Tesco’s plan to expand Shrewsbury store
Friday 3rd June 2011, 7:00PM BST.
SUPERMARKET GIANT Tesco wants to expand its Shrewsbury store – just months after winning approval to increase its non-grocery space after flouting planning rules for three years.
Bosses at the chain say its plans to increase the size of the Extra store in Battlefield Road by a third will safeguard 420 jobs and lead to a number of new part-time positions being available.
But town centre traders today said they were “astonished” by the news and claimed urgent action was required to protect retailers in the river loop.
It comes after Tesco was granted planning permission last October to increase the amount of space it uses for non-grocery goods at the store despite concerns from other traders.
The firm had been in breach of planning regulations imposed by the Secretary of State on how many non-food items it could sell at the Battlefield store for three years.
Sophie Akokhia, Tesco corporate affairs manager, said: “Our store is extremely popular and busy and is handling a higher level of business than it was originally designed to cope with.
“We want our customers to be able to shop in an attractive and well-managed environment and believe that by extending the store we can achieve that.”
John Hall, from the Shop in the Loop group, said: “As you can imagine we will be robustly opposing this.
“I think it’s fair to say we are fairly astonished they are doing this and you really have to wonder what’s going to be left of the town centre if this wave of out of town centre development continues.”
Councillor Mal Price, Shropshire Council member for Battlefield, said residents would have concerns over traffic but said any planning application would be considered on its merits.
The proposals include extending the south-west side of the store towards Harlescott Lane, taking in the land owned by Tesco.
There would also be improvements made to vehicle access to the store, with a left-in junction off Harlescott Lane and a dedicated lane into the petrol filling station off Battlefield Road.
By Russell Roberts
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Well who would of expected that, flouting planning laws, somehow getting away with it and now they want to expand to safe guard 420 jobs.
Does that mean blackmail, no extension jobs will be lost !!!!
How much space do they need to carry the different makes of beans, or should I say the space will be used to take over the independant local chemist, local independant dry cleaning,local independant ironmongers, local independant carpet suppliers, local independant D.I.Y store and many more !!
its about time that someone stood up to tesco riding rough shot over our towns.
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“its about time that someone stood up to tesco riding rough shot over our towns.”
Go on then – nobody’s stopping you.
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R.I.P. Shrewsbury Town Centre.
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Has no one told you yet, Shrewsbury town centre died awhile ago.
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And i suppose our awful council will permit the plans thus hammering another nail into the town centre shops but hey ho why worry ‘cos it’s a Tesco world anyway !!!! I wonder if they will advertise the job vacancies in Slovenia again !!!
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The jobs were advertised on the website which is accessible from anywhere in the world…..catch up mon
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Yes,as i said “it’s a Tesco world ” mon !!!
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Setting aside whether expanding Tesco in Shrewsbury is a good or a bad thing ….
… if by your comments you are referring to the recent much publicised by the Shropshire Sun/Star/Mail adverts that Tesco placed in Eastern Europe for jobs at the new Newtown store; the reality was that Tesco advertised the jobs in the relevant local job centres and papers for quite a while, and got next to no interest form the bone idle, why should I bother gettng out of bed when the dole pays me well to stay here brigade …. so who can blame the shop for advertising where people are prepared to work !!!
Ohhh but hang on, the true story isn’t of much interest to the mass media these days is it ????
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Also, Alex, that was Slovakia, not Slovenia.
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“The public gets what the public wants”
Let’s face it, people would rather shop at Tesco than in the town centre.
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Can anyone imagine how many jobs would be created if they closed down and we had small local butchers, bakers, grocers, greengrocers, electrical stores, chemists, cafes and does anyone remember the off-license. I would guess we’d double these “safeguarded jobs”. TESCO is about profits for TESCO not supplying jobs.
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You find me one company in the retail industry who’s top priority isn’t profit…
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They will get away with anything and everything if you let them. Stand up to the evil non tax paying corporate giants.
BOYCOTT TESCO
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NO THANKS, free parking and everything i need under one roof at reasonable prices.
Not to mention all the money they donate to The Altzheimers Society, local Schools and various Childrens Charities.
Much more for the local community than Bob the Butcher or Kevin the Candlestick maker ever did..
