Working to keep Tesco away from the creative and cultural heart of Cambridge.
Archive for the ‘Events and meetings’ Category.
Councillors have rejected Tesco’s plans for the extension to the building, which was the key planning application, following our Campaign.
Thanks to everyone who helped achieve this first victory!
More news will be posted shortly.
Elected Councillors of the East Area Committee will make the decision on the Tesco planning applications for Mill Road on 6th March. Details of the meeting are:
Date: Thursday 6 March 2008
Time: 7.15pm for 7.30pm start
Place: St Philips Church, 185 Mill Road, Cambridge
Thanks to John Volynchook for the photos of traders.
Elected Councillors of the East Area Committee will make the decision on the Tesco planning applications for Mill Road on 6th March. Details of the meeting are:
Date: Thursday 6 March 2008
Time: 7.15pm for 7.30pm start
Place: St Philips Church, 185 Mill Road, Cambridge
Please put this in your diary now, and come to the meeting.
Papers:
The Campaign is in the process of analysing these reports and will publish our views shortly.
The latter three applications listed above are in relation to the previous submission of planning applications by Tesco, which are now the subject of an appeal. [Read more …]
In the meantime, please write to your Councillors to tell them how you want them to vote on the 6th March. You can find their e-mail addresses at: http://www.cambridge.gov.uk/ccm/navigation/about-the-council/councillors/ and they are listed here:
CAN (Cambridge Action Network) are hosting a gathering at Friends’ Meeting House on Thurday 7th February 2008, at 7pm.
A representative of the No Mill Road Tesco Campaign will report on progress with our Campaign.
The student-run CUSU Ethical Affairs Campaign are running a Discussion Café on Monday 3rd March at 7pm at the new student-run cafe on Jesus Lane.
A representative of the No Mill Road Tesco Campaign will report on progress with our Campaign.
The decisions about Tesco’s planning applications will now NOT be made at the meeting on Thursday 17th January, so you don’t need to come along at 7.30pm to the church. The East Area Committee itself will still meet as planned but the Tesco items will not be discussed.
The planning department have upheld a complaint by the No Mill Road Tesco Campaign to Simon Payne, the Director of Environment and Planning at the Cambridge City Council, about the inadequacy of the planning report and recommendation.
The report by planners currently recommends approval of the Tesco’s applications and was meant to be the basis for decision-making at the meeting.
The complaint made by the No Mill Road Tesco campaign was that this report is incomplete and fails to address most of the local residents’ objections to the store.
We regret that little notice has been given for the cancellation. Please pass on this news to all who might have been planning to attend.
More news will be available shortly.
We have sent five documents to Councillors of the East Area Committee in advance of the meeting on Thursday 17th January:
STOP PRESS: The East Area Committee meeting of 17th January will now no longer cover the Tesco application. See most recent news story.
The rest of this message below is maintained below for the sake of archiving the details.
After huge delays, the Planning Officer’s reports have been published. Despite the unprecedented numbers of objections, they recommend approval. However, it is the role of the elected Councillors to make the decision. (There are plenty of cases elsewhere that we have documented where Councillors have refused Tesco’s applications, and we urge Councillors here to do the same on Mill Road.)The councillors will be sitting in front of the people who voted them into office as they vote. And representatives from Tesco will be there too. The more of us there on the evening, the more the councillors will be reminded that they are there to represent the interests of their own constituents, not Tesco’s shareholders. Please come if you can.The decision will be made by the East Area Committee on 7.30pm, Thursday 17th January 2008, St Philips Church, 185 Mill Road. Please come and witness the discussion, and show your support against Tesco.Available online is:
Local councillors will vote on approving or rejecting Tesco’s three planning applications at this meeting.
One of the planning applications is for a store extension. Tesco have stated they cannot open the store without this extension, so this planning decision has the power to stop a Tesco opening on Mill Road.
Since October 2007:
And now, on Thursday 17th January, it’s decision time. The meeting starts at 7.30pm in the church. We’ll be gathering on the old Wilco site to talk to the media and grab the attention of passers by from 6.45pm onwards.
In the meantime, please write to your Councillors to tell them how you want them to vote on the 17th. You can find their email addresses at: http://www.cambridge.gov.uk/ccm/navigation/about-the-council/councillors/ or they are listed here:
Tell them to:
This ‘Dispatches’ documentary shown on Channel 4 gives some idea of how Tesco’s have managed to steamroll over the planning process in other ares in the UK:
And please sign up to the announcements e-mail list on if you haven’t done so already.
This Saturday, 12th January 2008, we will be walking from the Guildhall to the Wilco site, distributing fliers to raise awareness of the East Area Committee meeting next Thursday, and you are very welcome to come along and join us at 2pm outside the Guildhall. We want to make sure as many people attend the East Area Committee meeting as possible.
(Despite the way it was covered in the Cambridge Evening News, there is not a march as such tomorrow.)
A question was asked by a member of the public at the 9th January East Area Committee meeting, as follows, which has relevance to our Campaign:
“Looking at the County Council’s map of accidents in Cambridge, it is clear that the section of Mill Road from the bridge to Coleridge Road is extremely dangerous, with cyclists particularly vulnerable. The Cambridge Cycling Campaign website, for instance, contains many pictures of the hazards caused by lorries in particular. Do Councillors agree that every effort must be made to improve safety for pedestrians and cyclists, and that it is essential to stop any increase in the presence of delivery lorries in the narrow side streets off Mill Road.
Given the current lack of adequate car and cycle parking provision on the streets of Romsey, do Councillors agree that to lose any existing parking spaces, either on the streets or in existing small private car parks, would exacerbate the problem?”
We will publish any reply here when the minutes are published.
