Possible template submission to the Inquiry

Please feel free to copy and paste this letter format, and either make some adjustments or send as it is. Remember that you MUST send 3 copies to the Planning Inspectorate. This must be sent First Class postage (possibly recorded delivery) by Saturday a.m, but better if by last post on Friday, in order to arrive on Monday 21st December. Alternatively, someone can deliver to Bristol by hand!

(from: - insert address)

FAO. Gavin Findlay

The Planning Inspectorate

4/03 Kite Wing

Temple Quay House

2 The Square

Temple Quay

BRISTOL BS1 6PN

(date)

RE: Proposed Tesco Development, Glastonbury, Somerset.

Dear Sir, (optional)

The following points should be taken into account when considering the above development:

1) Implications of this development on a Transition Town.

a) By its very nature, a large scale supermarket is not a carbon friendly entity therefore if this development is to go ahead any deliterious effects arising from it can only effectively be mitigated by limiting the size of the development.

b) As a specific point in case the Glastonbury Tesco Development due to it’s eccentric access road policy would generate an additional 700,000 km of road usage and an additional 150 tonnes of CO2 per annum in Glastonbury. Furthermore, the use of the proposed road system would necessitate structural modification to the roads involved, the full cost of which would devolve upon the tax payer. This proposed road usage affords no direct pedestrian or bicycle access to the Tesco site from Glastonbury which is in direct contradiction of Government guidelines; and has been demonstrated, vehicular access is such that journeys from Glastonbury to the store will involve travelling a considerably greater distance than is necessary where a more sympathetic and intelligent use of potential access roads adopted.

2) Retail impact on the existing town centres of Glastonbury and Street would inevitably be negative and significant. It has been suggested that the new Tesco development would provide the area with an additional 230 jobs; however, the impact on existing employment in local retail outlets would be considerable as would the impact on those jobs in support businesses. It is therefore hard to see any real benefit from this development, for anyone other than Tesco and the developers and owners of the site on which it is proposed that the supermarket will be situated.

In conclusion, the applicant has failed to demonstrate a need for a food store of the size proposed, the proposed store would be harmful to the vitality and viability of Glastonbury and Street town centres, the proposal does not promote access to the site by more sustainable modes of travel and unacceptably fosters travel, and the proposal fails to accord with local and national Planning Policies, which means that the plan is unnecessary, unsustainable and unacceptable.

Please therefore reject the proposal.

Yours faithfully,

(your name)