Poll 2: Have You Taken Part in Tesco's "Consultation" Process?

The following poll, our second, will close on Tuesday and results will be posted here. Results for our previous poll can be found at the bottom of this entry.

 Have you taken part in Tesco's "consultation"?

• No. There's no point, they'll do what they want anyway.


• No. I'm saving my objections for when they submit a planning application.


• No. I tried to but their website form wasn't working properly.


• Yes. I filled out the form on their website and it worked.


• Yes. I sent Mr. Kissman an email.


• Yes. I filled out a reply form at the Town Hall exhibition.


• Yes. I wrote to Tesco and/or filled out the form AND wrote to a newspaper and/or an elected representative.


• No, but I wrote to your website.


• I'm planning to write to Tesco and/or my elected representative(s) but haven't got round to it yet.

view results

Last week's poll asked what concerns you most about Tesco's plans for St. Albans. 67 people took part, selecting their primary concern from a list:

* 37% increased traffic flow problems
* 24% who were worried about the impact on local businesses including the market
* 16% the demolition of locally listed buildings
* [more]

Thank you to everyone who has taken part thus far.

Your Letters to Tesco: I am shocked and appalled

Matt Phillips who lives in Inkerman Road, St. Albans sent us a copy of the email he wrote to Tesco Spokesman Michael Kissman:

Dear Mr Kissman,

I see from the Tesco leaflet posted through my door that you are the contact for residents seeking further information regarding the proposed development on the Evershed's site in St Albans. Having seen the artist's impression, I am shocked and appalled at a plan that appears to include the demolition of a number of attractive Victorian buildings that surround my house and the construction of a car park literally yards away from our front door.

Keen to start a family in a quiet residential area, my fiancée and I moved to Inkerman Road last October – having been particularly keen to get away from London largely due to the high levels of light, noise and air pollution that was beginning to damage our health causing us increasing stress. We were therefore happy to pay a premium price for the property, owing to its location at the end of a quiet, secluded Victorian street.

Quite apart from the pollution, we do not want the character of the area ruined by the arrival of a new supermarket the area does not need; any Tesco should quite clearly be built further out of town.

We anticipated there may be some changes to the Evershed's site, but felt reassured by the fact that we are enclosed in a conservation area protected by a local council who are – we are told – keen to protect the character and heritage of the town. Although I understood that Tesco owned residential housing on Alma and London Road, I was horrified to learn that this extended to the Victorian housing on our road.

Furthermore, looking at the plans it appears that the houses opposite our front door are to be demolished to make way for the car park, in addition to a number of properties at the end of our terrace.

We strongly object to the building of a Tesco that is clearly not needed in the area - owing to its distance from the town centre, its close proximity to the station, the abundance of other supermarkets, the already very heavy traffic on London Road and the effects that this may have upon the conservation area in which we live.

It is an insult that the leaflet that notifying us of the plans did not come through our letterbox until after the exhibition in the Town Hall had been taken down. We have not met one local resident who is in favour of a development of this sort; is this why you appear to have not made any effort to consult us before now? I cannot imagine that you have any idea the distress your company has caused us - and presumably other residents - when circulating a leaflet that seems to propose the demolition of a number of houses that surround our homes, and proposes a carpark on our doorstep which will surely result in significant rise in pollution.

I would be keen to learn how Tesco could build a store in keeping with the character of the community, as you propose in your literature, and if, as I suspect, Tesco own much of the property that surrounds my house, then please let us know what plans you have for it. Please also let us know where we can find out more information about the effects that pollution will have on residents living this close to a major supermarket.

I have taken the liberty of copying in St Albans Council's Director of Planning, so the council are aware of our concerns. I look forward to your response.

Yours sincerely,

Matt Phillips
Inkerman Road

Below is a photo, taken by Mr. Phillips through the window of his home, showing a few of the Victorian houses that will be demolished and replaced by a carpark:

Your Emails: "This beautiful market town does not want you!"

We've received emails from a few people who are having trouble with Tesco's "consultation" website which, unlike the comment facility on this entirely free to set up website, still isn't working correctly.

Ms. J Compton of Alma Road, St. Albans sent us this email:

"I tried inputting this into Tescos website feedback form but it did not go through...... what a joke! Maybe it can go on the blogspot somewhere with other people's attempts to write to Tescos."

Sure, no problem - although we do suggest that you also email your letters to Tesco spokesman Michael Kissman as well so that Tesco has to register them: michael.kissman@uk.tesco.com

Here's Ms Compton's unedited letter:

"This is about money. Tesco - you have more than enough money already.

PLEASE DO NOT insult St Albans and its residents. We CARE about our town - we LOVE our town.

You propose to come marching in and tearing down properties in order to build yet another soulless carbon copy monolith. We do not need another superstore. PLEASE DO NOT build your store here.

We do not want it! We are happy with St Albans the way it is. If you listen to the residents you will understand this. (I cannot imagine that you are really listening...you only see the money you will make...this is all red tape that you must be seen to do..)

Sell the properties back to our community.

