Saturday 14 August 2010

Ransom Strips

There's been a lot of comment going around about the 'ransom strips' that are apparently having a profound affect on the Tesco plan.
These 'ransom strips' are bits of land that are owned by various individuals and companies, which are seemingly blocking Tesco's plans to get proper access to their proposed site.
Some locals have been speculating about who owns the 'ransom strip' that is causing such a problem. 
Some others have been speculating about a 'ransom strip' that they claim to be only 3 inches wide! This suggestion is of course absurdly incorrect!
Interestingly, the local-owned 'ransom strips' are essentially irrelevant.
As far as the Wirral Park Road 'ransom strips' are concerned, it is worth noting that almost every property is subject to 'ransom strips' pertaining to a major international PLC.
One question might be as to why local politicians don't seem to know about this major international PLC and which 'ransom strips' it owns?
Or are certain people being deliberately evasive and focusing upon the local-owned 'ransom strips' when they must know that these are irrelevant?
Could such people be attempting to distract away from the actual negotiations around the real issues?

No doubt such questions will be answered soon enough!

Comments welcome!

Saturday 31 July 2010

Tesco Company Report

Here's that Tesco Company Report again, to make sure that people actually read it!


What you can easily see is that Tesco are happily breaking the law. They are a long term abuser of UK laws which is why so many CCJs have been brought against them and were outstanding last year.
One question is why would any honest politician want to deal with them when they statistically lead to job losses, to local retail and other local business closures, and when Tesco is so obviously dishonest?

Comments are welcome!

Friday 30 July 2010

Express your opinion to Mendip Planning Office

Thanks to Paul Manning for posting this information on GWells group.

Tesco's Planning Application is on the Mendip website, and we have
until 16th August to express our opinions.
Comments can be submitted online via the Mendip Council planning website: http://www.mendip.gov.uk/
Choose the 'Do It Online' section from their Homepage and select Planning Application Comments from the list.
You can also send any comments to customerservices@mendip.gov.uk

IMPORTANT: make sure you include the number 2010/1708 in your submission!

Here is the full link to the planning application details:
http://planning.mendip.gov.uk/Northgate/PlanningExplorer/Generic/StdDetails.aspx?PT=Planning%20Applications%20On-Line&TYPE=PL/PlanningPK.xml&PARAM0=392557&XSLT=/Northgate/PlanningExplorer/SiteFiles/Skins/Mendip/xslt/PL/PLDetails.xslt&FT=Planning%20Application%20Details&PUBLIC=Y&XMLSIDE=/Northgate/PlanningExplorer/SiteFiles/Skins/Mendip/Menus/PL.xml&DAURI=PLANNING

Wednesday 28 July 2010

Planning Policy Statement 4

As PPS4 has replaced PPS6, it may be useful for people wanting more information about planning policy and how it pertains to the Tesco submission.

Here are some references revealed in an online search:

http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/planningandbuilding/planningpolicystatement4

Tesco appeals to Glastonbury locals

Last week many Glastonbury addresses received information from Tesco about their resubmitted plan. The information had a tear off and return card to voice agreement or concern about the proposal.
Strangely, the resubmitted plan is essentially the same as the old plan, just with a smaller building. The basic design has Tesco with its back to Wirral Park Road, with the carpark on the Morlands side. This means that all access traffic must use the two options of Street Road to Beckery New Road, or Dyehouse Lane to Beckery Road, to get to the site. As many people will know, Dyehouse Lane is too narrow for such regular access, which will mean that far greater pressure will be on the Street Road turning and traffic lights into the Morland Site.
In the last submission this detail was one of the number of important planning issues and one which led to the rejection of the plan by the Mendip Planning Officer and subsequently the Planning Inspectorate. It seems that the use of roads not designed for retail store access will add 750,000 road miles per year to the roads of Glastonbury, with resulting increased emissions, congestion, and costs.
So many will ask why Tesco situated its store this way and ignored advice to have access from Wirral Park Road, which is the most logical way to access the site. Could it be that there were assumptions on the part of Tesco and Avalon Plastics that any such anomalies would be ignored?
There are many practical issues to discuss, not least the fact that Tesco stores always lead to job losses rather than gains, and local high streets are always negatively impacted and in some cases become virtually empty!

Comments are welcome!

Sunday 7 February 2010

Tesco withdrawn?

Has Tesco withdrawn its application? Is the rumour true?
Anyone got any more about this interesting piece of news?

Saturday 2 January 2010

Results of the Poll

The results of the Poll which asked whether we need a Tesco superstore in Glastonbury, are now in.
The Poll was voted on by 33 people, with 4 people who answered "Yes" to the question, and 29 people who answered "No".

So there we have it. A clear and resounding 87% of those polled were against the proposal for a new Tesco superstore in the Glastonbury town area!

Had more people bothered to take the time to view this Blog and vote in the Poll then perhaps we would have a result that is even more profound.
I suspect, however, that this result is a fair indication that the majority of the people of Glastonbury do not want a Tesco superstore in the area.
The url. for this Blog has been clearly posted in a number of local forums and also the local gig guide, and invitations to view, join and post/comment have been made. Which means that many hundreds of people have potentially viewed this Blog. This means that of the total number of people who viewed this Blog, only 33 took the time to vote, and of those people only 4 felt strongly enough about the Tesco proposal to actually vote in favour of it.

Anyone is quite free to comment about this, both here and elsewhere...