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raymond.brown@cambridge-news.co.uk
Tesco must not be allowed to open its controversial new store in Cambridge’s Mill Road, says a city pressure group.
With just 20 days left until the shop opens its doors, Cambridge Cycling Campaign has called on the city council to take enforcement action against the supermarket and stop the opening.
The group weighed in after Tesco vowed to make on-street deliveries to the store, despite danger warnings from planners.
Martin Lucas-Smith, co-ordinator of Cambridge Cycling Campaign, said: “Any sensible person would recognise that having a 34ft lorry stopped on Mill Road for 41 minutes a time, twice a day, would be bad for road safety and traffic
flow.
“It makes a mockery of the £400,000 to be spent on safety measures in Mill Road, if a key problem – delivery vehicles blocking the road – is made worse by the council failing to enforce a basic planning condition.
“It is too early to say what action we would take next, but the council has no excuse not to serve an injunction after Tesco’s admission that they intend just to ignore the rules.”
The supermarket giant has been warned by the highways authority, the Planning Inspectorate and 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 face fines of up to £1,000 a day if it goes ahead with deliveries.
They have written to council planners asking that enforcement action be taken.
While some have welcomed Tesco’s plan to open a shop at the old Wilco premises,there has a 5,000-name petition and demonstrations opposing it, and squatters turned the premises into a social centre before being evicted.
Planning officer Peter Carter said: “If Tesco do deliver to the store at the front it may be a threat to safety and we 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.”
The Express store is set to open on Wednesday, August 26.
Tesco must not be allowed to open its controversial new store in Cambridge’s Mill Road, says a city pressure group.
With just 20 days left until the shop opens its doors, Cambridge Cycling Campaign has called on the city council to take enforcement action against the supermarket and stop the opening.
The group weighed in after Tesco vowed to make on-street deliveries to the store, despite danger warnings from planners.
Martin Lucas-Smith, co-ordinator of Cambridge Cycling Campaign, said: “Any sensible person would recognise that having a 34ft lorry stopped on Mill Road for 41 minutes a time, twice a day, would be bad for road safety and traffic flow.
“It makes a mockery of the £400,000 to be spent on safety measures in Mill Road, if a key problem – delivery vehicles blocking the road – is made worse by the council failing to enforce a basic planning condition.
“It is too early to say what action we would take next, but the council has no excuse not to serve an injunction after Tesco’s admission that they intend just to ignore the rules.”
The supermarket giant has been warned by the highways authority, the Planning Inspectorate and 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 face fines of up to £1,000 a day if it goes ahead with deliveries.
They have written to council planners asking that enforcement action be taken.
While some have welcomed Tesco’s plan to open a shop at the old Wilco premises,there has a 5,000-name petition and demonstrations opposing it, and squatters turned the premises into a social centre before being evicted.
Planning officer Peter Carter said: “If Tesco do deliver to the store at the front it may be a threat to safety and we 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.”
The Express store is set to open on Wednesday, August 26.
Cambridge Evening News, 7th August 2009
