the No Mill Road Tesco Campaign

This transcript of a recent House of Lords debate on the Retail Development Bill may be of interest to some of our supporters.

It begins:

Are we to wait to see our communities, our villages and our local neighbourhoods wither and die or can something be done about it? I do not think it is overstating the case to say that we are in danger of losing the heart and soul of this nation—a fact drawn attention to by reports produced in the past few years on Clone Town Britain and Ghost Town Britain.

Read on …

We have just published a Newsletter, being delivered to 4,000 houses in the Mill Road area. Please contact us if you can help deliver some.

A protestor on Mill Road makes their views on the new store clear.

CAMPAIGNERS fighting plans for a Tesco store in Mill Road have been dealt a fresh blow.

A Cambridge City Council planning officer has recommended the latest application by Tesco be approved.

Now, hopes of the No Mill Road Tesco campaign rest on the decision of the council’s east area committee, which will determine the application when it meets next week.

The committee decided in January to delay its decision on three original planning applications after deciding the report did not go into enough detail.

In response, Tesco submitted a non-determination appeal, saying the council had taken too long over its decision. It also resubmitted the three applications for a sign, cash machine, store room and plant.

In her recommendation to councillors, Angela Briggs, a planning officer for the city council, described the applications as “acceptable” and said they “comply with the aims and objectives of the Local Plan policies”.

Richard Rippin, spokesman for the campaigners, said: “We are obviously disappointed, but it’s not a terrible surprise.

“We feel there are incredibly strong planning grounds for the plans to be rejected, and feel Tesco has used bullying tactics. It seems the planning officers are more worried about the mighty Tesco than local people with rational grounds for opposing the scheme.
“But we still have confidence our local councillors will back us – there are solid planning grounds for the application to be turned down.”

The main fears raised by objectors are that the planned cash machine would increase the amount of traffic in the Broadway area of Mill Road and encourage dangerous parking.

It has also been argued there is no need for another cash machine in the street and that the shop front would be out of keeping with the character of Mill Road. Campaigners have collected more than 5,000 signatures for their petition opposing Tesco’s plans. Cambridge Cycling Campaign has also registered its objections with the council.

If the applications are not approved by councillors, the decision would be made by an independent planning inspector, although Tesco has insisted it would prefer councillors to decide.

A Tesco spokesman said: “We have been left with no option. Four months on we still have no decision from the council. All sensible perspective has been lost.”

The supermarket giant’s move was described by Mr Rippin as a bid to “take the decision out of local democratic hands”.

The committee will make its decision when it meets on Thursday, March 6, at St Philip’s Church in Mill Road. The meeting starts at 7.30pm.

Cambridge Evening News, 29th February 2008

A question was asked by a member of the public at the 28th February East Area Committee meeting, as follows, which has relevance to our Campaign:

“In a recent letter to the CEN, Cllr Sadiq expressed concern at Tesco’s policy of selling cut price alcohol, which exacerbates the local problem of anti social behaviour caused by under age drinking. Do councillors agree that
supermarkets should take responsibility for this problem, and that it would be unwise to encourage the availability of cheap alcohol on Mill Road by allowing another supermarket to open?”

The minutes, published subsequently, state:

“In responding to the question members and officers made the following points:

• Cllr Sadiq confirmed his continued support for the view he had expressed.
• The introduction of the Mill Road Cumulative Impact Zone, if adopted as part of the Council’s Licensing Policy, would have an impact on any potential new licensee in the Mill Road area or an existing licensed business seeking to amend its conditions.
• Outside a Cumulative Impact Zone, the presumption was for the grant of a Licence; within a Zone the presumption was reversed and the application for a new licensed premises or extension of existing opening hours would have to be based on evidence of need provided by the applicant.”

Architecture Sans Frontiers Cambridge in association with the No Mill Road Tesco campaign are to hold a presentation of awards of the 1st ASF design competition. There will also be a display of the competition entries.

Architecture Sans Frontiers Cambridge is an independent student society at Cambridge University and part of the global ASF network. Its objective is to learn from architects and architectural practices around the world to develop and promote sustainability and community in architecture. As part of this we also see working at a local, community level as hugely important.

The design competition applies the ASF principles of: innovative sustainability, community Involvement and ethically considerate design to a real local context.

The ‘Wilco site’ has been the location of an ongoing battle between Tesco who wish to develop the site and the local community who oppose this. The ASF competition seeks to find an alternative to the alternative most adapted to sustainability and the needs of the community.

