St Albans Review Poll Update

As we enter into the last few hours of the St Albans Review poll (voting closes at 10am on Tuesday, if you still haven't voted!) it seems obvious that the people have spoken and firmly opposed Tesco. The facts (as of 5pm) are...

Online poll: Do you back the proposed Tesco store?
The results: Yes: 7.4% No: 92.6%
Number of votes: According to the paper, almost 1000!

Number of comments posted (in response to 2 articles): 81
Number in favour of Tesco: 3 (3.7%)
Number against Tesco: 67 (82.7%)
Number of repeat comments / for information: 11

Of course, Tesco's spin doctors will be revving up to oppose this - please let us have any suggestions as to what they will say...

Tesco and Free Speech in Thailand

Don't think of opposing us seems to be the message Tesco is sending in Thailand. The Observer reports that Tesco's subsidiary in the country is suing two anti-Tesco activists for £18 million for making an error in anti-Tesco speeches.

Hopefully, UK bosses will spot this and stop the lawsuits - free speech is a great British value and it is frankly stomach-turning to see this sort of process being used by Tesco.

A Letter from Cambridge

We've received good news from the Cambridge Mill Road anti-Tesco campaign, who have also had the pleasure of dealing with Tesco's Michael Kissman over the past few months. They write,

"Just thought you'd like to know that last Thursday the council threw out Tesco's application to build an extension, which they needed in order to open an Express on Mill Road. Tesco, in the usual form of our friend Mr Kissman, are now trying to claim that it was a victory for them because they have been given permission to put up a sign and install a cash machine and that they could open the store without the extension. Unfortunately for them, we have a copy of the email that they sent to the planners a couple of months ago, spelling out in some detail why they couldn't open the store without the extension. Oops."

If you'd like to find out more about the campaign, click here.

Say No to Tesco in the St Albans Review

The St Albans Review is running a major poll on whether people want Tesco in St Albans. Please take part (and say 'NO' of course...) by either...

1. Visiting www.stalbansreview.co.uk/news and clicking 'NO' on the poll about half way down the right hand side of the page.

2. Sending a text to 80360 saying 'Tesco No' (texts cost 25p plus your normal charge)

3. Phoning 09012 210207 (calls cost 25p from BT landlines, and may cost more from mobiles and other networks)

4. Emailing 'No' to revieweditor@london.newsquest.co.uk

If you'd like to leave a comment for the Review, please do so by clicking here.

The other news story today is that the Herts Advertiser has followed up the Tesco application rejection story - and Tesco's Michael Kissman has said that a new application may be in at the end of the week. See the whole story here.

Tesco, Negative News and Negative Reputation

One of the interesting things about the Internet is the access to information you get from it. Just a few years ago, keeping people informed about Tesco's expansion plans around the country would have been almost impossible. Today, however, thanks to Google News feeds and the like (like the one that sits at the top of the blog) we can see and report Tesco's struggles around the country.

For example today, here are the top Google stories about Tesco....










As you can see, all is not good for the company - stories report opposition to stores in London, Ireland, Radford, Manchester, Hyndburn in Lancashire and Cambridge, as well as the tale of a former Tesco senior executive who left the company after (she claims) suffering intense pressure and abuse from senior managers. The final story covers the media backlash over the company's use of (legal) tax avoidance.

We'd like to link all this negative news to our ongoing survey (on the right of the blog) which shows that Tesco's reputation in St Albans is nose-diving. Tesco claims to want to work with local communities, but surely there comes a point where we have to say that the company is not listening to the people of Britain at all. And at that time, we probably have to look for alternative sources of food...

Friction TV takes up Sandy's Oppostion to Tesco

Here are the views of local Lib Dem MP candidate Sandy Walkington on Tesco, as seen on opinion website Friction TV.

Wacky and Weird Surveys Get Weirder

The Adroit e-Research survey of 2 weeks ago, which Tesco used to try to spin the fact that two-thirds of people were against its planned store into a 'silent majority' in favour, has now been followed up by a further one from the bizarrely named research start-up.

The company now claims (via thisishertfordshire) that 'only 18 per cent of local people are opposed [to the Tesco store], and nearly half are positively in favour' (without specifying what 'nearly half' means, of course). Adroit Director Johnathon Brill tells the website 'The improvement is statistically significant, while admitting that 'responses such as "I don't care" or "They should just get on with it" were not included in the results, even as neutral responses'.

The fact is that this 'shift' reveals that the survey is in no way representative of public opinion. During the period between the two surveys, Tesco has taken no positive action to promote its store, and in fact is currently infuriating local people even more by wasting more time with its incomplete application. Yet we're expected to believe that a 'significant' number of people have changed their mind! Just to reiterate our other points from last time - we know that people want something to happen to the Eversheds site, and we know that shoppers might initially be in favour, because they like the Tesco brand, but once they look at the impact on local people and the community, and consider the alternatives, they rapidly become opposed. Our petition of almost 6,000 people is evidence of this.

