CEN article: Clash looms over Tesco deliveries
raymond.brown@cambridge-news.co.uk
The supermarket has been warned by the Highways Authority, the Planning Inspectorate and Cambridge City Council not to deliver to the front of the store.
And ‘No Mill Road Tesco’ campaigners claim the company will be breaking the law and could face fines of up to £1,000 a day if it goes ahead with the plan.
But Tesco confirmed the company would make deliveries in the street, which is famed for its independent shops.
The News exclusively revealed that the Express store will open on Wednesday, August 26.
The plans were met with huge opposition when they were unveiled, including a 5,000-signature petition, street demonstrations and squatters who briefly turned the former Wilco shop into a social centre before they were evicted.
A No Mill Road Tesco campaign spokeswoman said: “Unlike other stores on Mill Road, this specific site has a planning condition preventing on-street delivery, as Tesco know.
“When the councillors refused Tesco planning permission in March and July last year, one of the reasons that they did so was because of the danger that Tesco’s 35 deliveries a week would pose to road safety.
“The government-appointed planning inspector dismissed Tesco’s appeal last November for exactly the same reason, that ‘the Mill Road delivery option would pose unacceptable risks to highway safety’.
“Both the planning inspector and the county council also said Tesco’s delivery cages would be dangerous to pedestrians and cyclists on Mill Road, because Tesco make so many deliveries every day.
“We are very interested to see that Tesco consider public safety, planning law, and the views of councillors and the Planning Inspectorate to be irrelevant to their business decisions. This is a matter we are pursuing through the appropriate channels.”
City council planning officer Peter Carter said: “There is a previous planning condition that deliveries cannot be made to the front of the shop.
If Tesco do deliver to the store at the front it may be a threat to safety and the council may have to enforce any alleged breach of planning conditions.”
A Tesco spokeswoman said: “We will deliver to the front of the store as the previous occupants did and as do most retailers on Mill Road.”
A spokesman for the county council, the highways authority, said: “There is an old planning condition that still stands that they cannot deliver out front, and on top of that there is no waiting and no deliveries allowed at peak times.”