TESCOS; This beautiful market town does not want you!"

Ms. J Compton, Alma Road, St. Albans

Tesco Invites You To Have Your Say Online - Shame their website doesn't work

In a letter to the Herts Advertiser this week, Tesco Spokesman Michael Kissman wrote:

"We leafleted 5,000 homes in the locality and our website - www.tescostalbans.co.uk - features a "have-your-say" section for people to give their opinions, which we value."

Tesco values YOUR views soooo much that the "have-your-say" page Mr. Kissman mentions in his letter, the very page where you are supposed to use to voice your support or objection to the scheme, is broken and has been for at least a day. Well, that's one way to make sure there are no objections...

Earlier today, we received this email from a local resident who tried to have his say about the Tesco plans:

I just tried to submit my opinion on the Tesco development at http://www.tescostalbans.co.uk/comments.html and when I clicked the 'Submit' button, the webpage is unavailable. I wonder how long this has been the case and whether it would have anything to do with Tesco being bothered in the slightest about hearing local resident's opinion.

Anyway, as I can't send these comments to Tesco via their website, here is a copy of my comments (I unsurprisingly voted 'No'):


I am totally against another supermarket within the St Albans area. I already have 15 supermarkets of varying sizes within 10 minutes drive, including 3 Tesco stores (Town centre, Jersey Farm and Hatfield). I am also unhappy with the way that Tesco have allowed this area to become derelict and disused over the past 5 years or so. How do you justify destroying listed buildings, especially as the site has already been identified for residential development?

Finally, why not publish the results of this poll on your website, along with local resident's opinions? I suspect that Tesco are simply going through the motions in a pretence that they are interested in public opinion.

Regards,

David Ablett
Colney Heath Lane
St Albans


We tried the website ourselves a few minutes ago and what happened? Well, the "have your say" form page appeared fine and we were able to complete it without problems. Here's the page we saw:



But when we hit the submit button we got a page that says "Not Found: The requested URL was not found on this server". We couldn't quite believe it had happened so we tried two other browsers (safari, mozilla and firefox) but got the same error:



Have your say? We've already shown, here on this website, that Tesco cares so much about it's "consultation" with local people that it didn't bother to change it's public statements telling us that and used the same one they used previously in another town.

Does that sound like a company that actually cares what you have to say?

Now we've discovered that the have-your-say form on their website, an important mechanism for collecting local opinion, is broken. How's that for meaningful public consultation?

St. Albans Tesco Campaign: Weekly Stats

Between 02 - 08 February, 578 unique users viewed 1,154 pages of content (page impressions or "hits") on this website. That brings us up to a total of 2,668 page impressions and 1256 unique users over the three week life of this website. Additionally, over 300 people have downloaded and listened to the audio podcasts we published on NowPublic.com. Click the graph below for a larger version.



Previous Weeks: [26 Jan - 01 Feb ] [19 - 25 January ]

St. Albans MP Anne Main: "I cannot support this project"

We have received the following email and letter written by St. Albans MP Anne Main, both of which are republished below in full without editing:

[email]

email to: tescocampaign@yahoo.co.uk
Thu, 8 Feb 2007 15:04:14 -0000

Dear Sir,

Sorry I do not know your name.

As you will know St Albans District Council will make the final planning decision regarding Tesco's proposal at Evershed/London Rd site.

Please find attached a letter I have sent to the Leader of St Albans District Council which follows various meetings with concerned St Albans residents over the years, briefings and discussions with Tesco managers and, of course, at the public exhibition in St Albans - outlining my strong objections to the plans.

These objections are based not only on the overall damage I feel it may cause St Albans but also based on strong planning grounds.

This article from the Financial Times may also be of interest to the readers of the website.

I hope this is useful.

Best wishes,

Anne Main
Anne Main MP
St Albans
House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA
Tel: 020 7219 3000
www.annemain.com

[letter to Cllr Robert Donald, Leader, St Albans District Council, dated 31 January 2006]

Re: Tesco proposals for Evershed/ London Road site

I hope that after detailed consideration St Albans District Council will decide to reject the proposal for the Tesco store at Evershed/London Rd.

In light of the recent draft East of England housing review, and the views expressed by council officers, I am concerned that we don’t have enough Brownfield sites to accommodate this extra development should it be imposed upon us. In my view it would seem prudent to carefully consider whether or not this site should be allowed to take a large supermarket development or remain earmarked for housing.

In the current District plan it was identified that St Albans needed to provide a diverse shopping experience to enhance current retail provision; and indeed did specify that a department store may prove a useful addition to the St Albans shopping mix. Several residents have expressed the view that smaller retail developments on this site would be preferable - and I have a degree of sympathy with that view.

Many of my constituents have contacted me about this proposal and I have had several meetings with Tesco, prior to the public consultation, outlining my concerns about the size and scope of the development and about the massive traffic implications for the London Rd and surrounding area.