We'd also like to suggest that Tesco's Michael Kissman stops wasting his time with these desperate surveys and spends some time getting the Tesco application in, so that it can be rejected and we can start doing something better with the land.


UPDATE: We've just heard on the grapevine that Tesco paid for the second survey, but not for the first one. Now you can all draw your conclusions about the results. Congrats of course to Mr Brill, who has snared perhaps his first blue-chip client.

Yet Another Tesco Plan Rejected

Not a happy time for Tesco's planning people at the moment, we fear. The Macclesfield Express reports that the company's plans for Poynton, Cheshire have been rejected. Interestingly, part of the reason given by the council for the rejection was that Tesco had refused to deliver a 'retail impact assessment', explaining the impact of the store on local traders.

Well done to the protestors of Poynton!

Another Environmental Reason to Oppose Tesco

Supermarkets have come under fire recently for handing out billions of plastic bags, which then damage the environment for many years. Unlike its rivals, especially Marks & Spencer, Tesco is playing hardball and refusing to take significant steps to reduce its use of bags.

In response the website thisislondon (part of the Evening Standard) took a look around the country to see where some of the bags ended up, taking these pictures. Do people really want these scenes repeated in St Albans? Does anyone think that a school and housing would produce anything like as much rubbish?

On an unrelated topic, we've not heard anything new about Tesco's rejected application yet, although we have heard that there were quite a few mistakes in it... Hopefully the company will recycle the paper at least.

More Fine Letters

Thanks to Sara Phillips and Ian Langford for their letters to the Herts Advertiser this week. Sara has a problem with the corporate optimism of Tesco's Michael Kissman, and Ian wonders why Tesco has not released the results of its second consultation, but instead a survey showing that only 1 in 3 shoppers in St Albans wants its store!

Thanks for all these letters.

By the way, there was a letter in the St Albans Review yesterday supporting Tesco - but the letter writer lived in Enfield! Anyone nearer like Tesco?

More Tesco Traffic Congestion Attracts AA Opposition

Another Tesco plan has run into fire over the potential for massive traffic congestion. The Automobile Association, Friends of the Earth, two Conservative former ministers and local campaigners are fighting Tesco's proposed 'MegaShed' - a massive distribution centre close to Stonehenge, reports The Guardian.

The planned distribution centre would be a massive 85,000 sq m (forty times as big as the St Albans store!) and would lead to thousands of lorries rolling down the picturesque (and massively crowded) A303.

The article also shows Tesco's usual disdain for local people - the company refuses to engage with them and tries to support its plans with claims that lots of jobs will be provided (although they will presumably replace jobs elsewhere) and that 'traffic improvements will get around the problem', without saying what these will be.

Tesco's Weak Survey

Readers of the Herts Advertiser will have noticed this article today, about a survey Tesco undertook in St Albans City Centre. Tesco claims the results show 'a silent minority not opposed to Tesco's plans'. The survey of 301 people apparently found that 34% were against a Tesco store, 36% in favour and the rest undecided.

We have many problems with the survey, some of which were mentioned in the article. Firstly, the survey methodology seems a bit curious - Tesco claims to have asked people to score their opposition or support on a scale of 1 to 100, but then converted this into three categories.

We suspect this is because the survey showed a high level of committed opposition, along with weak support - this would fit well with our experience of talking to people in St Albans City Centre - a lot of people who don't live near the site aren't too bothered initially about the idea - until they find out about the traffic problems and likely damage to the market and other local shops.

Secondly, it is interesting that Tesco don't say what questions it asked. Many people to be honest might well prefer Tesco to the current wasteland, but if given the choice between use of the land for a supermarket, or for a school and housing, the vast majority in our experience will choose the school and housing!

Thirdly, surveying shoppers in St Albans will only give a partial picture of the feeling of local people. We know from our own survey that 83% of local business people oppose the store. The Green Party and Liberal Democrats both report that an even greater proportion of people who live near the site are opposed.

Finally, we find it very gratifying that despite its massive PR machine, 15,000-strong leaflet drops and 'extensive local consultation', after eight years of owning the land, Tesco is celebrating the fact that only just over 1 in 3 of just one of the three important groups of local people actually want its store.

Tesco Application Invalid!

No, it's not time to celebrate yet, but we thought it worth letting you know that the planners at St Albans Council have rejected Tesco's application as 'invalid'. In practical terms it just means that Tesco have to rework their application and resubmit it, but we can imaging some unhappy people at Tesco's head office tonight!

All those billions of pounds and they can't buy in the right advisors to get an acceptable planning application in!

Let Battle Commence!

