Tesco Plans - 436 Objections and Rising by the Day

If you look today on the Malvern Hills Planning Website under the new Tesco Cattle Market application [10/01276/FUL] then you'll see that there's a long list of personal objections to Tesco's revised plans. What's more, the list grows by the day as Malvern Hills' staff deal with the backlog of objections sent in.

Presently there's about 170 personal planning-related objections listed with about 6 refs only that aren't wholly objections [such as concerns from the local crime risk manager of the possibility of the site attracting anti-social/inappropriate activity if accepted].

The image at the top of this piece reflects another 266+ individual signed and addressed objections that were put in to Malvern Hills District Council on monday 8th November on top of the 170 or so already lodged. These were from a range of local people and people from the locale who use Tenbury for regular shopping activities.

The sums: 266 + 170 = 436 objections and rising..

Even as we took these objection letters in - more were arriving from local people and businesses. From this evidence and the fact that many who have submitted objections already haven't yet seen their own letters lodged online, we conclude that there are many more letters in the system at Malvern on top of those 436 already mentioned. Who knows - there may even be an eventual figure greater than the 500 objections lodged against Tesco's initial plans.

Tenbury Town Council
Tenbury Town Council's acceptance of the revised plans is there too. We understand that the Town Council voted 7:1 for the revised plans albeit with 4 Councilors abstaining from the vote. We feel though that this decision isn't representative of the groundswell of opinion locally, we suspect too that it's ill informed and that it's very much a decision that could impact negatively on the very town they seek to enhance. With their acceptance however is a clear set of concerns and caveats - one of which regarding the status of the Teme Bridge . This is one thing we as a group would support further investigation in and have been very concerned about for some time now [see previous blog entries].

Be careful what you wish for
Common themes in the objection letters ranged from concerns over additional traffic congestion and additional large HGV deliveries, the precarious structural nature of the Teme bridge, parking and the fact that a Tesco would do little to address the town's limited amount of spaces and the negative impact a Tesco would have on local businesses in the high street. You only have to look at the previous article on this blog to see just why people are so concerned with the last point - Llandrindod Wells' Tesco has caused a 25% loss in highstreet trade in the town in just a few short months since it's opening in July 2010. Local traders in the town are so concerned that they held crisis talks to try and come up with a solution. In reality there was little they could do though, the time to object had passed. Tesco the wolf was now very much inside grandma's house and the traders had just invited them in thinking there would be little or no changes.

Nearly 450 local people speak with one voice
So with 436 objections and rising... The message to both Tesco and Malvern Hills' planners is very clear in respect of Tenbury: there are a substantial amount of local people still very much against Tesco's plans here. We don't want the Llandrindod scenario here thanks!

Llandrindod Tesco Kills Highstreet Within a Couple of Months of Opening

Like so many other towns in the UK - the market town of Llandrindod Wells was unfortunate enough to have a Tesco store foisted upon it on July 19th 2010. There would have been local people who raised concerns at the time but the juggernaut that is Tesco won out eventually. 'Bringing new jobs', 'enhancing the town' and adding 'variety' - all buzzwords used in the usual Tesco sales pitch and charm offensives before it was built. So local people waited to see just how it was going to help 'enhance' the little border town as Tesco had promised.

Well, adding a Tesco certainly promoted change in the town. Unfortunately it wasn't one for the better though.. In fact in just a few short months of trading, Tesco Llandindod Wells has caused a massive drop in profits for local highstreet businesses in the town - so much so that local traders have had to host 'crisis talks' recently to try and figure out just what they can do to stop a potential high street melt-down.

[These quotes from the Rhyl Journal, 15th Oct, 2010 from the article "Traders Hold Crisis Talks as Tesco Hit Sales"].

Since the superstore’s opening week of trading, shops have recorded an average loss of earnings of 25 per cent, with some specific businesses having lost up to 60 per cent in revenue.

The supermarket has definitely brought shoppers from further away, said County Councillor Mike Hodges, owner of Hodges Food and Wine Store on Tremont Road, but many of them do not visit the town centre after they’ve finished their shop.

“Roughly 60 per cent of customers who do their major weekly shop at a big supermarket will then go straight home,” said Cllr Hodges, who attended the traders’ meeting on Thursday.

“We’re losing 25 per cent, week on week, which has surprised a lot of people because they thought our business wouldn’t be affected.”

The Llandindod store isn't directly in the centre of town but rather just across the railway tracks that divide the town in half. The loss of trade they've seen however tallies all to closely with a 1998 Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions report: “The Impact of Large Foodstores on Market Towns” which finds that adding a large supermarket [specifically to a market town] will result in the loss of between 13 and 50% of existing trade for highstreet food stores.

Many are aware that the highstreet in Tenbury offers a good cross section of such food stores but is presently experiencing depressed trading as a result of the economic slowdown.. A potential further loss of trading like the Llandindod example coupled with the Govt’s own clearly-documented research findings could potentially cripple the fragile economy of Tenbury’s highstreet.

Let's do all we can to avoid this happening in Tenbury and make it clear to Tesco and Malvern Hills' planners that we want a solution for the Cattle Market site that benefits the whole community. One that answers some of the real needs of local people, helps develop a thriving local economy [as opposed to a superstore that siphons local money off to the home counties] and one that provides new amenities for Tenbury into the next decade.