Further to our last meeting I was given to understand that the store, at 55,200 sq ft not including office space etc, will be significantly larger than the 30,000 sq ft supermarket space that a recent St Albans District Council report suggested might be acceptable in the City Centre. This aspect of the proposal alone I believe gives the Council sufficient grounds to refuse this proposal.

I feel that having seen the proposals myself there are additional significant issues that are raised by the plans; currently no designated recycling facilities on the site and difficulties in finding a location for one, no detailed proposals for visual elevations and detrimental impact on Bedford Rd and Inkerman Rd, demolition of historic houses, no lighting placements decided and therefore no assessment of light impact on neighbouring properties, no visual elevations or design statement for Alma Rd, no accompanying figures on traffic flow and impact - although I have asked for details of these. These are just some of the issues that I have raised with the Tesco team and I have made it quite clear I cannot support this project.

I hope you will find this letter helpful in explaining my position on this proposal which may soon come before the Council.

With best wishes,

Anne Main MP

[end letter]

Website editor note: Attached was a copy of the actual letter sent by Mrs. Anne Main MP to Cllr Robert Donald and bearing House of Commons letterhead. Also attached was an article [link to article] from the Financial Times which we've previously highlighted here.

Poll Results: Your Concerns About Tesco's St. Albans Plans

On Monday we started polling you, visitors to this website, on various aspects of Tesco's plans. 39 of you responded to our first question, "What concerns you most about Tesco's plans for the Evershed Site in St. Albans?". The top results so far are:

41%: Increased traffic flow problems on surrounding arteries into the city
21%: Impact upon local businesses, the high street and our 1000 year old market
18% Demolition of locally listed Victorian homes

You can participate in the poll yourself here or see the full results without voting here.

Snap! Tesco's Cookie Cutter Public Statements on "Consultation"

Ever wondered what Tesco has told other Towns and Cities where they're hoping to build developments?

We decided to investigate and it seems that Tesco spends a lot of it's time telling communities along it's development roadshow that it wants feedback directly from local people. It would appear that Tesco spends SO much time getting this particular message across that sometimes they've not had enough time left over to actually change the wording of their press releases:

In October 2006, the town of Hadleigh was told that Tesco would be holding a public consultation with the community and would hold a public exhibition to show their planned development. Tesco spokesperson Michael Kissman said in a press release that,

"By holding a consultation programme in advance of the submission of the application, we can listen to the community’s views before we finalise the plans...Individuals will have their chance to speak to us at the exhibition. But we are also particularly interested in hearing from groups that represent different aspects of community life in the Hadleigh area, groups who ordinarily would not be consulted, but nevertheless have an important contribution to make to the discussions.”

Sound familiar? It should.

Four months later, on 14 January 2007 the St. Albans Observer quoted the same Tesco spokesperson, Michael Kissman, as saying:

"By holding an extensive consultation programme in advance of the submission of the application, we can listen to the community's views before we finalise the plans...Individuals will have their chance to speak to us at the exhibition... But we are also particularly interested in hearing from groups that represent different aspects of community life in the St Albans area, groups who ordinarily would not be consulted, but nevertheless have an important contribution to make to the discussions."

SNAP!

Tesco, it would seem, has a habit of reusing the above and other messages in a number of towns and cities where it is hoping to build new stores:

In November 2006, Kissman told the people of Haverhill that Tesco wanted to ensure the future vitality of the town centre. People consulted, with local businesses and the local council both suggesting that a different access road should be included in the plans to avoid the store being cut off from the town centre.

At the end of January 2006, Tesco told the Cambridge News that, with regards to the Havershill store, "We will be investing millions, and we want to work with you to make sure that investment works for the benefit of Haverhill. A lot of people seem to be shopping elsewhere at the moment, and we think we can fill that gap and keep them in the town centre."

Snap! What did he say in St. Albans? According to the Observer :

"Tesco spokesman Michael Kissman said: "We want to have a constructive debate with local people. It's about regenerating the area and bringing business back to the area. We know that people aren't shopping in the town centre and this proposal is in line with Government policy to bring supermarkets back into town centres."

One has to wonder how Kissman came to the conclusion that people "aren't shopping in the town centre" when any local person could tell you that it's almost impossible, for all the shoppers, to easily navigate the pavements of the city centre on market day. Perhaps we are to believe that all towns, Havershill and St. Albans included, have problems - largely invisible to the naked eye of local people - drawing shoppers to their town centres? One size can, we suppose, fit all if you really try hard enough - but let's hope that approach doesn't extend as far as Tesco's ability to change their plans in light of local "consultations":

On 04 February 2007, Mr. Kissman returned to Haverhill to give a talk about Tesco's history and new improved environmental credentials, skirting local concern about the positioning of an access road and Tesco's plans to sell a significant amount of non-food items which local businesses felt threatened their livelihood. Kissman, according to the Haverhill News, "ended his presentation reaffirming how keen Tesco is to become involved with the local community and local organisations to facilitate 'working together to support Haverhill”.

