Tesco Call-in Letter - 13 days to write!

There are 21 days from the Trafford Council meeting which approved the MegaTesco to ask the Government to call it in. That was on the 11th, so we are now down to just 13 days!.

Further information at NoMegaTesco and
Keep Chorlton Interesting
If like many residents you are concerned about the impact of one of the largest Tesco stores in the country on shops in Chorlton and around, and you have still to write, please do it now! A sample letter from the campaign is below, please add some personal points about why this is important to you:

Email: John Denham MP john.denham@communities.gsi.gov.uk (Secretary of State)
Michael Morris michael.morris@gonw.gsi.gov.uk (Government Office North West)

Write: John Denham MP, Department for Communities and Local Government, Eland House, Bressenden Place, London, SW1E 5DU

Michael Morris, GONW, City Tower, Piccadilly Plaza, Manchester, M1 4BE

Trafford Planning Reference 74393/FULL/2009 [Date]

Dear Mr Morris / John Denham MP

I write to draw your attention to a planning application ref:74393/FULL/2009. The application by Lancashire County Cricket Club and Tesco Ltd. seeks part full/part outline permission for redevelopment of Old Trafford Cricket Ground and the erection of a food superstore.

On Thursday 11th March 2010, Trafford Council’s planning committee voted that they were “minded to grant” this application.

My concerns relate to the proposals for the large superstore of approximately 166,847 sq ft, that are part of this combined application. I am writing to request that Government Office North West call in the application for consideration by the Secretary of State so that a public inquiry can properly assess the impact of this proposed superstore on the surrounding communities and district centres.I am drawing it to your attention because I feel it runs contrary to government policy on matters of more than local importance, with wide impacts beyond its immediate locality.

• The scale of the proposed Tesco Superstore is grossly excessive for its location and will harm the future vitality and viability of Stretford Town Centre, Chorlton District Centre and other district and local centres. This runs contrary to government policy on matters of more than local importance, with wide impacts beyond its immediate locality.

• Consideration of both the Tesco and nearby Derwent Holdings applications has been hurried and the subject of serious inconsistencies by the Council’s planning committee and officers. The process and decisions made on these applications are fundamentally flawed.

• The proposal conflicts with government advice in PPS4 and PPG17, and also with key elements of the Trafford Council’s own UDP and emerging Core Strategy.

• In 2006 a Planning Inspector upheld Trafford Council's decision to refuse to grant Tesco Ltd permission to build a store of 88,000 sq ft on this site on the basis of concerns over the impact of the proposals on town, district and local centres. Tesco Ltd already has permission to build a smaller store on the site (48,000 sq ft), granted approximately 5 years ago, which it has chosen not to implement. The current proposal will be 3.4 times larger and it is inconceivable that it would not have a significant and detrimental impact both within Trafford and in neighbouring boroughs.

• The Cricket club regeneration and the Tesco superstore should have been considered independently. The Tesco superstore has been recommended for approval on the back of popular support for the Cricket Club and a questionable cross-subsidy initiative. The Council’s role in negotiations as both landowner and planning authority renders it unable to make a fit and proper decision.

I should be very grateful if you both acknowledge receipt of this email and keep me updated in respect of GONW's involvement in this matter.

Yours sincerely

Your Name & Contact details (address and email details)

According to business publication Crain's Manchester Business, the Isle of Man-based Derwent Holdings (who have plans for a nearby Sainsburys which were rejected) will also be appealing against what they see as an inappropriate decision.

Mega Tesco - the Threat Looms

The Planners of Trafford Council are minded to approve the huge Old Trafford MegaTesco (while rejecting a smaller Sainsbury at nearby White City). The application will be reviewed by the Trafford Planning Committee councillors next Thursday (11th March). This is in spite of the following facts:

- The Tesco is huge even by their standards and will sit close to sports grounds where there are already massive traffic problems on match days.

- it goes against Trafford Council's own strategy to support local shops

- even the planners admit it would have an adverse impact “on the vitality and viability of Stretford Town Centre”

As we know from the Chorlton Meadows threat, the fact that planning officers are minded to approve an application doesn't mean that a planning committeee will approve it but the omens here are not good. This makes it all the more important that people write to the Government Office of the North West, urging the Government to 'call-in' the application; see here for a sample call-in letter.

The link with the Old Trafford cricket ground improvement has clearly had an effect, but the views of local residents should have a far higher value than the sports fans miles away who have been canvassed with a biased view by the Cricket Club. Local petitions against the development have about 1000 signatures against around 340 in favour.

Green Party candidate for Chorlton, Brian Candeland (pictured discussing the matter with a local resident), said "This is a disgrace. It appears local residents have not been sent copies of the committee report despite requests and the submission from the 'No Mega Tesco' campaign group seems to have been ignored completely.

Along with other campaigners I am not against improving the Cricket Ground - indeed I attended the last Ashes test to be held there, and would like to do so again. But improvements need not, and should not, be done on the back of a project that will damage local shops for miles around. There are other cricket ground improvements taking place around the country, but none are being done on the back of this sort of development. Given the general support for a test ground in the North-West I am sure an alternative route could have been found, had the will been there."

MegaTesco battle escalates

Call in the Application!

The plan to build Britain's biggest Supermarket (less than 2 miles from the centre of Chorlton, and other Manchester shopping areas) has yet to be debated by Trafford's planning committee. Lancashire cricket club who want Tesco money to improve Old Trafford have mounted a huge propaganda exercise. As a result they are claiming messages of support from throughout the region, from people far enough away to be unaffected by the development. A further complication is an application for a large Sainsbury store at White City, also close to both the proposed MegaTesco and Chorlton's shopping centre.

Whilst the Trafford consultation period is over, the campaign is urging people to write to the Government Office North West urging that the application be 'called in' - for further details on the background and how to do this see NoMegaTesco

Below is a response from Margaret Westbrook, Stretford Green parliamentary candidate, to the Cricket Club's latest press release.

"People must be made aware that the NoMegaTesco campaign is NOT against the development of the cricket ground. What we are against is the basis upon which the application has been submitted – to build one of the biggest Tesco’s stores in the country. We believe financial support for the development could and should be found from elsewhere.

The statistics provided by LCC are meaningless – as most people have signed up to this because they want the possibility of the Ashes tests and international matches here. Many of the so called supporters probably do not understand that to allow this planning application would be to make a mockery of both the council’s stance and the government’s decision on a Tesco store half the size only 3 years ago. The vast majority of pledges of support from the LCC’s website are from people who do not live in this area. We have, however, handed in petitions, showing the opposition of over 700 local people to the Tesco element of the application.

Tesco has been and still is able to build a local store of the size of the Sainsury’s in Urmston. What’s more it has recently been made clear that Sainsbury’s intend to build a store of approximately half the size of the MegaTesco application only a few hundred yards away in White City Retail Park, which apparently cannot be refused. Our community will be completely dominated by large supermarkets with fewer local businesses, congestion, less green space and no guarantee of the further regeneration to the area which has been claimed."

Talk Chorlton - stopped talking?

Heard anything recently about the consultation on the shopping precinct, which was carried out by Talk Chorlton? We were promised results early in 2010, but there has been no inkling from their website as to when this will happen. I have made repeated phone calls to them, and have been informed that someone will phone me back. I await with anticipation.