the No Mill Road Tesco Campaign

Entirely as predicted, Tesco’s lorries delivering to the back of the store are already causing problems down Sedwick Street.

These pictures were sent to us by a local resident of the street. If you have any more, please e-mail them to us via the address on our contact details page.

The lorry driver has had to exit the vehicle and move wing mirrors. Notice the proximity to the parked cars.

We have noticed some interesting things in Tesco’s store plan, which forms part of their alcohol licence application.

On the balance between types of stock:

• The proportion of shelf space for alcohol is inconsistent; the list down the side mentions 6 “mods” (shelving units, basically) for beer wine and spirits, but the drawing itself shows 10 “mods” for booze.]
• 10 out of 82 mods represents 12% of the store’s shelf space to be given over to selling booze.
• 12% of the store’s shelf space means booze represents twice as much as the total space planned for milk, juice, butter, cheese, meat and poultry combined.

On the basis of these figures, the place looks like an off licence/sandwich and snack shop (lots of crisps and sweets)/newsagents, with not very much of the store selling “real” food.

On the right hand side is marked “Affluence: Upmarket”.

The delivery regime also contains an admission of breaking the planning regulations: “Deliveries: Via Entrance”.

Click to view the full-size version

They are also planning to sell “deserts” …

A new section of our website contains collated reports of:

• Traffic problems being created by Tesco’s operation, including lorry blocking and driving on the pavement)
• Evidence of unloading during the banned period
• Evidence of unloading from the front of the site (which is disallowed by planning condition)

http://www.nomillroadtesco.org/category/traffic/

If you spot anything similar, which may indicate a breach of planning condition or an offence of obstruction or driving on the pavement, please:

1. E-mail your report and photos to webmaster@nomillroadtesco.org . We will put this evidence online but anonymise it (unless you state you are happy to have your name public)
2. If you feel that a breach of planning permission has taken place (see below for guidance), please contact the Council:
3. If you feel that an offence of obstruction or driving on the pavement has been committed, report this to the police at 0345 4564564 (local rate number).

Reporting a breach of condition:

The relevant condition being breached is:

Planning permission C/71/0826 for the building at 163-167 Mill Road.

“Condition: No loading or unloading of  goods,  including  fuel,  shall take place otherwise than within the curtilage of the site.”

The reason:  “To  avoid  obstruction  of  the  surrounding  streets  and  to safeguard the amenities of adjacent premises”.

Details of how to report a suspected breach of condition are at http://www.cambridge.gov.uk/ccm/content/planning-and-building-control/planning-enforcement/how-to-report-a-suspected-breach.en

Please report suspected breaches as soon as possible.

We have come across a blog post made on another website, and are reproducing it here as further evidence of the problems already being created by Tesco’s operation:

“My flatmate stood at the bus syop on the Broadway for some 25 minutes on Wednesday 12 August (9.25 am to 9.45 am) and watched a delivery taking place to the Tesco site. A wagon was parked on the street whilst a piece of bulky equipment was being unloaded. Although large, the wagon was smaller than the usual Tesco mobile warehouse. Cyclists and pedestrians struggled to get past (although the fence contributed to that) and the traffic became something of a nightmare (for part of the time there was also a vehicle parked on the opposite side of the road a little further down. Not only was traffic reduced to single lane, the buses and larger vehicles struggled to manage that at times. Tesco suggest they will be doing this at least twice a day, despite knowing they will be in breach of the planning condition. It seems Tesco are not prepared to admit bought the wrong site and go away – presumably losing one battle may encourage more people to stand up to their bullying tactics. Apparently they may also be looking to open a store on East Road, where deliveries will take place across the Adam and Eve Car Park, another traffic nightmare waiting to happen. They have outline permission there, probably because the Tesco name wasn’t mentioned in the application.”

http://www.rtaylor.co.uk/planning-and-licensing-challenges-face-mill-road-tesco.html#comment-15565

Here are some pictures from another supporter.

Again they show deliveries being undertaken from the front of the site.

“Here are some more pictures for your collection. Two of the security van parked on the front and then driving over the pavement last night. Workmen at the front of the store this morning.”

Sent to us by a supporter.

Tesco have this morning installed a cash machine on site.  Here are some photos of the lorry that made the delivery.

A video clip was also taken by the same photographer.

Sent to us by a supporter. Some quotations from the e-mail we received from this supporter are underneath.

Some quotations from the e-mail we received from this supporter:

“I was cycling along Mill Road towards town at around 6:40am this morning when I found the road blocked at the junction with Hope Street.  The attached pictures are of poor quality, but there are a few that will give you an idea of what was going on.  One of the men confirmed they were Tesco contractors.

They had two large lorries pulled up on the road so they could unload to the front of the store. They were parked on one carriageway and were using a kind of mini forklift truck to unload from the side of the vehicles into the other carriageway, thereby blocking the whole road.  They had a blue diversion sign encouraging people to divert down Hope Street.  Many, but not all did.  When people insisted on passing they waved them through, but unfortunately those doing the waving did not have a co-ordinated approach to this, so they ended up with a bus and van head-on that would have crashed if the van driver had not realised what was happening.  Most cyclists simply rode on the pavement.  Just as I left a police car came past also travelling towards town.  Miraculously the diversion sign seemed to have vanished, I’m not sure if the police car stopped as this happened just as I was cycling away, needless to say down Hope Street.”

“Are the residents of Hope Street  etc happy that drivers are being told to use their roads as a rat run?”

“Was the contractor authorised by the County Council to effectively close the road and use signage and stewards to divert traffic in this way?”

“Were the contractor’s employees suitably qualified to set up this diversion?”

Sent to us by a supporter.

These were taken at 8.50am, which is during the loading ban period (8.15am-9.15am).

The pictures show a van that has illegally driven onto the pavement, and a lorry blocking one side of the road, delivering from the front of the site, during the loading ban period.

Contractors were spotted sweeping tar into a drain, rather than clearing it up properly.

Just a quick example of Tesco not playing by the rules – their contractors have been spotted driving past the No Entry sign, the wrong way up Sedgwick Street, to reach their site.

This is particularly naughty given that Tesco requested a Traffic Regulation Order to make the street two-way for a short length, but were refused. So the rules are just being broken anyway.