Five days later, on 09 February Haverhill found out that although Tesco planners had gone as far as to consider putting the store "on stilts", changing the plans to incorporate the access road would cost Tesco, a company that made £2 billion in profits last year, too much. The local paper conveyed the disappointment of those who had "consulted" extensively with Tesco in an effort to "work together to support Haverhill":

"Proposals for an access road to the north of Tesco’s new store in Haverhill have been turned down irrevocably after months of campaigning and negotiation."

Tesco's plans for the Evershed site may very well have been "Designed for St. Albans" but their current approach to the debate their plans have stirred locally does, thus far, look pretty familar. Let's hope, for the sake of St. Albans, that the similarities end here.

Your Emails: Tesco Must Now Dramatically Reassess It's Plans

In an email sent to this website earlier today, David Redcastle of Watsons Walk, St. Albans makes some good points about, and compelling arguments against, Tesco's current development proposal for St. Albans. He believes that more homes (with protection of the environment integral to their design) and local shops, some green space and maybe even a smaller Tesco Metro store, would make more appropriate use of the site. David writes:

Over the last couple of weeks Tesco has announced two major changes to its UK business strategy. One is a major commitment to improving its own environmental impact in respect of carbon emissions. The other is its entry into the house building sector. Together these surely mean that Tesco must now dramatically reassess the use of its land bank in central St Albans. This site is crying out to be developed almost entirely for housing, with some communal green space and trees, and perhaps a few small shops (including a Tesco Express) and cafes. St Albans does not need a Tesco supermarket on this site.

There are already two large supermarkets in St Albans (Sainsbury’s and Morrisons), competing with each other, and catering to the same demographic marketplace as Tesco. There are other large food retailers here too, such as Waitrose, Marks and Spencer, Budgens and Iceland. It is surely not necessary for every grocer to be represented in the City. Will the District Council in its next District Plan be identifying sites in the City to be reserved for, say, Aldi and Lidl, even though their marketplace is unrepresented, or ASDA and Somerfield? I think not.

Of course, there is also the existing historic Tesco Metro in St Peter’s Street. And, Tesco will deliver shopping ordered over the internet to homes in central St Albans. Whilst not everyone has a PC, over half of households in the country now do, with probably a higher proportion in St Albans, and the number is increasing all the time.

There are already Tesco supermarkets in Hatfield, Hemel Hempstead and central Watford. The Hatfield Tesco Extra is open 24 hours and is only six miles away. If this sounds a long way to drive, remember that it is not as far as our nearest A & E department. For those without a car, there is a half-hourly bus service with a journey time of 35 minutes. Many people in rural Britain can only dream about having a massive supermarket just six miles away. Last year posters were displayed on the hoardings by the London Road railway arches urging local residents to visit the shops of Milton Keynes! Frankly, we are already spoiled for choice in St Albans.

One of the key planning objections to a supermarket on this site is the additional traffic burden of both customer cars and delivery lorries. These days traffic is a problem everywhere, but St Albans is different from most towns in this area. We are not a planned new town like Hatfield, Hemel Hempstead, Stevenage, Harlow, Milton Keynes or Welwyn Garden City, with their dual carriageway roads and large roundabouts. Nor do we have the ring roads or urban through highways of Watford, Luton and Hertford. Our narrow roads grew up in medieval and Victorian times. We saw in December the damage a Waitrose vehicle inflicted on the wall around St Stephen’s churchyard. Being perched on a hilltop exacerbates the traffic situation, as anyone who has seen the queues climbing up Holywell Hill will surely agree.

Indeed, so bad is the traffic in the City centre even before Tesco builds a supermarket here, that I suspect many St Albans residents who want to shop at a Tesco would go elsewhere after its hypothetical construction: those in the east of the City will find it quicker to drive to Oldings Corner in Hatfield along the A1057; those in the south of the City will find it quicker to drive to central Watford via junctions 6 and 5 of the M1 and the A4008; and those in the west of the City will find it quicker to drive to Jarman Park in Hemel Hempstead along the A4147.

Another key planning objection is an environmental one about the use of land. The Tesco site is so close to the very well-served main City railway station, with its excellent onward connections at Kings Cross/St Pancras, that it would be an environmental waste of the first order not to use the site for homes for commuters who can walk to the station in a few minutes. St Albans is partly a commuter city, and it is the admirable rail service that partly makes it such a desirable place to live. Although some train services are very full at present, the promised expansion of the route through the central London bottleneck will eventually mean longer trains and a better timetable.

What this site needs is the integrated and well-designed development of a large number of small homes, some affordable by first time buyers, some available to rent by those who do not want to buy or cannot yet afford to buy, and some as social housing. Most will work in London, while others will work in St Albans given our especially low rate of unemployment. Although many City centre shops and offices are within walking distance, the nearby railway station also provides a good bus interchange.

Central government insists we have to build thousands more homes in the District; this site can make a significant contribution to that target. Otherwise, the homes will still have to be built elsewhere, mostly on green-belt land on the fringes of the City, and hence their commuting residents will drive to the railway station. Is that environmentally desirable? Hardly. It is notable that the environment has suddenly become a big issue, not only now in Tesco’s own company plans, but also in planning matters. Climate change impact was accepted as a valid planning objection for the first time in the recent decision by Uttlesford District Council concerning the expansion of Stansted Airport. A supermarket on the Evershed’s site will stop this land being utilised for its optimal environmental purpose, and hence Tesco will have permanently damaged the environment in a way that no number of Tesco lorries running on biofuels will ever fully compensate for.

