Directory of local campaigns

ASDA/WAL-MART

Chesterfield-Chesterfield and North Derbyshire Friends of the Earth
Contact: Simon Reading email: campaigns@chesterfieldfoe.org.uk
Chesterfield FoE are backing up the local Council which turned down an application for a new Asda store. The applicant went to Appeal over the definition of the site as 'in town' or 'out of town'. This was because although it is close to the town centre it is only accessible via a dual carriageway. The site is also zoned industrial land and the council didn't want it re-zoned. As an outcome of the appeal, a public enquiry was held in July 2001. Decision awaited still.

Conwy-Conwy Friends of the Earth
Contact: Christopher Draper tel:01492 547590
Conwy FoE have been campaigning against plans to move a local school on to a contaminated waste site and build a Wal-Mart/Asda store on the existing school ground. Asda have just being granted planning permission despite fierce local opposition including the Parents Group. Conwy FoE claim that Wal-Mart were behind the school moving and that the Council have constantly misled the public and councillors. Despite council claims the welsh Environment Agency does not support the scheme.
The Children's Commissioner for Wales has stated that the school move 'should not go ahead'. FoE and the Parents Group asked the Minister for the Environment for Wales for a revocation and to call in the application. The minister has refused to call it in and work has started.

Walsall - Walsall Friends of the Earth
Contact: Gerald Kells, 55 Folly House Lane, Walsall, WS1 3EL. tel: 01922 636601
Gerald presented the case against ASDA at a Public Enquiry in mid 1997, and has experience of public enquiries generally (he has done 6 or 7, some of them successfully, including against the expansion of Merry Hill shopping centre). He can advise groups about public enquiries, the planning process and campaign strategy. Can give advice over the phone or send copy of proof of evidence for the ASDA application.
He is currently campaigning against Tesco plans to replace their town centre store, which serves people without cars, with a smaller Tesco Metro, and build a big new store on the edge of town. Opponenets say it is an 'out of town' store but the council argues that it is 'in town' because the site is included in the town plan. Still awaiting the outcome of a public enquiry held in September 2001.

MORRISONS

Sheffield-Tyzack Site Action Group
Contact: Jenny tel: 0114 258 7073 email: jenny.patient@talk21.com
In November 1998, Sheffield Council refused planning permission for a Morrison's superstore. The developers lodged an appeal. In August 1999 the developer submitted a completely new planning application for a health and fitness club and medium sized supermarket. This proposal still had the same traffic implications as the previous one, but did include offices and light industry. In February 2001, the Council gave permission for the development, it was called in by the Secretary of State because another application for a supermarket in a more favourable location had also been submitted. The developers then put in a further application minus the supermarket and in July 2001 were given outline planning permission.

SAFEWAY

Leominster
Contact: Felicity Norman, The Folly, Luston, Nr Leominster, HR6 0BX. tel: 01568 780886.
A Safeway store was built in Leominster in 1993-4. A last minute local campaign tried, and failed, to raise sufficient local opposition to the store. Local traders took little interest at the time, but after the store was built they really felt the impact. Research by the DETR, revealed that when Safeway opened the store, many of the town's small shops lost 30 per cent of their trade.5 A successful loyalty card scheme "Loyal to Leominster" was then launched to help raise awareness among consumers about the need to support local businesses.

