Seaton: EDDC votes to share the profits with Tesco but no affordable housing on the site | Sidmouth Independent News
The giant and the affordable home | Susie Bond
... next door in Dorset, a campaign to keep Tesco's out of a market town has just ended:
Sherborne Tesco plans scrapped over site issues
6 September 2013 Last updated at 11:18
Former Blue Peter presenter Valerie Singleton led a protest in March
Plans to build a Tesco superstore which prompted protests have been scrapped as bosses say the site "won't work".
Tesco UK managing director Chris Bush said it decided not to submit a planning application for the site in Sherborne, Dorset, because issues with the site were too expensive to resolve.
The plans included demolishing a 60-bed hotel off the A30 to build the store.
Residents formed a "No Thanks Tesco" campaign against the store and 11,000 signed a petition against the plans.
A protest in March was led by resident and former Blue Peter presenter Valerie Singleton as a public consultation by Tesco opened.
Mr Bush said: "In the end it was planning, not the protest, which drove this conclusion.
"Road access to the store site proved too difficult and expensive to resolve, the plan was not workable, so we did not submit an application."
A little Dorset town
v. Tesco PLC
STOP PRESS: VICTORY IS OURS!
Tesco pulls out of
Sherborne - 5th September 2013
We saw the gap
We jumped anyway
We MADE IT to the
other side!
We’re loving every
mouthful of Tesco MD Chris Bush’s announcement in which he
outlines Tesco’s reasons for NOT submitting a formal planning application in
Sherborne. We always knew we had a really strong planning argument
against Tesco’s proposals – but what only became clear after the campaign was
launched was that we ALSO had a united town with incredibly dedicated
individuals and businesses prepared to put their time and energy behind a
campaign to maintain the VIABILITY of our very special, historic market town –
coupled with11,324 people prepared to put their names
behind us.
Formal statements will
come later but for the time-being a massive THANK YOU to everyone who has
supported us from the start. Today’s YOUR
DAY!
We’ve done it for
Sherborne, now we’re doing it for Britain!
Tesco ditches Sherborne store as it pledges to listen to local views
Tesco’s UK boss Chris Bush today pledged the retailer would “work with anyone” to try to breathe new life into the high street, as he stressed it was willing to drop plans for stores if local consultations showed residents did not want them.
Writing in a blog post, the UK managing director revealed that Tesco had decided not to pursue controversial plans to redevelop a hotel site in the centre of Sherborne, Dorset, into a store.
“We’ve held meetings in the town, talked to supporters and opponents, discussed with the Council and this week we have concluded it won’t work,” he said.
“Protestors will celebrate, but in the end it was planning, not the protest, which drove this conclusion. Road access to the store site proved too difficult and expensive to resolve, the plan was not workable, so we did not submit an application.
“While the Sherborne protest was not the deciding factor, we did listen to it. When we say we consult communities, we mean it. We do it because successful stores serve their communities well and to do that, we need to understand the community well.”
On the issue of the high street, Bush added: “What we need is a thorough analysis of the challenges facing town centres. Finding solutions to these challenges isn’t easy, and it’s inevitable that not everyone will take the same view. We stand ready to work with anyone - whatever their perspective - who shares our commitment to the high street.”
The future of the UK high street has been in the news recently, with ex-Iceland boss Bill Grimsey presenting his independent review this week, including the suggestion that big chains pay a one-off levy to help town centres.
On Monday, Mary Portas defended her high-street review to a committee of MPs, saying she had not been given enough support by the government.
Tesco ditches Sherborne store as it pledges to listen to local views
Our approach to the
changing high street
5 September 2013 By Chris Bush
When Tesco announces
it wants to open a store in a town, some assume it’s a foregone conclusion that
the store will be built eventually. In reality it is only ever the start of a
process of planning and consultation.
Today I have announced
that Tesco has decided not to pursue a plan to redevelop a hotel site in
Sherborne into a store. We’ve held meetings in the town, talked to supporters
and opponents, discussed with the Council and this week we have concluded it
won’t work. Protestors will celebrate, but in the end it was planning, not the
protest, which drove this conclusion. Road access to the store site proved too
difficult and expensive to resolve, the plan was not workable, so we did not
submit an application.
While the Sherborne
protest was not the deciding factor, we did listen to it. When we say we
consult communities, we mean it. We do it because successful stores serve their
communities well and to do that, we need to understand the community well. The
consensus is usually more balanced than it might appear. In Sheringham for
example a referendum in the town showed a majority in favour of a supermarket
in spite of one of the most active, widely-reported protests against a store.
In Marlborough, a market town like Sherborne, campaigners fought vigorously for
a Tesco in the town.
In trying to
understand the needs of a community, we listen to all views, not just the most
active or vocal participants. Protests, often passionate and colourful, make
better news than consensus but they are never the whole story. Some of the
people who rely on local supermarkets the most – the elderly, those on fixed
incomes or tight budgets – are those who are heard the least. A supermarket
also employs local people and I cannot overstate how much difference a job
makes to the people who get one.
Communities are not
static, they evolve. As Robert Peston’s programme on the history of shopping in
Britain showed earlier this week, as shoppers we are very different today than
we were five, ten, or fifty years ago. Just as the motor car or the abolition
of retail price maintenance revolutionised retail in the past, the internet and
the smartphone are today transforming how we shop and access services like
banking. Activities that would once have brought us onto a local high street to
the most convenient local branch can now be completed anywhere, at any time.
Supermarkets have
become a convenient scapegoat for changing high streets but the reality is far
more complex. The real question driving this debate is this; how do you explain
why some high streets untouched by supermarkets fail while others thrive with a
mix of large and small retailers trading successfully side-by-side? In high
streets where we have built small stores, Southampton University researchers
have found the convenience they provide attracts customers back to the town
centre.
What we need is a
thorough analysis of the challenges facing town centres, one which examines the
impacts of rent and rates, car parking costs and capacity, street layout,
transport, financial pressures, business credit, the internet, demographic
change, changing lifestyles, consumer trends, and the location of public
amenities like leisure centres and council offices.
Finding solutions to
these challenges isn't easy, and it's inevitable that not everyone will take
the same view. We stand ready to work with anyone - whatever their perspective
- who shares our commitment to the high street.
We need dedication,
energy and above all cooperation. It can be tempting simply to blame someone or
something for the problems of town centres but our energies would be better
used working together to craft workable, innovative answers to the complex
issues our communities face.
However, as the Tesco MD above alluded to, In Marlborough, a market town like Sherborne, campaigners fought vigorously for a Tesco in the town.
See also: Futures Forum: Tesco's in East Devon
Futures Forum: Can anyone save the High Street?
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