There are, however, three special attributes that need to be applied to these homes.

First, these small homes should be aimed primarily at occupation by childless individuals or couples, some buying and some renting. If there are few children, this will prevent any additional pressure on overcrowded local schools in the short term.

Second, the homes should be available only to residents who undertake not to own a car. Instead, the on-site manager would supervise a shared car pool of, say, five small cars per hundred homes, which can be hired by residents by the hour or the day, for travelling to visit family and friends, or driving on UK holidays. But a car won’t be needed to get to work. This will be cheaper for the residents, both by avoiding all the fixed costs of running a car and by buying or renting a home with a smaller land footprint. It will be better for the environment generally and, in particular, it will not add to the traffic congestion of St Albans. And it means more homes can be accommodated on the site, to the benefit of the District housing targets and to maximise the profit of the developer. If the only car parking spaces required are a small number for visitors, then the considerable expense of installing underground car parking is saved.

Third, each home should have a large cupboard adjacent to its front door, accessible from the outside but protected by a security keypad, in part housing a refrigerator with a freezing compartment. This will permit Tesco to deliver internet-ordered shopping while the residents are out at work or play, if the security access code is notified with the order. (It is, of course, up to Tesco to make its offering more attractive than that from ASDA, Ocado and Sainsbury’s, who also already deliver to the door in central St Albans.) So a car won’t be necessary to do the bulk of the weekly shopping trip.

Under these circumstances, my guess is that Tesco could make more profit from developing this site for homes than as a supermarket, especially given some prospective loss of custom from its other stores in the area. House prices in St Albans are higher than anywhere else outside London, and Tesco probably acquired much of this land at prices lower than values prevailing today. Development of the whole site in an integrated way would yield big economies of scale to the developer. Tesco would get substantial short term profit from the sale of some homes, more than covering building costs, and would get an on-going revenue stream from letting other homes and small shops.

I understand the site is designated mainly for housing in the current District Plan, and that, together with the strength of local opposition, will make it hard for Tesco ever to be able to build a supermarket here. After all, the reason we have a planning system in this country is to prevent a wealthy landowner from riding roughshod over the interests of the wider community. And now we have to add the environment as a major factor in those interests, something acknowledged by Tesco itself.

Yours faithfully

DAVID REDCASTLE

Poll: What Worries You Most About Tesco's St. Albans Plans?

 What concerns you most about Tesco's plans for the Evershed Site in St. Albans?

• 
  Increased traffic flow problems on surrounding arteries into the city


• 
  Increased pollution generated by additional motor vehicle movements


• 
  Impact upon local businesses, the high street and our 1000 year old market


• 
  Demolition of locally listed Victorian homes


• 
  Noise and light pollution in the immediate vacinity to the store


• 
  Tesco's increasingly dominant position in the UK retail market


• 
  I just plain don't like Tesco

view results

Easier to Remember Website Addresses

Although this website will continue to be hosted at http://tescocampaign.blogspot.com you can now also get here by using one of the new, easier to remember website addresses that have been purchased by one of our supporters:

www.stoptesco.com
or
www. stoptesco.co.uk

We're also working on some badges that you can put on your own website, blog or myspace profile to link to us and show your support. We'll post those on the site as soon as they're ready.

Walking to Town: Proposed Tesco vs Existing Sainsbury

Vegetables on the Market
Originally uploaded by tescocampaign.

Last month, we used google maps to find out how far each of the existing grocery stores in St. Albans are from the site of the proposed Tesco.

We found 4 grocery stores within walking distance: Iceland (0.2mi), Marks & Spencer (0.5), Tesco (0.6) and Sainsbury (0.8). We also found a further two stores, Morrison (1.3mi) and Waitrose (1.8mi), an easy bus journey or car ride away.

Tesco has said that they expect shoppers at the store to do the following in two hours or less:

1. Park their car in free Tesco carpark
2. Do weekly shopping inside store
3. Put groceries into boot of car (where some of it will thaw, melt, etc)
4. Walk the half mile or more up a hill into town
5. Continue shopping, perhaps at local businesses or the market
6. Walk back to car, half a mile or more away
7. Exit car park

So is that what people will really do, or will the new Tesco act as a barrier to the shops and market in the centre of the City? We decided to do our own bit of math to see if we could shed some light on what could happen.

The current Sainsbury is located at Everard Close, St Albans AL1 2QU. This location is next to the Abbey Line station and across the road from Westminster Lodge , a local recreational facility. There are views from the car park of Sainsbury to St. Albans Abbey, views which, one would think, would encourage people to park their cars at Sainsbury and walk up the hill to town.

So how long a walk is it?

