats over 800 people so there should be plenty of room to show Tesco our objections! There is no advance booking, except for disabled people who can contact the council in advance to reserve a seat - so please turn up and show your support.

The paper also updates the objections tally - the number of letters in favour of Tesco has DOUBLED - there are now TWO in favour - with over 1,000 still against of course!

Why Is Tesco Being Called A "Monolithic Chicken Abuser"?

A great letter to the St Albans & Harpenden Review today. Local reader Alex Walsh takes Tesco to task over its response to the campaign of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall to improve battery chicken rights. He comments,

"I'm no hemp-wearing nettle tea-drinking hippy type, but I was outraged when I read in the pages of a Sunday newspaper that Tesco is charging [Fearnley-Whittingstall] £86,000 to put a question about the treatment of battery chickens to its shareholders - an action he is being forced to take because the monolithic chicken abusers won't actually talk to him directly.

"Is this really the sort of company we want operating in the heart of our fair city? I for one think not."

Thanks for the letter, Alex - and also thanks to Simon Grover of the St Albans Green Party for his letter rebutting Michael Kissman's comments in the paper 2 weeks before.

(If you'd like to find out more about Tesco and chickens, check out www.chickenout.tv here.)

Another Stop Tesco Group is Born..

We welcome the 'Shop Weston' group to the long line of groups that are fighting to stop Tesco spoiling their local area and causing retail carnage. The people of Weston-super-Mare are faced with 2 new 'Express' stores and are fighting back! Find out more here.

Defeated Tesco Sells Land On

In Darlington, having been denied planning permission three times, Tesco is finally selling the land it wanted to develop - reports the Northern Echo.

We hope this will be the solution in St Albans - Tesco will clear a good profit from the increase in land values over the past eight years and local people will get the housing and perhaps even the school that they clearly want!

And Tesco Keeps Losing!

Another day, another rejection for Tesco! The Maidenhead Advertiser reports that Windsor Council has unanimously rejected a plan for a Tesco in Sunninghill.

Interestingly, Tesco's plans had received 600 letters of objection - with only 2 in favour. We've heard from St Albans District Council that Tesco is even less popular here - they have over 1,000 letters of objection - and ONE in favour of Tesco!

Remember to keep the 30th June free - we want to show local councillors in St Albans the scale of our objection just as the people of Sunninghill did.

(Thanks to the Cambridge No to Mill Road campaign for tipping us of about this story!)

Who Would Live Next To Tesco?

The Norwich Evening News reports more bad news for some of Tesco's neighbours today. A small toy shop has been faced with a £5,000 bill for damage to the wall that separates it from Tesco. Despite making profits of billions of pounds a year, the supermarket was not prepared to accept liability for two incidents - and only paid up when its lorry was seen to hit the wall in a third case!

All those who still think that Tesco will benefit other retailers should read the other main point in the article...

'Just last week the Evening News told how some of the city's smaller retailers were struggling to compete with multi-national chains such as Tesco.

We found more than 40 former out-of-town outlets that had fallen by the wayside due to the monopoly of large supermarkets, the increasing number of chain stores in the city centre and the credit crunch'.

Tesco Defeated in Poynton - a good sign for us?

Another setback for Tesco, as the company finally withdrew its application for a store in Poynton, Cheshire today.

The news should give great heart to St Albans campaigners - as here, Poyton's campaign against Tesco was supported by the overwhelming majority of local people, local politicians and the local MP. As here, the objections included the threat to local businesses, local traffic issues, the loss of a petrol station and the unique feel of an historic area. As here, thousands of local people signed a petition against the development, and hundreds wrote letters of objection to the local council. We hope that Tesco will learn from this - there are places where the company is just not wanted!

The Macclesfield Express reports the story here. You can also find out more about the Poynton campaign here.

Over 1,000 Letters of Objection!

We're not sure about the total number yet, but we've been told that St Albans District Council now has more than 1,000 letters and emails opposing Tesco's development. Thanks to you all!

We Hear Tesco Again

After remaining silent throughout the time to make representations to St Albans City Council, who has popped up today but Tesco's Michael Kissman. Speaking to the thisishertfordshire website, he makes a final (?) appeal to local people. As before, we print his comments below, with our thoughts in red! Please also add your own comments...

"I would like to put the other side of the argument for why a new store, along with a car park for more than 500 cars, new shops and refurbished older buildings, which are all part of the plan, is a good thing for St Albans.

More than 500 cars? Tesco's plans are for 477 car parking spaces, the maximum allowed under planning conditions - has he read his company's proposal? More generally, we'd repeat our view that the store is far too big and will overall cost retail jobs and space that could be far better used! And of course, we surely don't need to point out that the only reason the buildings are in disrepair is because Tesco has owned them for 8 years!

"There has been a lot of talk about the new store affecting the market or the shopping area around it.

"The reality is that, at the moment, people drive out of St Albans to places such as Hatfield and London Colney for much of their food shopping. This new store would lead to them shopping closer to the city centre.

This is a highly specious argument. As our planning document clearly states, the people who drive to Hatfield and London Colney will be those who work in those areas or are travelling elsewhere - there are already lots of supermarkets in St Albans and noone is forced to travel out of town (expect perhaps late at night - and we don't think a 24-hour supermarket in London Road is going to happen!)

"That can only be of benefit to the local economy.

The local economy is doing very well at the moment. A new supermarket will cost loads of local jobs (remember independent research shows that 276 jobs are lost on average with a new supermarket). A new supermarket will also replace local shops and services (including the market) that recycle the majority of their takings locally with an store that sends 93% of its income to Tesco Head Office.

"People in St Albans are concerned about traffic, and so are we. It is not in Tesco's interests for customers to be unable to get to our store.

If you want customers to get to the store, why not build somewhere near public transport (by which we mean near local buses). Secondly, we don't want to be part of a traffic experiment - London Road is getting ever more crowded and pollution levels are rising.

"Ultimately the power over the future shape of shopping in St Albans does not lie with Tesco or even the councillors who will determine our application over the coming weeks. It lies with the people who make a choice over where they do their shopping. A new Tesco store in St Albans can only add to that choice."

This can be taken two ways - as a statement of fact, it ignores the right of local people to oppose unnecessary developments - there are planning laws and even Tesco has to obey them (even if it thinks it is bigger than this). An alternative way of looking at this is as an arrogant and offensive (not uncommon traits from Tesco, unfortunately) attack on local people and the local council - WE ARE RIGHT, he says! However, St Albans does not need to waste more time with an experiment to see if the supermarket works - we want to use the land NOW for housing and a school.


The article ends , 'people who want to raise their concerns with the council have until Friday, June 27, to respond before the decision goes before a planning committee.' This is not what we were told - but if you've not written and want to give it a go, please keep trying!