Letter: Shropshire Council is without conviction over planning rules
Monday 1st November 2010, 5:59AM GMT.
Letter: In allowing Tesco to get away with its breach of planning permission at its Harlescott store, Shropshire Council has shown it is without courage, conviction and commitment in planning.
Tesco was in violation of planning rules from the moment the store was built. It was built to a larger size than permitted and stocked with more non-food goods than allowed.
Neither Shropshire Council nor its predecessor noticed this until a resident complained.
When Tesco submitted an application for retrospective permission to legalise its breach it got its sums wrong. Shropshire Council validated the application without checking the details.
It took CPRE to point out the error and get Tesco to withdraw its application.
Tesco’s amended application was approved by a single vote. Councillors at the meeting were not given inadequate data and analysis by their officers. Shropshire Council’s consultant even said that for the town centre to thrive small shops need to be redeveloped into bigger units to compete with the out-of-town stores. Did he think he was in Telford or Milton Keynes?
There was much talk about this approval not setting a precedent. It has set the worst precedent this rural county could have. Every major retailer now knows it can break planning rules, that the council will not check whether it has done so and will approve a retrospective application rather than fight.
Shropshire needs a planning system that is enforced with conviction and commitment.
Shropshire Council must have the courage to take on major developers when they break the rules.
Andy Boddington
Chairman
CPRE Shropshire
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Perhaps the real reason for “turning a blind eye” to the breach is the cost of massive legal bills in tackling a moneyed giant organisation like Tesco.
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I wouldn’t be very impressed if thousands of pounds of tax payers money was spent taking Tesco to court because they’ve got more saucepans on display than they said..
there’s more important stuff going on at the moment..
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There’s always “more important stuff” going on, but that should never be used as a reason not to do other stuff, because it assumes that we’re incapable of dealing with more than one thing at a time.
Anyway, you appear to have failed to grasp just how important this particular situation is. Small, local traders want to do things to help boost their businesses, local council says no. Giant global retailer comes along, wanting to do a similar thing, bullies the little council into saying yes using the threat of a giant legal bill as a large stick. Sets a dangerous precedent, don’t you think? I don’t know what line of business you’re in but if, one day, Tesco wants to muscle in, using unfair tactics and even breaking agreements, and take it away from you, I bet you won’t be saying “oh well, there’s more important stuff going on”.
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nobody complained when Next, Macdonalds, starbucks, topman, Costa coffee, etc moved into the town to take away business from the ” independant ” local trader, so whats so special about Tesco. The only town centre business Tesco are taking non grocery business from is Wilkinsons.
Just out of interest, When was the last time you did your monthly shop within the loop of the river..
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Largely irrelevant… I don’t think anybody can deny Tesco a fair crack of the whip when it comes to opening a new store in town, and there’s no denying that we do need large supermarkets. The core issue is that from the outset they were deliberately in breach of conditions placed on them, which is a tactic they have been known to employ elsewhere. If they played by the rules then they would be more or less beyond reproach, but they consistently choose not to. They use bullying tactics to get their own way. Today it’s non-grocery space, tomorrow it will be something else. They will chip away and erode local competition using devious methods until they’re draining as much of the spend out of the local economy as they possibly can. It might take them several years and the insidious creep could go unnoticed if they’re not kept in check – as it appears to have done in this particular case, had it not been for some eagle eyed resident.
As I read it, you’re suggesting that Shrewsbury as a whole turns a blind eye to this behaviour and lets Tesco get away with doing whatever it wants to do, even if it’s to the detriment of the town.
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Really? Only wilkinsons? Really? So Tesco’s cheap clothing doesn’t affect the clothing retailers in town? The cheaper books, DVD’s and video games don’t affect the specialist retailers? The cheaper electronic goods doesn’t have an effect on their respective specialist? I could go on and on…
Tesco and other supermarkets branching out into these non grocery areas are taking trade away from a number of retailers across the board, it affects them a lot more than you would think due to Tesco’s attitude to these products, they don’t care about selling them at a loss! Something smaller retailers simply cannot afford to do.
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I can’t think of many local electrical retailers in the town, Are Medlicotts still on Mardol. If not then i’m not sure what difference taking business from Curry’s or Comet makes to the local economy..
I don’t think they’re the local traders you talk about, although they are probably more responsible for the downfall of Medlicotts than Tesco..
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@ Dave. there are no cheap clothing retailers in Shrewsbury which are not attached to a large chain and i can’t see Tesco competing with the likes of Oberon.
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