Well, it turns out that the Sainsbury is 0.7 mile from the center of St. Albans Market - that's just 0.1 of a mile further than the proposed Tesco will be.

Do people do their weekly shopping at Sainsbury, leave their cars to walk to town, complete their shopping, then walk back? Not that we've ever heard of...

Tesco St. Albans? Your Views: "It must be resisted"

We really appreciate your many emails of support. In addition to writing to us, please keep writing to your elected representatives and the press with your objections to Tesco's plans. There are links on the right side of this page to help you find them.

Here's a few of the emails we've received:

"This message is to wish you every success with your campaign to prevent the Tesco development from going ahead... In our view, we would agree that this derelict area is in need of redevelopment but this is totally inappropriate. A super-store is not suitable on this site, it would create additional traffic difficulties over a wide area and would have a detrimental effect on the main shopping area of the City, St Peter's Street and its surroundings. It must be resisted in all possible ways. Good luck with your efforts. "B G & C E Lawrence

"I would like to express my objections to the proposed Tesco development plans in Alma Road. We do not need another supermarket in the area, we already have Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose, a Tesco in the town centre, Asda and another huge Tesco down the road in Hatfield; traffic is St Albans is already a nightmare; the site is extremely close to the railway station which already struggles to deal with the number of cars particularly during rush hour; homes are needed in the area not more supermarkets; the level of unemployment in St Albans is below the national average of about 1 to 2 %, so we don’t need any more jobs, particularly of an unskilled and semi-skilled nature; Tesco’s success is partly due to its brand identity, uniformity and standardisation of all Tesco stores, so it would be very difficult for them to design something ‘just for St Albans’, it would go against their corporate image." Mrs. D Moore

Guardian Profile of Shopkeeper: Whole High Street Under Threat

Saturday's Guardian carried a profile of a shopkeeper in Stalham near Norwich that should serve as a cautionary tale for the people of St. Albans and, in particular, local businesses and market stall holders. Soon after an edge of centre Tesco was built there, several local shops and "most of the town's old market" went out of business and were closed. It's a realy shame because, as we all know, owner-operated shops offer individual products and services and are often run by people who genuinely care about and enjoy dealing with their customers.

"Like most small businessmen, Dowdney works long hours... But it is not for the pay that he likes being a shopkeeper. 'I like dealing with people,' he says. "And I enjoy selling.'" In fact, Dowdney's salesman's instinct is irrepressible. "If I see somebody looking at some baked beans, I say... 'would you like some eggs and bacon to go with that?' I also follow people round and put things in their baskets, but that's normally as a joke."

To those who live in the area near the Evershed site, shopkeepers like the subject of this article are the norm - the brothers who run Londis, one of which never takes his mobile from his ear, Tony and Max at the Italian deli, Graham at Grapeland, etc. It's a far cry from the typical Tesco.

The life of a small businessman isn't always pleasant. Dowdney, according to the Guardian article, has "been chased with a syringe, hit on th head witha plank and challenged to fights by indignant fathers demanding that he sell alcohol and cigarettes to their 13-year-old sons." He also once had to defend himself from a man who attacked him with a knife whilst under the influence of a cocktail of booze, heroin and amphetamines.

You'd think that crime would be top of Dowdney's list of worries, but it's not. Tesco is.

"Despite days like these, what worries the Dowdneys most is not violence, but something altogether more difficult to defend against: the 1,4000 square metres of Tesco that now dominate the entrance to Stalham. Along with may other local businesses, they opposed the supermarket at the planning stage, and thought they had prepared for the worst when they lost. But in the first week of the superstore's opening in 2002, the Stalham Shopper's turnover fell by 60%, and stayed there. "I didn't expect anything like that," says Dowdney."

"Several other shops and most of the town's old market have now disappeared from Stalham high street and, worryingly, Tesco has now applied for permission to double the size of it's store. "We're still under threat," says Dowdney, grimacing. "The whole high street is under threat."

"I have been known to shout insults at Tesco lorries. The problem is that shouting at lorry drivers doesn't actually achieve very much." He smiles, and there is yet another break in our interview as a young man approaches the counter. "Seven pounds exactly," says Dowdney after ringing up his groceries. "There should be a bell that goes of when that happens."

Let's not relearn the lessons already learned by other communities.

Help Us Name Our Campaign - Before We Get Stuck With RATS(TA)!

All good campaigns need an acronym. Well, at least nearly all campaigns have one. The current name used on this website, St. Albans Residents Concerned by Tesco Plans, is a bit unwieldy whilst it's acronym SARCTP is clunky and difficult to remember. See, you forgot it already.

There are at least two amongst our ranks who quite like RATSTA, the acronym for Residents Against Tesco St. Albans.

Not only does it roll off the tongue quite nicely, but it also invokes a furry creature of some disrepute whose numbers, according to the online encyclopedia wikipedia, "can become hard to contain" and which are particularly "opportunistic". We are - how dare you infer otherwise - referring to a particular species of vermin which might be attracted to a dark, sheltered, underground car park or rubbish skips containing food waste. Who did you think we were talking about?! ;-)

Of course, we realise that there is always a danger that an early name or acronym for our group will stick like marmite in the roof of the mouth so we thought we'd give people a chance to help us come up with a name now, before such unpleasantries have the opportunity to take root.

