Beeston Says No to Tesco – A Broxtowe Green Party Campaign

Last night Tesco got the go-ahead for their extended store by 6 votes to 4 from the council’s Development Control Committee

Nick Baseley, Broxtowe Green Party’s independent planning consultant, still maintains that a rejection of this application could have been upheld at an appeal and that the case of his retail expert was sound.  The Committee wasn’t willing to make what, Broxtowe Greens believe, was the correct decision for Beeston and reject this proposal.  Tesco already had permission to build a large store, which would have removed the eyesore in the centre of our town.  Sadly that was not enough for Tesco.

The decision on whether to approve or reject Tesco’s plans will be made by the Council’s Development Control Committee on Thursday 11th June at 7pm in the Town Hall on Foster Avenue.   The meeting is open to the public.

Broxtowe Green Party will be holding a demonstration outside at 6.30pm.  All supporters of the Say No To Tesco campaign are welcome to join us.

Please attend the meeting and make your presence felt.

Broxtowe Greens will be holding one last campaign stall in Ten Bell Square on Saturday 6th June at 10.30 am.  Please come along and add your name to the petition and a letter of objection if you haven’t yet done so.

Broxtowe Green Party held another Say No To Tesco campaign stall in Ten Bell Square on Saturday 23rd May. 110 people added their signature to the growing petition and 72 people signed an updated letter of objection.  The letter states that despite the proposed compulsory purchase of fire station land to add traffic lanes on Middle Street and Station Road, Beeston is likely to be overwhelmed by a potential extra 660 car trips per hour to Tesco. 

The number of people who have signed the petition is now heading for 1500.

You can still object.  Download the updated letter of objection on this blog and sign the petition in any of the shops on our list.

Tesco’s proposed double deck car park will have the capacity for 660 car trips to be made per hour.  In order to solve the problem of over-capacity at the Middle Street/Station Road junction, Tesco has recently submitted a revised traffic proposal .  If approved, the land currently occupied by the fire station would be used to provide extra lanes on Middle Street and Station Road.  Compulsory purchase powers have recently been approved to allow this to happen under the NET scheme.

The car park layout has also been changed to reduce the prospect of queuing on Station Road.

Anyone who wishes to object to the enlarged store can still do so.  Download our objection letter or object online at:

http://www.broxtowe.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=4145

The new traffic proposals can be viewed at:

http://planning.broxtowe.gov.uk/(S(32xcti45whvaby55ivcpq145))/Published/5A4794B83EFA11DEB28C0017A4F8C9EE.pdf

This application is likely to go before the Development Control Committee in June.

Long Eaton Chamber of Trade has recently sent the following statement to Broxtowe Green Party:

” The Long Eaton Chamber of Trade can confirm the detrimental effect the town has suffered as the supermarkets have increased in size and number. A retail needs survey done in February 2007 showed that one of the main threats to the future of Long Eaton Town Centre was the continued expansion and increased range of goods sold at supermarkets.”

Broxtowe Greens hope that Members of the Development Control Committee will take these comments into consideration when making their decision on the Tesco extension for Beeston town centre.

No date has been set for the Committee meeting.  Objections can still be made to the Council.

The public meeting at Roundhill School to discuss Tesco’s plans was packed on Monday evening with standing room only and around 250 people attending.   There was overwhelming concern about the detrimental effect the enlarged Tesco store will have on our community, both in terms of traffic congestion and the damage it will do to our smaller retailers.   Issues of road safety for pedestrians was raised as well as concerns for the character of our town being irrevocably changed.

