Tesco to decide next move over Tenbury Wells store bid
Tuesday 11th January 2011, 12:57PM GMT.
Retail giant Tesco today revealed it could be up to a month before it decides its next step after losing a bid for a new store on the south Shropshire border.
More than 80 people attended a meeting when the plans for the supermarket on Tenbury Wells’ cattle market was thrown out.
Sophie Akokhia, regional corporate affairs manager for Tesco, said today there would be a meeting to discuss the next steps on Friday, but that it could be up to a month before a further decision was made.
She said the company could well commission reports before deciding what to do next.
She added: “We are committed to updating the local community as and when we can and to maintaining dialogue with people we’ve been communicating with.”
The plans have divided opinion in Tenbury with some residents for and some against. However, the majority at last week’s meeting appeared strongly opposed to the scheme.
Chris Dell, chairman of the Tenbury and District Museum Society, said today he would be happy for Tesco’s to re-submit an application, but warned it would need to feature a smaller store and take into consideration the heritage of the site.
He said: “There is an old heritage building on the site that dates back to about 1871 and Tesco will need to try and find a way of incorporating it into their plans if they wish to come back with a new bid. They will also need to think about creating a smaller store because one of the issues of those opposed to it was an increase in traffic.
“I am not against Tesco’s creating a store there. I think everyone is in agreement the area needs re-developing, but we must preserve the conservation of the area.”
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I know this is a web article and therefore summarised but it primarily mentions Tesco’s thinking and what a Tesco rep said at the time. There’s more than one side to this scenario though…
You do mention the ’80 people’ briefly – what did they say on the evening? There must have been a reason that they were all there. What about the people who spoke against the Tesco bid – where’s their voice in this supposedly impartial article?
There’s now a movement emerging in the town who want to have a say in how the Cattle Market site is developed from here. It’s at the centre of the community and many think that it should be the community that should have a say in where things go from here.
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I agree with Mr Bumble – lots of people are coming up with ideas – a groundswell of interest. We hope to solidify that into an actual proposal that we can take to Mr Chase; you never know hw too might like to come in on it. But now all we need is the money :) and to prepare ourselves for ensuring that Tesco do not come back – anywhere near Tenbury. So why should only Tesco’s opinion be cited?
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As a Ludlow resident, I remember what the derelict cattle market was like before Tesco built on there. It was a shabby area that all the tourists saw on their way up corve street.
Since the store has been built the whole area has been made much smarter. The old mill building has been redeveloped into housing for underprivileged young people (something that IS needed in the south shropshire. Also we had a new railway station built and the traffic lights.
The superstore hasnt really caused many major issues in the town center to my knowledge and has given local people (including myself at one point) valuable employment.
I don’t understand what the people of tenbury wells ‘s issue is. Surely this is a good thing? That cattle market cannot stay as scrub land forever??
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I think everyone in Tenbury would like to see the old Cattle Market site developed. It’s just a case of ‘how’.. Over eight hundred local people thought that we could do better than just default to a supermarket development on the site.
Tenbury has suffered in tourism terms in the last year – with summer tourism seriously depleted. Here is a site next to the River Teme with huge potential to help reverse that trend with a sensitive and carefully blended development and landscaping of the site. Why shouldn’t the community expect the best this site can offer? It could help provide much needed additional town parking, additional small retail units to compliment town shops, a landscaped area next to the river etc while also providing a new home in the RBB building for the Tourist Information Centre and Tenbury Museum. Both of the latter are now looking for alternative premises.
The primary potential access for both Tesco delivery HGVs and additional customer traffic would be the tight ancient Teme Bridge nearby [which already suffers congestion at various times of the day and everyday]. A very different situation indeed to the bespoke road network around the Ludlow Tesco site. It’s also a strategy totally reliant on a structurally unstable old bridge that’s also a delicate Scheduled Ancient Monument and crucial to the town’s prosperity/access.
We deserve better.. The new ‘Tenbury Futures’ campaign ongoing at present in the town seeks [in this new age of 'localism] to let everyone in the town feed back on just what they’d prefer on the site. ALL returned feedback from this project will be collated and passed to both the Town Council and Malvern Hills District Council for future development reference.
More information: http://tenbury-futures.blogspot.com/
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