SAINSBURYS

Brighton
Contact: Brighton Urban Design and Development (BUDD) & Stop the Store. Ben Messer, Sara Bragg or Keith Taylor, co-ordinators, tel: 01273 324198 / 681166 / 291165 respectively: email Ben on Ben@clevel.co.uk www.buddbrighton.org/
BUDD formed in early 1997 to provide a forum for debate on a proposed development of the Brighton station site, focused around a Sainsbury's superstore and car park. BUDD aimed to raise awareness of the implications of the development, to explore community-related development options and to lobby the local planning authority. The Council was persuaded - in part by BUDD's efforts - to refuse the planning application, and after an extended public enquiry in 1998, the decision was upheld by the Secretary of State.
The Council then embarked on a public consultation process with a view to drawing up a new Planning Brief for the site. (Previously there was no such formal document). 500 people attended a Community Planning Event in October 1999, and overwhelmingly opposed any major retail uses (and associated car parking) for the site.
However, it soon became clear that Sainsbury's was intent on putting in a further application and the Council reluctant to continue its opposition organised a Working Group to develop a Planning Brief. The group, with representation heavily skewed to the interests of the landowner, Railtrack and Sainsbury's delivered a Planning Brief that explicitly allowed for a supermarket (only a few metres short of the official definition of 'superstore') on the site. This effectively ruled out any community-related and sustainable development options.
Meanwhile Railtrack, Sainsbury's and other developers formed the 'New England Consortium', and delivered a new application in September 2001 for a mixed-use development including housing, hotels, language schools as well as a supermarket with 200 space car park. The public has continued to express opposition, not least because the proposal does not address longstanding concerns about the effects of the supermarket on smaller local retailers, on traffic and pollution, on the character of the area, or adequately address the need for affordable housing locally. With refusal imminent the developers have asked for extra time to see if they can address the chief areas of departure from the planning brief. BUDD are waiting to see what amendments the developer will make, but if they are significant they will spark a new round of consultation on the new proposals. BUDD is asking the minister to call the application in for a public enquiry.

Westbury-on-Trym-Westbury Residents Action Group (WRAG).
Contact: Denise Barwell tel: 0117 9508012 email denise@corporacare.co.uk.
WRAG was formed in May 2001 after canvassing local residents and finding overwhelming local opposition to the development of a new Sainsbury's store. Westbury-on-Trym is an urban village currently well served by small local retailers and a small Somerfield. There are at least seven supermarkets within approx. four miles, including a very large Wal-Mart. The land in question is designated in the Local Plan as 'open space for recreational and leisure purposes'. The land is made up of individually owned allotments, some of which are subject to restrictive covenants.
Westbury-on-Trym is a conservation area. Sainsbury's have applied for planning permission to demolish three houses and to build a two storey store with a sales area of 15,000 square feet and an extension to an existing car park. The local planning officer asked for an environmental impact assessment several months ago that has not yet been supplied by Sainsbury's. There is a church dating to the Saxon period on the fringe of the proposed development, and the oldest inhabited house in Bristol is alongside the site. This is also an interdenominational house of prayer and meditation. There has already been some local media coverage regarding the affect on this house of a supermarket car park at the end of the garden. WRAG are currently undertaking a car survey.

TESCO

Hadleigh, Suffolk-Campaign Against Another Supermarket in Hadleigh (CAASH)
Contact: John Bloomfield, Hadleigh Society tel: 01473 822063
The Campaign Against Another Supermarket in Hadleigh, (CAASH) was successful in stopping a Tesco superstore on the edge of the centre of Hadleigh, Suffolk.
The Hadleigh Society and other like-minded bodies teamed up in April 1999 to oppose proposals from two supermarkets to build on the site. In October 1999, local people voted in a referendum following which the Town Council rejected the Tesco application, whilst recommending that an application by Buyright Stores should be approved.
Carter Commercial, the developers of the Tesco store, appealed and a Public Enquiry took place in October 2000. The weight of evidence filled more than the three weeks allocated, and the conclusion could not be scheduled until March 2001, two years after the proposal was first aired. The Inspector's report recommended that both supermarket proposals be refused. The Secretary of State agreed and turned down both Tesco's appeal and Buyright's application.
In summary, the Inspector accepted that the need for a supermarket was proved but rejected the Tesco proposal on the grounds that the building was of an unsuitable design: the demolition of 109 High Street and creation of a wide entrance would not enhance the outstanding conservation area. The proposed mono-pitched roof structure and high wall would be damaging to the amenities of Sun Court, a grade II listed building. The Inspector repeated in her report that the proposed building looked as if it had been designed by Pinewood studios! The Inspector also considered that the proposed road junction would create traffic problems and would not be capable of enhancement. She was concerned that residents would suffer from disturbance by traffic, and in particular, from the sound levels produced by traffic at the access point. The Inspector's only significant objection to the Buyright proposal was that the building of a supermarket adjacent to the existing store would create a "one-stop" shopping site from which few people would walk into the High Street. The local shops might therefore suffer.

