Tesco: It's not over yet

5:21pm Tuesday 1st July 2008

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THE battle against supermarket giant Tesco was historically won on Monday night - but the war could be far from over.

Councillors unanimously voted against a London Road superstore at a lively planning meeting at the Alban Arena to the delight of the 200-strong audience.

But chairman of the committee Chris Brazier recognised this was unlikely to be the end of the controversial development and said he expected Tesco to put up a strong fight.

He said during the meeting: "This has got to be a robust refusal, as this is likely to go to appeal. I am adding in extra reasons not to allow this application permission as this will be out of our hands once it is handed to a planning inspector, and we don't want our decision overturned."

A total of ten reasons were given for the refusal and all were throughly discussed by many of the councillors during the meeting. These included the huge scale of the development - which would see locally listed buildings demolished - the impact on traffic on the already busy roads, the effect on city centre retailers, including the market, and the added pollution and strain on air quality caused by the extra 500 car movements an hour.

Gavin Cooper, development control leader of St Albans District Council and author of the report, reminded councillors that, in the latest retail report in 2006, the council identified the need for a city centre supermarket no bigger than 3,200 metres squared.

But councillors argued that the site could not be classed as in the city centre, adding that the application for a 6,430m2 development far outweighed the need.

Council leader Robert Donald echoed many of the councillors thoughts, adding: "I believe this is an application which looks like a sieve. If it was shown any water it would sink.

"This is not the right site for this size development. This would not enhance the area but damage it and destroy the environment - it would not be a fit gateway into our historic city for visitors and tourists.

"They have been softening us up over the last few years to accept almost anything - but we will not relent."

During the meeting Tesco spokesman Mike Kissman defended the planning application claiming that a large number of St Albans residents go out of town to do their food shop and adding a new supermarket would keep those people spending within in the city centre.

He added: "We don't think anyone wants the site to continue in it's current form and that is exactly why we are here. This will be more than just a supermarket - we will be regenerating the London Road area."

But Ian Langford, who spoke on behalf of the Stop Tesco campaign, said: "London Road is not an appropriate location for a large supermarket.

"The fact that the site looks a mess, and I will remind you that Tesco has owned it for eight years, is not a reason to permit a badly planned and inappropriate development."

Yesterday Mr Kissman revealed that his team would be reviewing the decision and deciding what the supermarket's next step would be. When asked if it would consider reducing the size of the development, he said: "We have already reduced the size of the development by 20 per cent after consultation with the public and the council officers.

"That is something we have done already. We will make a decision when we have reviewed the situation."