The presentation will take place on Saturday 1st March at 5:00pm in the Lecture Room at the Department of Architecture, 1-5 Scroope Terrace, Cambridge CB2 1PX.

There will be snacks, wine and soft drinks provided.

For more information on Architecture Sans Frontiers please consult www.asf-uk.org

For immediate release

A group of Cambridge University architecture students is holding a competition to find an alternative use for the old Wilco site on Mill Road, which Tesco has earmarked for the site of its fourteenth store in Cambridge. The group, Architecture Sans Frontiers Cambridge, is asking students to design a building or space which can be used by the community.

The competition, independently organized by ASF Cambridge but to be held at the University Department of Architecture [1], is scheduled to start at lunchtime on Friday 29th February, and finish in the evening on the Saturday 1st March. A reception and display of the entries, open to the public, will begin at 5pm on Saturday. The press is also invited to attend.

Sheila Jeffery, who has been looking into possible alternative uses for the Wilco site on behalf of the No Mill Road Tesco campaign, will be among the judges.

“Architecture Sans Frontiers Cambridge is about learning from architects around the world to develop and promote sustainability and community in architecture,” explained ASF Cambridge Co-President Robert Percy. “We consider having a real local issue as key to the relevance of this project, and the Mill Road community, as one of the most vibrant and united in Cambridge, is the perfect example.”

Sheila Jeffery added: “The No Mill Road Tesco Campaign is pleased to support Architecture Sans Frontiers with this competition as it is an ideal opportunity to show that sustainability and community need to be considered in architecture in projects in this country, on both new buildings and in refurbishing existing ones. This competition gives us all the opportunity to see what could be done with this site to the benefit of the community – giving it something it wants.”

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:

• Main agenda paper which then links to:
  • 3.1 08/0099/FUL 163 – 167 Mill Road, Cambridge
    Erection of single storey rear extension and installation of plant.
    Pages 1 – 38
    3.2 08/0098/FUL 163 – 167 Mill Road, Cambridge
    Installation of new shopfront including ATM unit
    Pages 39 – 52
    3.3 08/0095/ADV 163 – 167 Mill Road, Cambridge
    Installation of one double sided internally illuminated projecting sign and one internally illuminated fascia sign.
    Pages 53 – 68
    3.4 07/0811/FUL 163 – 167 Mill Road, Cambridge
    Erection of single storey rear extension and installation of plant.
    Pages 69 – 124
    3.5 07/0810/FUL 163 – 167 Mill Road, Cambridge
    Installation of new shopfront including ATM unit
    Pages 125 – 138
    3.6 07/0809/ADV 163 – 167 Mill Road, Cambridge
    Installation of one double sided internally illuminated projecting sign and one internally illuminated fascia sign.
    Pages 139 – 154

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:

• Romsey
  • Catherine Smart <chlsmart@cix.co.uk >
  • Sarah Ellis-Miller <sarah.ellis_miller@ntlworld.com>
  • Raj Shah <raj.shah@cambridge.gov.uk>
• Petersfield:
  • Ben Bradnack <ben.bradnack@cambridge.gov.uk >
  • Kevin Blencowe <kevin.blencowe@cambridge.gov.uk>
  • Lucy Walker <lucy.walker@cambridge.gov.uk>
• Coleridge:
  • Jeremy Benstead <j.benstead@cfr-uk.co.uk>
  • Lewis Herbert <Lewis.Herbert@cambridge.gov.uk>
  • Tariq Sadiq <tariqsadiq@btinternet.com>
• Abbey:
  • Caroline Hart <caroline.hart@cambridge.gov.uk>
  • Miriam Lynn <miriam.lynn@cambridge.gov.uk>
  • John Durrant <john.durrant@cambridge.gov.uk>

Protestors against the planned Tesco store for Mill Road.

CAMPAIGNERS against a new Tesco store have challenged the supermarket’s claim that few shoppers will travel there by car, after a survey of another shop in Cambridge.

The No Mill Road Tesco campaign surveyed the Tesco Express in Cherry Hinton over 12 hours on February 12 and found 110 people parked their cars on the street while they shopped. The figure rose to 142 during nine and a half hours on February 15.

There were nine deliveries on the first day and five on the second.

Tesco has said there will be 30 deliveries a week if its applications to extend the former Wilco building in Mill Road, and install new signs and a cash machine to make an Express store, are allowed.

Campaigners claim their survey of the Cherry Hinton shop shows the company’s estimates of the traffic generated by the plans are too low and also fear it will add to car parking problems due to there being far fewer spaces in the Mill Road area.

