From the MHDC Website
Following the submission of further reports including a Flood Risk Assessment, Ecological, Heritage, Sustainability and Landscape Statements, Tesco Stores Ltd has been informed by Malvern Hills District Council that their application for a supermarket on the Former Cattle Market site, Teme Street, Tenbury Wells is now valid.
The new food store proposed is to the rear of existing shops on Teme Street, and would provide 1,440 sq.metres of trading floor space with car parking and deliveries to the rear of the new supermarket building.
The District Council is carrying out extensive consultation on these development proposals. As promised by local district Councillor Phil Grove, a copy of the planning application will be available to view at the public library in Tenbury from Monday 7th June. It is also available to view on the Malvern Hills District Council web-site http://www.malvernhills.gov.uk/. Anyone wishing to comment on the application should ensure that their comments are received by the District Council no later than 2nd July 2010.
Councillor David Hughes, Portfolio Holder for Planning and Housing Services at MHDC says:
“Now that this application has been validated, we can carefully consider the content of the application and assess it against the site specific planning policy EP18 in our adopted Local Plan. Policy EP18 sets out quite clearly what will and will not be acceptable on this site. We also need to take into account the views of local traders and the views of residents of Tenbury and Burford to ensure that the development of this site supports town centre regeneration as a whole and that visually it is in keeping with the character of the Town”.
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19 comments:
Am I doing something wrong? I searched the applications and found it but no documents were available. I wasn't able to make the presentations in town (some of us have to work! LOL) so I really would like to see the full details.
Not sure when / if they will be posted on line but should be available at the library.
The library hours are now: Monday and Tuesday, 9.30am-5.30pm; Wednesday, 9.30am- 1pm; Thursday, 9.30am- 7pm; Friday, 9.30am- 5.30pm; Saturday: 9.30am-2pm.
Thanks, not sure why we don't have access to the whole lot on the planning portal though. When we applied for planning on our house, all the docs were available immediately and they stayed on there for quite a while after we withdrew.
I was floating towards supporting the development - I'd prefer it not to be Tesco (okay call me a snob!) but I want the market site to be developed. I have to admit that over time I am being persuaded by the counter arguments but at the end of the day a viable proposition must be found as an alternative to a supermarket giant for the site - and that's the crucial issue. I am not sure there is one....
I'm guessing that the documents are not there (yet) due to the volume of paper, but other fairly major developments (such as Oldwood Road) are, but I don't know how long it took.
I too, feel the Cattle Market needs to be developed and other than a major supermarket it is hard to see any other development that would be cost effective (unless the site is reconsidered for housing). I to would have preferred it not to be Tesco, but I do shop with them on a regular basis so I'm not sure why I have this thought. I do have severe reservations about the current plan. Access, parking and how the scheme integrates with the high street being the major ones.
1 step forwards maybe.
And at a time when another business shuts up, At this rate.Tenbury will be a ghost town long before Tesco lay brick number one......
Now who knows where I can rent a couple of dvds a week and still support local business!?!?!!
Have you got the application number WRI5 please
10/00561/FUL
Look at: http://www.tescopoly.org
to see what likely effects a big Tesco would have both on the local community, the existing high street businesses and road traffic in our already tight old main st.
Could the old cattle market site not be re-developed as a new regular 'market' site for such as farmer's markets, weekly markets etc? Something that encourages local business, produce and commerce though as opposed to everything being HGV'd-in from afar and [I understand] via the backlanes and Bromyard Rd.
The sad fact is that a 'farmers' market would not generate enough income to even resurface the car park.
Most of the negative effects quoted by Tescopoly etc relate to large / out of town stores.
Spar and Bowketts are both over-trading (generating more income per square foot than the average) this is because they have insufficient competition.
Sure they have special offers and some of their branded goods may even be cheaper than Tesco, but they do not have the 'value' style ranges loved by cash strapped consumers.
It's also the 'promise' of '180 new jobs' though. On the surface this seems like a real boon. Look into the real ramifications of plonking a Tesco on the cattle market though and you soon begin to see that the fragile High Street businesses in Tenbury would suffer terribly.
Look on Tescopoly.org and it's clear that a big org like Tesco will tell the local community pretty much anything they want to hear if it helps secure the lucrative deal for them. Jobs, possible bridges etc, etc.. This hides the reality of the situation though.
But the small local/family businesses that will immediately be targeted by a Tesco such as the craft bakers, the vegetable shop, the fish shop, possibly even the bookshop etc. I can't see them surviving with a big Tesco next door. I'd guess there's local supply chains built up over years and all involved with those little businesses too for such local shops - they'll all go, they won't be able to compete in the medium term.
In short the addition of a big Tesco will decimate the fragile highstreet businesses in Tenbury. So many other towns have suffered the same fate courtesy of Tesco and the like as they seek to offer us 'more choice' in an already well supplied local marketplace.
The worst case scenario I guess being a town with no remaining commercial centre anymore, trading polarised to one end of the highstreet only. The rest of the small businesses slowly vacating and a plethora of various charity shops taking their place. That's surely not a healthy highstreet or local community and I wouldn't want to consign Tenbury to that.
Mr Bumblebee. Have you ever been to Ludlow or Ledbury or any other place with a Tesco. Has the retail centre of these towns been decimated by the arrival of Tesco. NO. They have a thriving shopping centre with hardly an empty shop to be found. Have you been to Bromyard, where Legges is thriving next door to a CO-OP that is the same size as the proposed Tesco?
well put
tesco will bring a breath of fresh air to the town 5 years from now the chamber of trade will be saying we should of had it sooner
It's funny you mention Ludlow and it's Tesco..
