Concerned Local Businesses & Residents Protest Against Tenbury Tesco Plans

Tesco resumed their charm offensive in Tenbury on friday 8th Oct - hoping to persuade Tenbury locals that their revised plans for a local store made more sense than the ones they were forced to withdraw in the summer. It was interesting to note that the Tesco representatives in the Pump Rooms were kept busy though and clearly earned their pay for the day. When I looked during the 3 occasions in the day I went in, they were almost constantly being buttonholed by irate local people disgruntled by Tesco's plans. When about 30 'TesNO' supporters went in after the above photo was taken, some of the Tesco staff apparently quickly took their name badges off - there's loyalty to the cause [not]. The resultant room full of annoyed local people left them disowning their employers - PR success or PR gaff?

The new plans aren't that dissimilar to the originals and still hang on Tesco's need to demolish the unique old workhouse Infirmary Building adjacent to the River Teme in Tenbury. The clear rejection of this idea by planners was one of the main reasons Tesco withdrew the original plans in the summer. Malvern Hills District Council's perspective on the original plans was quoted in the Shropshire Star 26th Jul 2010 as: “The 19th century building is considered to be too important because it frames views into the former Cattle Market site from both Teme Street and the bridge over the river.”. The Star added in the same article: "Tesco wanted conservation area consent to demolish the Russell Baldwin & Bright building but planning officers decided demolition would harm Tenbury Wells Conservation Area."

The Tenbury 'TesNO' group, a collection of local residents and shop owners were also there to put across their concerns about Tesco's plans for Tenbury. The concerns the group put over to both Tesco and local press were as follows:

• TESCO HGV’S WILL WRECK TEME BRIDGE
According to a Worcester County Council document titled: “Worcestershire’s Bridges Bid for Capital Maintenance Funding” [2006], the Teme Bridge in Tenbury is in a precarious structural state. A 2005 Principal Inspection recommended that “Major Repairs will be required for the Teme Bridge, and these will form a high priority.“ A subsequent inspection by structural engineers Fugro Aperio identified the following: “…The Tenbury Wells bridge, which is to undergo a £1 million scheme [2006] of masonry repairs and concrete strengthening at a future date..."

The only work that is recorded in the former document was in 1995 when steel beams were added to concrete slab sections on the south side of the bridge. This was before the 2005 and 2006 reports AND before the bridge was closed twice when structural damage was suspected during the town’s 2007 floods. No substantial work has been undertaken since 1995 despite the clear findings that it was in a very poor state of repair.

The bridge is a Scheduled Ancient Monument that enjoys the highest protection in the UK for any structure. It’s care is in part monitored by English Heritage’s Inspector of Ancient Monuments for Worcs – Tony Fleming. We have since passed all of the above documents to Tony Fleming urging that the bridge be assessed once more in the light of Tesco wanting to use it as their sole route into the town for their daily HGV traffic. Additionally, the route across the bridge and into Tenbury has a Traffic Regulation Order upon it and already states that it’s “Unsuitable for HGV’s, it would be madness to sanction Tesco to bring more over this bridge.

We maintain that the precarious structural state of the Teme Bridge will be substantially damaged further by Tesco’s potential HGV fleet.

• NEW STORE WILL MEAN 13% - 50% LOSS OF TRADE TO FOOD SHOPS
We’re also very concerned that a 1998 UK Govt Report found that when a large supermarket is built in a Market Town Centre or just outside that other highstreet food shops could lose between 13 and 50% of their existing trade. This can’t be good news for Tenbury – where shops are only just beginning to recover from closure after the floods and during the present economic slowdown.

We maintain that building a Tesco supermarket either in or just outside of Tenbury Wells will severely impact the health of our already fragile highstreet – causing shops to close.
* Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, October 1998. The Impact of Large Foodstores on Market Towns and District Centres.

• MEDIA EXPOSE TESCO DIRTY TRICKS
We don’t want the sort of business setting up in Tenbury that has been highlighted in UK press articles for forging their own letters of development support* and creating their own bogus statistics to try to convince locals that they needed a supermarket.**

We don’t want to be the next town on the receiving end of Tesco's dirty tricks.
* http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/tesco-dirty-tricks-and-the-battle-over-a-new-store-in-rural-norfolk-2023130.html

** http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1209095/Tesco-guilty-of-using-bogus-statistics-convince-town-needed-supermarket.html

• NEW STORE WON’T BENEFIT TENBURY FINANCIALLY
Finally, Tenbury Wells won’t benefit from a Tesco Supermarket being built on land that is situated at the heart of our community and which should be used to effectively support that community. A leading study* has found that £1 spent in a local shop puts twice as much money back into the local economy against £1 spent in a large supermarket. Instead, most of the money Tesco will potentially make out of Tenbury will be siphoned-off out of town – leaving our town no better off. Neither do we believe that potential Tesco customers are going to want to leave their chilled and frozen goods purchased in store within their cars while they walk off into Tenbury’s highstreet. Instead it is more likely that customers will want to get their purchased goods home as soon as possible so that they don’t spoil.

We maintain that a Tesco Supermarket in or nearby to Tenbury will make the town worse off financially and deplete highstreet trade.

* New Economics Foundation Study [NEF].