At long last (eight years and counting) Tesco has finally submitted its application for a store in London Road. Having said that, it couldn't stop one last error - sending out the press release announcing the planning application before checking the application itself had arrived - not the best way to get the planning people on your side, Tesco PR people!

The details of the application are reported in the Herts Advertiser and the St Albans Review. Both articles show unanimous opposition from local politicians, with council leader Robert Donald (albeit speaking with his local councillor hat on) joining the opposition.

Now is the time for the people of St Albans to unanimously send a message to Tesco that we don't want the store - so we can move on and do something good for the City with the land. We will find out very soon who you can write to at the council to register your objection to the development, but in the meantime, please could you...

1. Write to the local papers setting out your objections - email the St Albans Review at revieweditor@london.newsquest.co.uk, or the Herts Advertiser at hertsad@hcn.co.uk. We need to make sure that they see local people are against the development.

2. Write to your local councillor - details here

3. Make a donation to our campaign - please make cheques payable to Stop Tesco St Albans Limited and send to 33 Alma Road, St Albans.

4. Print out a new Stop Tesco poster if the one you have is looking tired, or persuade your neighbours to display them as well. You can find them here.

5. Sign up for our email updates so you'll know about our forthcoming protest meetings and activities. Use the Yahoo Groups sign-up on the right of the blog.

More Support in the Herts Advertiser

Thanks to the Herts Advertiser for publishing an article and a letter supporting our campaign today. The letter is from Simon Grover of the Greens in St Albans and asks why Tesco has still not put its planning application in, despite promising to do so by the end of April. The article covers our research on traffic problems.

Tesco’s Traffic Nightmare on London Road

A number of Stop Tesco volunteers have been spending their Saturdays counting cars even though the middle of the winter - we salute you! We can also reveal their findings, which should make grim reading for Tesco.

The research found that building a Tesco store in London Road, St Albans could cause a 70% increase in traffic movements in the local area. It predicts over 2,000 traffic movements per hour between 11am and 3pm on Saturdays. Tailbacks in London Road that already block the end of Alma Road would be made significantly worse, causing gridlock in the area.

Our volunteers spent several Saturdays counting existing traffic levels on London Road as well as the traffic in and out of the Sainsbury’s store in Everard Close, which is a similar size to Tesco’s proposed store. When added together, the massive increase in traffic movements is seen on the graph below.Tesco’s planned store will rely hugely on car-based visitors as the majority of buses from the East of St Albans pass the existing Morrisons store and then go down Victoria Street away from the proposed site. In addition, if the Tesco car park is full, there is no available overflow parking, which will lead to further pressure on nearby residential areas.

Tesco’s published plans for its new store show a total lack of awareness of the scale of traffic problems its store would bring to this part of St Albans. The store will gridlock the entire local area, but all Tesco has suggested is a short slip lane and one controlled crossing, plus some rephasing of existing traffic lights.

We cannot see how any further improvements would alleviate the problem, given the narrow streets and Victorian street plan of the local area – there is nowhere else for traffic to go!

Thanks also to the St Albans Review for this article on the research! Please add your comments.

Thanks To Our Donors

Many thanks to those who sent us cheques following our appeal for donations. If you're one of them and wonder why they've not been cashed, we were waiting for formal clearance of our new company, STOP Tesco St Albans Limited.

The good news is that the company is now up and running. This will allow us to accept and account for donations ourselves - up to now we've relied on help from the wonderful St Albans Civic Society!

Further donations would be gladly accepted - we all know the size of Tesco's pockets. Cheques can be sent to STOP Tesco St Albans Limited at 33 Alma Road, St Albans, AL1 3AT. Thanks!

Tesco Extension 'An Eyesore' - And No Planning Permission Either!

The Bury Free Press reports the latest from the dispute between Tesco and local residents in the town. Tesco built an extension to an existing store without planning permission, and were then refused retrospective permission. Now Tesco has come up with a new plan, but it still doesn't seem to have worked. One local said,

'I think they should take the whole thing down. It just looks hideous. We haven't got a view because of it. We used to be able to see the sky from the kitchen window but all we see now is that building."

Of course, we wouldn't expect Tesco to pass up the opportunity to put in a bit of spin, and we were very excited when we read that it was from our friend Michael Kissman.

By the way, Michael, it is now February - could you let us know why you've fallen behind the timetable you published on your website (reproduced below)? You said we'd have a planning application by now!

Issues and Options Results Are In - And It Doesn't Look Good for Tesco!

St Albans Council has now published a summary of the results of its 'issues and options' consultation that took place last year. The whole summary can be found here (start at page 26 of the PDF and keep reading!). However, we've summarised the key findings that relate to London Road here, with especially interesting findings in red! Many thanks to all of you who contributed your thoughts!