Richard Rippin, from the campaign, said: “In less than two full days, the Cherry Hinton store received almost half their projected weekly total deliveries, so it is clear that there will be far more than they say.

“On Tuesday, one lorry turned up before the time it was allowed to unload, as people who live near the Tesco Express on Chesterton Road have told us happens most days.”

He said the peak times for shoppers arriving by car and parking on the street were the morning and evening rush hours.
He added: “This tells us that a significant number of customers appear to be stopping on the way to and from work to do ‘top-up’ shopping by car.

“Since Mill Road is one of the main routes into and out of the city centre, we can be sure that at the times of day when Mill Road is already heavily congested, there would be more traffic congestion created by people, many of them likely to be parking illegally, dropping into the Tesco Express.”

No Mill Road Tesco has given the data to planning officers and members of Cambridge City Council’s East Area Committee, which will decide the application when it meets at St Philips Church, Mill Road, on March 6 at 7.30pm.

On-street parking and all-day deliveries –survey shows the real impact of a Tesco Express

Tesco’s assertions about the levels of additional traffic its proposed store in Mill Road would generate have been called into question by a survey of an existing Tesco Express in Cherry Hinton.

Tesco’s claim that few people visit Tesco Express stores by car seemed so unlikely that volunteers decided to monitor the visitors and deliveries to the Tesco Express in Cherry Hinton High Street on two days in mid-February.

During almost 12 hours on Tuesday 12 February, 110 people parked their cars on the street in order to visit the Cherry Hinton store.  On Friday 15 February this rose to 142 during a nine-and-a-half hour period –an average of 15 people an hour parking on the street in order to use the Tesco store.

These figures do not include people who used nearby car parks. The site of the Cherry Hinton Tesco Express is surrounded by parking facilities, including a 40-bay car park shared by local shops.

Mill Road, by contrast, offers little in the way of public parking, and the parking in adjacent side streets is already insufficient for the needs of residents. An additional influx of car-borne shoppers visiting the proposed Tesco Express would inevitably increase traffic congestion –and Tesco is actually asking for 18 parking spaces to be removed to make room for an extension to the store, and access for its delivery lorries.

What the volunteer monitors had not expected to find was the huge discrepancy between the number of deliveries by lorry which Tesco says the Mill Road store can expect, and the actual figure at Cherry Hinton.

Tesco has said there would be 30 deliveries per week to the Mill Road store. But between 6.45 am and 6.30pm on 12 February, there were nine deliveries to the Cherry Hinton store, and on Friday 15 February, there were five. This store is actually open 15 hours a day, so the daily figure may be higher.

“In less than two full days, the Cherry Hinton store received almost half their projected weekly total deliveries, so it is clear that there will be far more than they say,” said Richard Rippin of the No Mill Road Tesco Campaign. “On Tuesday, one lorry turned up before the time it was allowed to unload, as people who live near the Tesco Express on Chesterton Road have told us happens most days.”

Richard Rippin added that the peak times for shoppers arriving by car and parking on the street are the morning and evening rush hour periods. “This tells us that a significant number of customers appear to be stopping on the way to and from work to do ‘top-up’ shopping by car. Since Mill Road is one of the main routes into and out of the city centre, we can be sure that at the times of day when Mill Road is already heavily congested, there would be more traffic congestion created by people, many of them likely to be parking illegally, dropping into the Tesco Express.”

The No Mill Road Tesco campaign has passed the full data from the two days’ monitoring to members of the East Area Committee and the planning officers. The Committee will meet at 7.30 on the 6 March, at St Philips Church, Mill Road, to decide on Tesco’s three new applications.

Letters to the Cambridge Evening News continue to come in from members of the public in support of our campaign to stop Tesco forcing its way into Mill Road.

• Tesco’s tactics (23rd February 2008)
• Facts wrong (7th February 2008)
• Not snobbish (2nd February 2008)
• Star letter (31st January 2008)
• Tesco effect (31st January 2008)
• Money tantrum (31st January 2008)
• Show respect (31st January 2008)
• Just avoid Tesco (29th January 2008)
• Tesco too greedy (24th January 2008)
• Traffc concerns (24th January 2008)
• Safety issues (22nd January 2008)
• Keep fighting (17th January 2008)
• Mill Road hurray (13th December 2007)
• Vibrant, active (5th December 2007) (in response to this letter)
• Tesco intrusion (3rd December 2007)

(More links will be added as articles are published and as time permits.)