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!