SUMMARY OF THE ISSUES AND OPTIONS CONSULTATION STAGE FOR THE CORE STRATEGY DEVELOPMENT PLAN DOCUMENT AND NEXT STEPS

EXEC SUMMARY
xix) The consultation has generated considerable opposition to another food store in the District, in any of the three possible locations. A number of respondents have questioned whether there is proven need for additional convenience goods floorspace.

Option 29a – Improving and enhancing the range of shops, facilities and services?

Officers note that a Tesco store in London Road is not generally supported (see also Q55 regarding other possible uses for this site).

Q32: Given the lack of opportunities for additional convenience (i.e. food store) floorspace on City Centre or Edge of Centre sites in St Albans, do you think that any proven quantitative need should be met on an out of centre site?

Those supporting: 10
Those objecting: 58
Summary Response included:
- Strong objection to a new Tesco store in Alma Road/London Road.
- A significant number of respondents considered that there was no proven need for further food store development in St Albans, despite the findings of the Council’s Retail and Leisure Study (2006).

Officers’ Comments and Recommended Action:
The Council accepted the consultants’ findings (GL Hearn Report) in terms of the quantitative and qualitative need for additional food store floorspace within St Albans. However, Officers consider that it would be appropriate to revisit some of the assumptions made for calculating retail need, in the light of information that is now available and to take into account any changing circumstances since the work was originally carried out. In particular, Officers consider that it would now be more appropriate for assumed population growth within the District to be based on the housing growth figures for St Albans City and District as set out in the draft RSS14, rather than on the growth estimates from the 2001 Census.
The re-assessment work will need to take place prior to the Preferred Options stage of Core Strategy preparation, as it could potentially have a bearing on the consultants’ overall findings, in terms of quantitative need for convenience floorspace.
Respondents have raised various concerns regarding the potential location of a new food store, which will need to be taken into account if the updated retail study still identifies any need for a new store that cannot be accommodated on a City Centre site (see Officers’ response to Q35 and Q36).

Q33: If the Core Strategy was to propose an out of centre location to accommodate a new food store, would you support the Evershed Site
Those supporting: 6
Those objecting: 42
Observations: 1

Summary Responses were:

Strong opposition on the following grounds:

• Increased traffic congestion and pollution
• Damage to local businesses in City Centre
• Loss of locally listed buildings
• Wasted opportunity for residential or mixed use development (including a primary school or leisure/arts facilities)
• Already sufficient supermarkets
• Fails to meet qualitative deficiency for a City Centre store.
• No linked trips – people unlikely to walk from the site up London Road into the City Centre and back.
• Scale of development would be excessive in the context of the surrounding townscape
A foodstore on this site would prevent the development of a store on the sequentially preferable Civic Centre South site.
HCC Passenger Transport Unit considers that the site is poorly served by local town bus services.

Tesco considers that the site has the closest relationship to the City Centre shopping area and is located on an established commercial thoroughfare, directly linked to it. The company considers that the development would encourage linked trips and support retailing in the City Centre. Site is accessible by public transport and is a brownfield site.

Officers’ Comments and Recommended Action:
See Officers’ response to Q32 (regarding quantitative need for a new food store). Whilst no conclusions can be drawn pending the outcome of the Council’s updating work on convenience retail need, Officers note the strong opposition from residents to Option FS1 (and also the comments made by Tesco Stores Ltd). It is understood that Tesco intend to carry out a further public consultation exercise with regard to the possibility of a food store on this site in November 2007, with a view to submitting a planning application by the end of the year. See also respondents’ comments to Q55 (r.e. other proposed uses for this land)

For other the other proposed supermarket sites: Option 33b – FS2 North of St Albans City Centre Those supporting: 14 Those objecting: 22
Option 33c – FS3 North of St Albans Those supporting: 9 Those objecting: 30

Recycling off the Agenda?

'The Environment' is one of the headings on Tesco's tescostalbans.co.uk website, which contains the company's spin on its proposal for St Albans. It makes a big play of new innovations such as 'low-energy fans, cold air retrieval systems, timers on lights and high efficiency refrigeration units' (while of course ignoring the fact that not having an air-conditioned store that attracts 500+ cars per hour and generates thousands of plastic bags would use less energy).

However, Tesco's green credentials have taken a further knock. In response to an email from Stop Tesco's Ian Langford asking about recycling facilities, Tesco's Michael Kissman (hello again!) replied, saying,

"Detailed consideration has been given to the siting of recycling facilities within the car park. However, the height of the ground floor and the construction of the podium level of the proposed car park would not enable the manoeuvrability of the vehicles needed to empty the units. We are, however, considering alternative options".

We think this means that there won't be recycling bins. So there goes the simplest way a supermarket can help the environment.

PS. Environmentally-concerned readers may also remember that last year Tesco was found out exporting CDs to Switzerland and then sending them back to the UK to avoid paying VAT, despite the obvious environmental damage this was causing!