What names can you come up with for our group? People with corporate branding experience particularly welcome - we clearly need your... ahem... every little help.

Post a comment below or email them to use at the usual address: tescocampaign@yahoo.co.uk

Letter: Tesco St. Albans Could Worsen Traffic & Blight Community

We received the following email from Jill who lives on Cornwall Road in St. Albans. She's worried that a Tesco on the London Road site would make traffic worse, harm the environment and blight the community in which she lives and shops:

I've been reading the website with great concern, and too few locals really seem to know much (if anything) about this threat to our community. Tesco would ruin the environment, they have no concern for the consequences. Look what happened to Gerrards Cross!

Every week (approx) I walk, or cycle, from home (Cornwall Rd) to Lattimore Rd to shop at Buongiorno Italia (Tony's deli). This takes me past the empty houses which Tesco has allowed to deteriorate and the old cinema. Yes the area looks scruffy now and in need of regeneration, but what would a 2-lane road of Tesco traffic do for it?

Ian Langford is right. During the morning and evening rush-hour cars are bumper to bumper along London Rd. Evenings too, the other week it took me 10 minutes to reach Holywell Hill traffic lights at 7.15pm. Doing away with the existing business will do nothing for any of us. The one and two bed flats they propose to build will not compensate for the loss of existing (locally listed) Victorian houses.

Tesco spokesman Michael Kissman was quoted as saying: "We know that people aren't shopping in the town centre and this proposal is in line with Government policy to bring supermarkets back into town centres."

What rubbish! Presumably he thinks that London Rd is the town centre? Has he ever been here, and seen the city centre, wall-to-wall with shoppers on Saturdays? Wednesdays are almost as busy. In suggesting that shoppers could walk up into town after shopping at Tesco, leaving their cars in Tesco car park, they recognise that the town centre is some distance away. But they don't mention the 2-hour parking limit - which would make it impractical for most people.

Tescos would be a blight on the area and ruin the environment.

Jill Bennett, Cornwall Rd, St Albans

Thanks for writing Jill. If you have comments about the Tesco development, please send us an email. We won't publish anything on the site before asking so you can also email us privately, as many have already, to wish us luck, offer your skills, etc: tescocampaign@yahoo.co.uk

St. Albans Tesco Campaign: Weekly Stats Update

Above you'll find the website visitor statistics for the past week. Don't ask us why we report the stats from Thursday to Thursday when most would, for example, stick with the traditional Sunday to Saturday - we just do.

The headlines? Over the seven days above, this website had 505 unique users and those looked at a whopping 1,239 pages of content. This means that, in total over the two weeks we've been online we've had 745 unique users 1,673 pages of content viewed. And don't forget, hundreds of people are also looking at our photos on Flickr and over 200 have listened to our podcasts on NowPublic.com.

It's been a good week for us here on the campaign website - word is getting out and people are visiting, which is certainly encouraging. We're also getting lots of emails from people who have visited and want to help or who simply want to comment on the site thus far (thankfully, all positive so far!). Thanks for visiting!

5 Things You Can Do This Weekend

In 2006, Tesco made £2.2 billion in profits. With that sort of cash, they can afford to spend huge amounts to hire people, consultants and agencies to help them put across positive messages about their plans to build an edge of centre store in St. Albans.

But that is also their greatest weakness - no matter how dedicated their people are to their jobs, it's nothing when compared to strength of feeling and motivation held by a community where homes, local businesses and livelihoods are under threat.

With this in mind, we've come up with a list of 5 things you and your family can do this weekend to help ensure that Tesco's current plans, plans which many local people feel are inappropriate for St. Albans, are properly scrutinised and opposed:

1. Talk to a neighbour or friend about the Tesco development. Tell them about this website and explain any objections you have to Tesco's plan.

2. Do at least some of your grocery shopping at St. Albans 1000 year old market and, as you do, speak with market stall holders about the plans. Make sure you explain that an edge of centre supermarket might keep people from coming into the centre at all on market days and that that fact the store is half a mile or more away is exactly why it is so threatening to their livelihoods. Last week we spoke with three stall holders and, much to our surprise, none of them had heard a thing about Tesco's plans or exhibit.

3. Stop by a local merchant's shop in the area close to the Evershed site and speak with the proprietor about the plans. There are lots of shops to choose from, all of which could be impacted by a Tesco nearby:

* Grapeland (wine) and Bloom (flowers) on Victoria Street
* The Italian (and Polish) grocery on Lattimore Road
* The wine and beer store next to Dominos on London Road
* Londis or other news agents on London Road and on Victoria Steet near the railway station

(Please note: None of the above shops is necessarily for or against our campaign, nor do they necessarily know about Tesco's plans.)

4. Send a letter to the Herts Advertiser or St. Albans Observer to voice your opinion [click the names of each paper will take you directly to the letters submission page]. You may also want to send a copy of your letter to your elected reprsentative - links are provided on the right side of this page.