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rather than blame the council or tesco why dont the people of shrewsbury vote with their feet and not shop there then
they are all lying if they say they dont love tesco, the evidence is in the till receipts tesco is better than the town cetnre, its cleaner, cheaper, easier to access all round a more pleasing shopping experience and you all think the same clearly or it wouldnt be expanding now would it
i shop there and im not afraid to say that, if the town centre wants to survive it needs to compete, on price and quality
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Perhaps if those in the loop were to buy a piece of land near their establishments, build a car-park and add a nominal fee to their produce to keep parking costs down people might venture in for a cup of coffee and a dead leg from a geriatric scooter, but then logic doesn’t cut much ice around here. Sorry but I am with spencer and Kim on this one.
Anyway I thought you were all heading for prosperous times with your new development along Smithfield Road. Tesco are doing you a great service here by not clogging up your roads.
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Its very simple, you increase the size of the store which initially might not be profitable but when all the competitors have gone out of business, people have nowhere else to go other than Tescos. It’s a tried and tested formulae used by all big businesses who wish to try and create as near to a monopoly as possible. Of course the simple way to stop them is for people to no longer shop there, by using all the local shops who actually provide a personal service, the local economy will actually thrive and money stays local and actually more jobs are created, usually of a higher skill level as well. When your friends and family come to visit Shrewsbury, do you take them for a look up the aisles of Tesco or do you take them for a walk around the sights and shops of the Town Centre? The only people who support this sort of gross expansion of soulless shopping are those with no culture or respect of their own heritage and local environment. Quite simply, people of Shrewsbury, shop in another store as money is the only language that Tesco understand.
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” Soulless shopping with no culture ” what the hells all that about.
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I think you will find that most of the people who take advantage of the out of town retail experience are people with busy lives and families who wish to do a one stop shop with the minimum of fuss. Get home and get on with more important things other than shopping, as opposed to trudging around town in the vain hope that they might find what it is they are looking for, only to stagger back to the park and ride having wasted half a day with only half of what they set out to achieve. Heaven forbid they should start internet shopping with home delivery. It’s the twenty-first century for goodness sake.
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This isn’t about, supermarket versus shopping in small shops, its about keeping the balance right so that the playing field is level and fair for all. We all need supermarkets and we all need lots of small shops who provide all manner of different things and make each town in the country unique and individual instead of soulless clone towns as so many have become. For God sake wake up and smell the coffee, we might be in the 21st century but we still have heritage to be proud of. What do you want? Bulldoze the whole of the town and concrete it over and then stick the biggest Tesco ever on the top of it? Everyone with a job and a family these days is busy but we don’t need to have our entire shopping experience dominated by a massive all powerful company who cares nothing except for its own profit margin.
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Finally after a lot of emotive comments we have a balanced point of view that puts across the key points. Well said Simon! I don’t shop in Tescos as the food is rather bland and unvaried but I understand people shop there because its cheap. What we do need is a revamp of the old market square with new restaurants independent cafes. That will bring more people to our town. I think sometimes we take Shrewsbury for granted – there are far worse places to live!
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Well, there you go, you said it yourself. Tesco are not catering for those who wish to shop in the loop and those within the loop are not catering for those who wish to shop in Tesco.
With the advent of the Tin Lizzy 110 years ago and the increase in population since 800 AD then there is obviously a need for a shopping experience outside of the Shrewsbury River loop.
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“need for a shopping experience” zz94? or creation of a Tesco Town? How big a tin shed do you need to buy your groceries in? There are plenty of supermarkets in Shrewsbury and no need to make any of them bigger, especially when in Tesco’s case they will fill it full of cheap “comparison goods” and not groceries and do it to try and put other businesses out of business. When they have done that, the prices will then go up. Don’t forget they do not play by the rules, this store broke their planning permission in the first place for the sale of such products. They care not a jot about anybody else but their own profits, don’t be taken in by them. Plenty of other big businesses go about their business without behaving in the way Tesco do. They are a disgrace and nothing more.
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once upon a time–when i wor a lad
shopping was at a grocers–a butchers
and so-on round and round you HAD to get it all by saturday noon or do without til monday 9am half day closing= nothing holidays very limited service–sorry weve run out love til monday
oh and all close at 5pm
happy days me old mam would just have loved a tesco in the 40-s and 50-s
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‘Safeguard’ jobs???
So if Tesco don’t get the plans approved, they’ll have to close down then eh? Yeah, right!
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if you dont like it dont shop there
end of
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