I was talking to one of it's employees just last night and they were saying just how 'crazily busy' the store is and how it's been 'a victim of it's own success' in many ways. When you put that against the 13th May 2010 Shropshire Star article "Town Suffering as Trade Evaporates" and [to quote it]:
"Ludlow traders have echoed the comments of a businessman who is closing his shop in the town after losing £20,000 in a year.
Jim Smithers, who runs Jim Smithers News in High Street, said trade in the area of the town he had his business in was at risk of dying off.
Margaret Edwards, of EJ Poyners in Broad Street, said: “Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays are the busier days for us, but Mondays to Wednesdays are terrible now. The trade is just finished up this end of the town.”
So I disagree with you and think that trade is indeed suffering in Ludlow and it's not at the Tesco "end of town" as the lady above comments. They don't cite Tesco directly as part of the issue but it doesn't take much to add together the buoyant comments of the Tesco employee there, the steady demise of various small shops there and gloomy outlook of Ludlow independent traders to suggest there's a clear link to Tesco's success.
Legges in Bromyard is an interesting example too as it doesn't seem to compete directly with the Co-Op there - they've diversified and gone 'high class' and they've had to in order to be profitable. In support of this, a Bromyard local was telling me recently ref Legges that "it's nice but you could come out of there £12 the lighter after buying just a couple of chops and a cake - it's not an everyday store". This is because it doesn't compete in the same way that Bowketts will with the potential Tesco in Tenbury. Bowketts pitches it's produce much more at an 'everyday' level whereas Legges in Bromyard is a more specialist establishment catering for a slightly different audience - not one they share wholly with the Co-Op there and hence not the same competition issues.
So shops in the "Tesco" area are doing well. In Tenbury that's all of them. Bowketts have steadily increased their prices, so they are in a good position to do a Legges.
Not all shops are going to be viable forever some adapt other wither and perish. You don't see many typewriter shops now or film developers. The ones that started to do computers and digital printing have survived, others haven't.
On the contrary, I'd estimate that 80% or more of the 'highstreet' shops in Ludlow are precisely not in the "Tesco" end of town at the bottom of the hill. In other words the majority of highstreet shops in Ludlow -aren't- in that immediate area - and they're clearly suffering according to the article quoted earlier.
Regarding the smaller shops on Tenbury's high street - the likes of the veg shop, bread shop etc. They're all basic affordable food staples by en large and not affected by the relentless roll of technology as the examples quoted.
The bread shop in particular has evolved though - look at all the work they'd had done post floods to get a high street presence back. I guess at some stage around the floods they would have considered throwing-in the towel [I wouldn't have blamed them] but am glad they didn't. In part that's why I also think it'd be a kick in the teeth after all the wait and work they've done if Tesco's arrived and undercut them re bread, pastries etc to the point they went under - it'd only be a matter of time.
My point was that because Tenbury's shops are in a geographically compact area (i.e. an area people are happy to browse on foot) there shouldn't be the same "wrong end of town effect".
The Barn Shop, (mostly) buys low and sells cheap. I think it is unlikely that they will be much effected by Tesco. The people who already shop out of town for their fruit & veg may switch to Tesco, but the traditional shopper looking for value will still use the barn shop. As for Swift's they may be traditional, but they are not to everyone's taste. I have lived and worked in a number of city's and towns across the country and what I miss most is a decent bakers for cakes and pastries.
As has been mentioned before on this forum, if the anti Tesco brigade who are happy with the existing shops continue in their shopping habits and those people who go out of town to shop, switch to Tesco, then everyone is happy. Or do you think that the majority of the existing shops trade is from people who have no choice and are forced to shop there?
TESCO TO CREATE "180 NEW JOBS"?
• Let's examine the hype that Tesco will create '180 jobs'.. I thought it sounded too good to be true and I've since found out that to be a distinct possibility.
• I understand from an existing Tesco employee that common practice with new store openings and recruiting staff is as follows:
1. Recruit up to the amount stated in the media on 'short term contracts' [i.e. low pay, little or no employment rights such as holiday and sick pay etc].
2. As the store gets up to speed post opening, swiftly start to terminate individual short term contracts until they have as small a [I quote] "skeleton crew - just capable of keeping the store functioning at basic level". My contact suggests this is commonly as low as a third of the original [in our case] much hyped amount of "180 new jobs".
• Tesco development to bring new wealth and jobs to Tenbury?
Most likely medium-term answer - ANSWER: NO [taking into account medium-term potential Tenbury highstreet business closures and local supply-chain staff due to Tesco price-cutting of food staples].
TESCO [EXISTING] STAFF DISGRUNTLEMENT
• If you want to check out what a supportive employer Tesco -really- is and how valued their staff -really- feel then look at the Tesco-staff-administered website: http://www.verylittlehelps.com [and then the 'viewpoint' staff survey - see top navigation].
[I quote]:
I am treated with respect: 'YES' 23%, '50/50' 33% and 'NO' 44%
My opinions are valued: 'YES' 14%, '50/50' 27% and 'NO' 59%
I am always told the truth: 'YES' 5%, '50/50' 20% and 'NO' a whopping 75%
I could go on but I think it speaks for itself.
Nice post gives you a clear idea it should be validated by tesco...
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