[Campaignforrealdemocracy] [FYI] Tescos and Real Democracy

Thu Aug 13 09:54:15 BST 2009

2009/8/11 Mark Barrett <marknbarrett at googlemail.com>:
> My town is menaced by a superstore. So why are we not free to fight it off?
> People know a Tesco will suck the marrow from us. Yet the decision is left
> in the hands of a remote and frightened council
>
> "The choice should be ours and ours alone, and it should be final. If
> planning worked like this, I'm sure that Britain would be a very different
> country, in which independent shops still thrived and communities still
> deserved the name. This might look like a battle over diversity and local
> character. Underneath it is a struggle for democracy."
>
> I have been writing about it for years. But it's only now, when I'm caught
> in the middle of it, that the full force of this injustice hits me. Like
> everyone else here I feel powerless, unstrung as I watch disaster unfolding
> in slow motion.
>
> I live in the last small corner of Gaul still holding out against the
> Romans. In other words, a small market town (Machynlleth, in mid-Wales)
> which has yet to be conquered by the superstores. No one expects us to hold
> out for much longer. Last month Tesco submitted an application to subjugate
> us. It wants to build a store of 27,000 square feet on the edge of the town
> centre. This is twice the size of all our grocery stores put together, and
> bigger than our tiny settlement – 2,100 souls – can support. Tesco will
> prosper here only if other shops close and customers come from miles away.
>
> More than 300 people – roughly one fifth of the adult population – have sent
> letters of objection. The case against the store and the strength of local
> feeling is so strong here that if we can't beat Tesco, no one can. But,
> being deficient in magic potion, we have precious little chance of stopping
> it.
>
> This town's tragedy has been precisely foretold. In 1998, the government
> commissioned a study of the impact of big stores on market towns. It found
> that when a large supermarket is built on the edge of the centre, other food
> shops lose between 13% and 50% of their trade. The result is "the closure of
> some town centre food retailers; increases in vacancy levels; and a general
> decline in the quality of the environment of the centre". Towns are hit
> especially hard where supermarkets "are disproportionately large compared
> with the size of the centre". In these cases the superstore becomes the new
> town centre, leaving the high street to shrivel.
>
> If this monster is built, everything that is special and precious and
> distinctive about this town – the quirky shops, the UK's oldest farmers'
> market, the busy community – falls under its shadow. Tesco will suck the
> marrow out of us.
>
> The prospects for small shops were dim enough during the boom. As the
> supermarkets closed in, independent stores in the United Kingdom shut at the
> rate of 2,000 a year between 1997 and 2004. Now they're in much bigger
> trouble. A report by the Local Data Company at the end of July suggested
> that 12,000 independent shops have already closed in England and Wales this
> year. Tesco, by contrast, has been mopping up. In April, for the first time,
> its turnover exceeded £1bn a week.
>
> But in seeking to oppose its application, we find ourselves fighting bound
> and gagged. Tesco launched its campaign with an exhibition and
> "consultation" which seemed to me to be wildly biased in favour of the
> development. I asked its PR man whether the consultation would be
> independently audited. The answer was no. Tesco announced that the great
> majority of residents were in favour of the store. A door-to-door survey by
> local people discovered the opposite, but I think you can guess which study
> made the headlines.
>
> We waited, but we had no idea when Tesco would submit its application. Like
> all developers, it is not obliged to give prior notice. It submitted its
> plans to the county council on 24 June. The council didn't release them
> until 14 July. From Tesco's point of view, the timing was perfect. This was
> the week in which the county's schools broke up and many of its opponents
> were setting off on their summer holidays. We had until 31 July to register
> our objections (we lost four days due to council fumbling). People are now
> returning from their holidays to discover that it's too late to object.
>
> To compound the unfairness, there is no legal requirement for the developer
> to ensure that the claims it makes are accurate. Tesco's planning
> application is riddled with questionable statements. It maintains that the
> new store "will provide a minimum of 140 additional full and part-time
> jobs". However, the superstore's own research shows that every large outlet
> causes the net loss of 276 jobs. That's hardly surprising: independent shops
> employ five times as many people per unit of turnover (all sources are on my
> website).
>
> Tesco maintains that it will buy local produce "wherever possible". But when
> its representatives were challenged on this point, they said that local
> suppliers would have to sell their produce to the company as a whole. It
> would be trucked to the nearest distribution centre – now 120 miles away in
> Avonmouth – and then trucked back across Wales to Machynlleth. Incredibly,
> Tesco proposes that its new store will reduce traffic on our congested
> roads. It appears to be relying on a radical misinterpretation of the
> evidence.
>
> But the real issue is this: if the county council turns it down, Tesco can
> appeal. The cost to the council would be astronomical. As John Sweeney,
> leader of North Norfolk district council observed, Tesco "are too big and
> powerful for us. If we try and deny them they will appeal, and we cannot
> afford to fight a planning appeal and lose. If they got costs it would
> bankrupt us." Hardly any local authority is prepared to take this risk.
> Tesco can keep appealing and resubmitting, using its vast funds until it
> gets what it wants. Objectors, by contrast, have no right of appeal. The
> inequality of arms means that we scarcely stand a chance.
>
> Once the store is built, we will quickly be deprived of choice. As the first
> wave of customers peels off and the income of the independent stores
> declines, the quality and range of their produce falls, driving more people
> into Tesco's arms. From that point on, the collapse becomes unstoppable.
>
> The question that occurs to me is this: why should people who don't live
> here be making this decision? Why do the planning laws not permit us to hold
> a referendum? I understand why decisions about essential services should not
> be made by the community alone. I know that rich villages try to shut out
> social housing and that local people campaign against hostels for the
> homeless and mental health units. But in this case we are not talking about
> essential services. We are talking – or so we are told – about choice. You
> can already buy all the food you need in this town, including (from the
> market stalls) produce that is much cheaper than the superstores sell. By
> voting against Tesco we would not be depriving anyone of the means of
> subsistence.
>
> So why should we hand this decision to a remote, frightened county council?
> The choice should be ours and ours alone, and it should be final. If
> planning worked like this, I'm sure that Britain would be a very different
> country, in which independent shops still thrived and communities still
> deserved the name. This might look like a battle over diversity and local
> character. Underneath it is a struggle for democracy.
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/aug/10/tesco-planning-superstore-independent-shops
>
>
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