Holywell, Flintshire
Contacts Roberta Owen, Friends of the Earth Flintshire tel: 01352 710714 email: jgowen@lineone.net
David McKnight, Youth Coalition Gogledd Cymru tel: 01352 711416 email: david@milwr.freeserve.co.uk
A proposal from Tesco to build an out of town superstore in Flintshire was recently rejected by Flintshire County Council on grounds that new out-of-town stores in Queensferry and Broughton have already damaged town centres in the county. Now Tesco have now made a new proposal to develop an out-of-town store and petrol station near Holywell.
Friends of the Earth Flintshire and Youth Coalition Gogledd Cymru are working together to develop strategies to (a) fight Tesco's proposals to build yet another out-of-town superstore, and (b) highlight alternative ways to nurture a sustainable and fair local economy.

Lewisham-Hither Green Heritage,
Contact: Douglas Earle, 144 Hither Green Lane, London SE13 6QA. tel: 0208 244 3778.
Tesco bought the Hither Green Hospital for £5m, and sought planning permission to redevelop it, although there were already several supermarkets nearby. The campaign against it focused on heritage issues (preserving the old buildings and their setting), traffic, impact on local shops and loss of trees. The application went to appeal in 1999 and was rejected by the Inspector. The main reason for rejection was the negative impact it would have on the local town centre.

Llandovery
Contact: Mr Davies, 4 Kings Road, Llandovery, Carmarthenshire, SA20 0PU. tel: 01550 720 269.
In the late 1990's there were plans for a store and petrol station on a green field site at edge of this small market town (2,000 population). Local traders and residents were concerned about the damage it would do to the town centre.
The retail impact assessment carried out for Tesco was felt to be highly inaccurate, so Camarthenshire County Council commissioned its own. Currently there is a revised application for a central town location which some retailers feel might encourage more people to shop in the town. An environmental impact assessment (flood prevention scheme) was needed and the retailer had to pay half the cost, approx. £600,000. In June 2001 Tesco withdrew their application because they felt there wasn't sufficient parking in the scheme for the edge of town development.
Sherringham-Sherringham Campaign Against Major Retail Over Development (SCAMROD)
Contact: Reg Grimes, 33 Beeston Road, Sherringham, Norfolk, NR26 8EJ. tel: 01263 824343.
The campaign is fighting two major superstores: Tesco (out of town) and Budgens on the edge of town. SCAMROD would prefer an in town site. Planning applications are in and SCAMROD have submitted objections.

Stow-on-the-Wold-North Cotswold CPRE
Contact: c/o Lynn Greenwold, Digbeth, Digbeth St, Stow-on-the-Wold, Cheltenham, Glos. GL54 1BN tel: 01451 870 163.
The group fought an edge-of-town Tesco development in a small market town, and lost - the store opened in autumn 1997. The Planning Committee refused permission three times, but council officers were in favour, and took it to full council, who pushed it through, first changing the local development plan. The campaigners managed to change some of the detail e.g. height, visual obtrusiveness. But despite agreements to the contrary, the campaigners are worried that Tesco intends to expand the store (it has been built so as to allow extension), and add a petrol station in the future.

Top tips from the Hadleigh campaign:
• Prepare carefully - it took CAASH about a year to gather necessary information
• Rather than address the weaknesses in the application, look at what they've left out. Someone with a good, cynical mind is a great asset!
• Use a range of tactics. In Hadleigh, we used real cars to stage the council's projected traffic figures. This caused town centre gridlock - what further proof was needed! Another tactic was to build a model of the development to illustrate the inappropriateness of site and design. In Hadleigh, this included erecting scaffolding to illustrate the height of building.
• Follow the rules to the letter with regard to the Planning Inspector.
• Engage as many of your friends and colleagues in the campaign e.g. use your Christmas Card list to ask your friends to write to the District Council.
• Brief your District Councillors separately from the Council Officers.
• If you get obscure and confusing replies from the developer, expose this at the enquiry. We asked a simple question about relative heights of buildings but received a reply with a confusing explanation. At the enquiry we asked the developers 'expert' to read the letter out. The developer got a real roasting for sending us misleading information.