5. Take some digital photos and email them to this website. We're looking for photos of homes and other buildigns that will be lost of Tesco goes ahead with their plans, street scenes that will be altered, businesses that could be affected - just about anything that tells the story of what you think could be changed, ruined, or lost if Tesco's plans for our community are allowed to go ahead. You can email the best of your photos to tescocampaign@yahoo.co.uk or, if you already use the photosharing website flickr, simply upload your images there and tag them with tescocampaign (all one word).

Tesco St. Albans? The Letters Say No...

Thursday's Herts Advertiser carried an article about what it calls "mounting opposition" to Tesco's St. Albans plans as well as four letters to the editor that demonstrate the strength of local feeling against this development.

David Dorking of Hill Street says in his letter that:

"You have to give Tesco credit for blatant audacity in presenting a scheme that not only gives them a major store, unwanted by many St Albans residents but at a stroke would see the demolition of most of the locally-listed buildings around the site, the widening of London Road to cope with the extra traffic and the creation of a pretty awful environment for those houses left around the site."

Simon Grover of the St. Albans Green Party writes:

"Tesco have shown us their ideas for the London Road site in St Albans, and made it sound like it's all going to be wonderful. More jobs, more local shopping and, amazingly, less traffic. The myths that they peddle must be unspun, so lets start here."

Simon's letter goes on to debunk six "myths" about Tesco's plans.

Ian Langford, who lives on Orient Close in St. Albans and who has provided information to this website previously, wrote in his letter to the Herts Ad that,

"As I walked home from the Tesco exhibtion on Friday evening I looked around. Cars stretched bumper to bumper the length of London Road... I wondered how the clever people from Tesco were going to clear their estimate of 500 cars per hour coming in and out of the store without any impact on traffic congestion - which was their claim..."

In a letter titled "Questions", Michael Keaveny of Kings Road asks,

"... is there anyone in St. Albans who wants a new Tesco store? I really don't think there is - except perhaps Tesco employees."

Mr. Keaveny goes on to suggest that the District Council should, as he puts it, "have some vision" and do the following with the Evershed site:

1.) Repurchase the land by compulsory order.

2.) Develop several hundred new properties - hey, they may even contribute to the target of 7,000 we keep hearing about.

3.) Design a feature in the area, maybe a fountain in a square?

4.) Allow for a smaller convenience store - maybe a restaurant or cafe or two.

5.) Maybe even allow the old cinema to be redeveloped and really open up that end of town so that it actually proudly represents our city rather than the mess it currently is.

6.) Maybe also, the other stores and businesses in the area will also tidy up somewhat.

Do you have something to say about Tesco's plans? You can submit your own letter to the Herts Ad [link] , email us at tescocampaign@yahoo.co.uk (we won't publish any emails sent to us without express permission) and/or use the links to the right of this page to find the contact details for your elected representatives and other media organisations to write to.

[Please note: The letters excerpted above were published by the Herts Advertiser on Thursday 01 February, 2007. The quotes used here do not in any way imply that the authors of those letters support or are involved in this website.]

Herts Ad: Tesco May Need 'Every Little Help'

Herts Ad: Tesco May Need "Every Little Help"
Originally uploaded by tescocampaign.

The Herts Ad today carries an editorial about what it calls "mounting opposition" to Tesco's plans to build a new store on the edge of St. Albans city centre:

"While the company was staging an exhibition of its proposals for the former Evershed print works site, St Albans Green Party was calling on shoppers to boycott its store in St Peter's Street.

Hundreds of people have also visited a website set up by people opposed to the Tesco proposals..."

Chairman of the Civic Society, Eric Roberts, told the Herts Ad that the society was fundamentally opposed to the development, adding that,

"It is the wrong location and I think they have underestimated the volume of traffic it will generate. I do not think the scheme stacks up against the retail base of the city and I don't think we will all starve if we do not get a new Tesco on the site."

Also concerned about Tesco's plans for the site are The Green Party's Simon Grover who is appealing, according to the Herts Ad, for local people to,

"think twice about the supposed benefits of a new supermarket. Such big stores will bring traffic chaos and draw business away from our market and local shops and services. The average new supermarket destroys 276 more jobs than it creates and this offers St Albans nothing it doesn't already have."

According to the Herts Ad, "LibDem Parliamentary hopeful Sandy Walkington warned that the Tesco proposal would destroy a local neighbourhood and add to the stress of the city centre unless it incorporated shuttle buses or a park-and-ride scheme."

Based on figures revealed by Tesco's Michael Kissman to the Herts Ad, fewer people (300) visited Tesco's public exhibit of the plans than have visited this website so far (500 unique users and over 1200 "hits".

We'd be delighted if it weren't for the fact that the article ends on what will no doubt be a down note for many St. Albans residents - Kissman also told the Herts Ad that:

"...the company would consider all comments made about the scheme and would probably submit a planning application to the district council in the spring."

[Full article from the Herts Advertiser available here]