WE OPPOSE TESCO
MISTLEY PARISH COUNCIL OPPOSES TESCO's APPLICATION (08/00603/FUL)
The Tesco application refers to Manningtree Town Council and Lawford Parish Council as 'counting for the majority of the proposed store's local catchment'.
But Mistley is as much affected. The three parishes actually form a single community for most basic shopping purposes.
Our major objections to the proposed development are based on its, traffic implications, lack of need, and contradiction of the adopted Local Plan
1) Road traffic implications
We feel that Tesco has grossly underestimated the addition to existing traffic congestion from all directions to access the proposed store. The application refers to currently 'free-flowing streets without delays to drivers or pedestrians'. This is blatantly not so from the entry to Mistley, particularly from the High Street either east or west and certainly not so to and from Manningtree town centre.
Approach roads are narrow with cars parked on the sides, despite the one-way system operating via Trinity Road/Brook Street, Manningtree High Street and South Street. Tesco fails to adequately recognise current levels of traffic flow to and from Manningtree, Mistley and Lawford. They suggest little extra traffic will be coming from the East. This is unresearched and very unlikely.
All this, with an estimated 700 plus EXTRA journeys at peak time (as Tesco state in the application) plus an estimated 70 plus daily journeys by HGV delivery lorries to and from the proposed store, would create chaotic road conditions and consequent harmful effects on the environment and offset any claimed benefits from people not travelling to other more distant supermarkets.
The network of small roads surrounding and linking Mistley and Manningtree have weight limits which are totally unsuitable for HGVs.
2) Need
There is not a 'demonstrable need for more retail facilities of this kind' as stated by Tesco. Arguably, due to Tesco's expansion throughout the country, shops in small country towns comparable to Manningtree have closed. But there is no RELIABLE evidence either way that this application will either enliven the town and surrounding area (as Tesco claim) or kill it.
People do not go to Colchester/ipswich just to shop at Tesco and other suppermarkets. If they do, they are demonstrating a personal preference not a need. The existing Co-op store (right next door to the proposed development) serves actual need in the area, increasingly adequately, in conjunction with other small existing shops.
The proposed store is not Tesco's largest store in the area so, as they admits (Retail Survey 5.326) 'some would use it in conjunction with larger stores mainly in Colchester, Ipswich, Clacton and Harwich'.
In their Qualitive Need Survey (3.21) Tesco state that ' a key objective is promoting vitality and viability of town centres... to improve accessibility for the whole community'. The community already has access in the same area as the proposed store. There is already choice: the Co-op, small Tesco store, wholefood shop, delicatessen, bakery, farm shop, hardware store and chemist shops. Choice suggests the Co-Op in particular will remain, but will it, or the smaller shops, with such monopolistic competition? Many of the existing shops in Manningtree High Street sell the same goods as the proposed Tesco would and it is unlikely they would be able to compete, so would have to close. Jobs created would be cancelled out by jobs lost.
Tesco's Retail Survey (4.4) states that retail development needs to be of a scale appropriate to the centre to promote internal competition. The proposed development is of an inappropriately large scale for this – it would cover an area half the length of Manningtree High Street.
3) Tendring Local Plan
The Tesco proposals contradict policies in the adopted Local Plan. Policy ER3 says that if changes are proposed to the status of employment plan it must be shown that such status is no longer viable or is inherrently unsuitable.
WHAT WOULD THE PROPOSED STORE BE LIKE?
To see the plans Tesco has submitted to Tendring District Council for the 30,000 sq ft (2,787 sq m) superstore it wishes to build next to the Fiveways Co-Op in Manningtree, visit the Tendring District Council offices in Weeley or the library in Manningtree High Street (Open Tuesday: 9.30 - 1.00 & 2.00-6.00. Wednesday: 9.30 - 1.00. Thursday: 2.00-7.00. Friday: 9.30 - 1.00 & 2.00-6.00. Saturday: 9.00-5.00)
Did you go along to Tesco's recent exhibitions in Manningtree and Lawford? Our TESCO WORKING PARTY needs to hear your views. Contact:
Ian Rose (k.rose2006@tiscali.co.uk)
Frances Fairhall (john.fairhall@btinternet.com)
Joy Frascinella (jfrascinella@talk21.com) or
Iris Peacock (01206 395907)
TESCO announced plans to build a superstore on Station Road, Lawford (next to the Co-Op Fiveways store in Manningtree) in summer 2007, and has recently submitted the second of two initial planning applications to Tendring District Council (the first was found invalid, the second is still being assessed).
HOW TO MAKE YOUR VIEWS HEARD
WRITE to our local MP Bernard Jenkin (at the House of Commons, SW1A OAA) to let him know your views on Tesco’s plans in Manningtree or visit www.bernardjenkinmp.com (email perryc@parliament.uk).
WRITE to Head of Planning Services, Tendring District Council, Council Offices, Weeley, Essex CO16 9AL or email planning-services@tendringdc.gov.uk
CONTACT US by email mistley@pobox.com or phone.
CONTACT local organisation Stour Community First which supports local businesses and opposes the new Tesco store www.stourcommunityfirst.org (info@stourcommunityfirst.org 0844 585 2049)