Dr. Matthew Frost, a civil engineer who teaches Highway Engineering at Loughborough University, was on the panel and fielded questions about road capacity. People wanted to know how the problem of congestion could be alleviated if the larger store is built.  He stated that the remedy to overcome the traffic problem is not straightforward, especially given that the Middle Street/Station Road junction is already at capacity.  Alternative routes for traffic could be looked at, for instance Queen’s Road, and traffic light timings could be changed at Middle Street/Station Road as well as  junctions further afield.  The proposed left turn off Station Road into the proposed double deck car park may alleviate the junction and the tram should increase the junction’s capacity if people change from car to tram use.  However, he stated that Tesco’s Transport Assessment has only looked at the Middle Street/Station Road junction and not at the knock-on effect of congestion on Broadgate and Chilwell Road.  He concluded that the new store will inevitably bring more traffic to Beeston and that traffic congestion will worsen, despite all the potential strategies he mentioned. 

Steve Carr, County Councillor for Beeston North stated that the County Council had concluded that the Middle Street/Station Road junction “will not work”.

One audience member asked whether the land, which is currently designated for retail use, could be re-designated when the Local Plan is updated with the new Local Development Framework.   Nick Palmer MP said that re-designation was possible and in that event Tesco would have to be compensated.  However, he stated that future generations may thank us for it.

Nick Palmer asked for a show of hands on whether people would prefer a Tesco  or for the site to remain derelict, hypothetically, for the next ten years.  The response was overwhelming.  People would prefer an empty space and no development at all if it meant Tesco would not build!

Everyone was urged to write an objection to the council if they hadn’t already done so.  No deadline has yet been set.

The Tesco application will no longer go before the Development Control Committee on 8th January as originally planned.  The council planners are yet to write their report of recommendation to the Committee because of the outstanding issue of traffic.  The Middle Street/Station Road junction has to work for both Tesco and the  future Square re-development.  If Tesco takes up all the road capacity, this will compromise the Square.  Tesco is now in talks with Henry Boot, who will be developing the Square, Nottinghamshire County Council and NET so as to come up with a joint stategy for traffic management.  This group is being chaired by Councillor David Watts, chair of the Development Control Committee.  No Development Control Committee date has been set.

Objections can still be submitted to the council.

To ensure that our arguments against the proposed plans are sound, we have commissioned an independent planning consultation from Ian Baseley Associates.  They have made use of a retail expert who has looked at the case for and against a store of 9185msq for Beeston.  His conclusion is that the scale of the store is inappropriate for Beeston and could result in the closure of several of the town’s smaller retailers.  The planning consultants are also concerned that the road network will be unable to take the increase in traffic that the superstore will inevitably bring.

A public meeting organised by the Labour Party will be held at Roundhill School on Monday 5th January at 7.30pm to discuss the Tesco plans.  This will give the public the chance to put their views across to members of the Planning and Development Control Committee who have been invited to sit in the audience.  An independent traffic engineer will also be present.  The meeting will be chaired by Nick Palmer MP.

Tesco has submitted amended proposals for the larger store which consist of:

1.  Changes to the design of the store which include brick columns, timber panelling and a feature wall.

2.  A response to Nottinghamshire County Council Highway Authority’s  comments. 

Of particular interest is the County Council’s comment on the Station Road/Middle Street Junction.  It concludes that this junction will OPERATE  OVER CAPACITY if the larger store is built.  Broxtowe Borough Council’s planning department is currently assessing whether Tesco’s response to this very fundamental issue has been properly addressed.

Members of Broxtowe Green Party have written this objection to the amended plans.

“I am not convinced that Tesco has made a robust enough response to Nottinghamshire County Council’s comment on the Station Road/Middle Street Junction.  The County Council concluded that this junction will operate over capacity if the extended store is built.  This junction already suffers with congestion at peak times and in my opinion a store of this size can only exacerbate this problem.”

The amended proposals can be viewed online at:

www.broxtowe.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=4145

Type in ref: 08/00833

If you wish to object to the amended proposals then you must do so by 12th December.  You can object by:

1.  Letter to:  Planning and Development Control Department, Council Offices, Foster Avenue, Beeston, Nottingham NG9 1AB.

2. Email: dpcd@broxtowe.gov.uk