NNDC found guilty

NNDC have been found guilty of maladministration causing injustice relating to a plan for 10 houses in Trunch, near North Walsham. The ombudsman said the planning area had disregarded road safety advice and had caused a justified sense of grievance to local residents.

Lets hope the ombudsman has the energy to follow the Tesco application and that the council don't have to be investigated for ignoring issues raised by local residents.

Our own search engine!

Save our Sheringham readers now have their own search engine to find information relevant to our campaign. It is called a swicki and you can add or delete web sites or pages that you think are useful or not! Why not give it a try its already been primed with lots of useful sites.

Our swicki !

You can also get to it from the link on the right, or via the Save our Sheringham website.

Good news for Norwich

From the Norwich Evening News -
A supermarket giant has been criticised for wasting taxpayers money by submitting plans for a Tesco Express store for the third time.The proposal to build an Express store in Unthank Road, Norwich was thrown out by city planners yesterday on the grounds it would not be in keeping with the area.Adrian Ramsay, Green Party councillor for Nelson Ward has called on the company to give up trying and sell the land in the Golden Triangle so it can be put to a more appropriate use.He said: “I would challenge Tesco to publicly state they will not waste any more tax payers money by not submitting another application when they have had three rejected.“I would urge them to sell the site so it can be put to better use, such as for affordable housing.“It is clear from the reasons for rejection that the scale of store proposed by Tesco is just not possible “I am delighted that the planning committee has again rejected the application.“About 90 percent of residents who contacted me were against the plan. They were concerned about the number of lorries and the effect it would have had on independent businesses in the area.”The application for the former Arlington petrol station was the third by Tesco. The first in March 2005 and a second in March this year were both rejected. More than 130 people wrote to Norwich City Council to protest over the plans.But not everyone in the area is against having a supermarket on the site.Jeanne Webster from Woburn Street said: “The benefits to the entire community far outweigh any of the supposed difficulties.“There are many elderly people, people without cars, parents with young children and no cars, people who are time poor and people on low incomes who would benefit greatly from a Tesco store within easy walking distance.“I think it is wrong for such people to be denied the opportunity to shop locally at reasonable prices.“There are two chemists in the area, three newsagents and two betting shops. None of these have been overwhelmed by competition from the others.It is unknown whether the supermarket giant will submit another application. A spokesman for Tesco said: “We are disappointed with the decision as we believe the new plans would have provided shoppers in the local area with an improved convenience offer. We will now take time to reflect and consider our options.”

It's bad news as shopkeeper 'first casualty of new Tesco'

Edinburgh Evening News reports -
A SHOPKEEPER today claimed to be the first casualty of a controversial new Tesco store in Edinburgh. Javed Iqban, 39, who ran Avi Newsagents on Bruntsfield Place, said that he had been forced to close as a result of competition from the retail giant which opened its Metro outlet on Holy Corner in May. Local traders, supported by Green MSP Mark Ballard, had fought a long campaign against the supermarket, claiming that it would cripple many smaller shops in the area. Today, many small businesses admitted they were feeling the pinch of the supermarket.
Mr Iqban said his takings had tumbled as soon as the store opened. He said: "After Tesco opened nobody came in here. We were OK before but everyone started going there for their groceries. "My takings were halved and halved again, from £6000 a week to £3000. The streets went quiet and none of our customers came back. "I have a three-year lease which has still got a year and a half to run. Business was good, right until Tesco opened.
"It has affected the whole street. I've spoken to other shopkeepers, and everybody's very, very quiet." Yunnis Ahmed, of the nearby Central Fruit Shop, added: "It's terrible. Tesco has been very bad for business. Nobody comes in anymore because they've got special offers on everything." The 13,500 square feet Tesco Metro store is smaller than a regular Tesco supermarket, and is a few hundred yards from a revamped Waitrose on Morningside Road, along with a newly opened Marks & Spencer food store. A spokesman for Peckham's delicatessen and restaurant - a few doors from Avi Newsagents - said: "I think Tesco and Waitrose have had an impact on the area as a whole from what other traders are saying. I know the newsagent across the road is feeling the pinch. "The product we supply is more exclusive and we promote local suppliers wherever we can. We take a pride in being a community-based shop. Tesco has a very strong product, but combined with Waitrose and a possible Marks & Spencer as well - these things are always going to impact. It's a free market, but they should have thought it through more because local shops are suffering. It's a sad thing."
Fishmonger Andrew Main, 58, founder of the Comiston, Morningside, Churchill and Bruntsfield Business Association, said: "Things never stand still. No matter what opposition there is to supermarkets, they always get their way. I didn't think a newsagent would suffer as much as a greengrocer's. It does affect small shops though - they get their business by opening earlier and staying open later than other shops. It's disappointing because all these small shops pay large rates to the city. Supermarkets can't leave anything to anyone. They've got to have everyone's business."
A Tesco spokesman insisted that the store opening was good news for customers. "The retail sector is fiercely competitive and shops of all sizes can thrive in this buoyant market. "We offer quality products at a good price, but we know that customers vote with their feet and if we are unable to offer our excellent prices and good customer service they will decide to shop elsewhere. The development of the UK grocery market has been good news for consumers, who have benefited from unprecedented value, innovation and convenience over the past decade, precisely because of high levels of competition."

Tesco do it again

The Tesco store in Fakenham has only been open a few weeks and now they are applying to change the Sunday delivery times. They want to reduce the start time for deliveries from 09:00 to 08:00.
Surely they must have known from experience at other stores the times required for deliveries, why did they wait until the store was built and opened before applying to get the restriction changed? Apparently the noiseof an HGV coming past your house at 08:00 on a Sunday moring is acceptable to NNDC officers. I bet they don't have to live with it.

The brochure published for the Sheringham store says "deliveries will be restricted to the hours of 06:30am to 11pm". Although the store is expected to open at 09:00 on Sundays it is unclear what they plan to do about deliveries on Sundays.
Watch out Sheringham, Tesco will say one thing to enable their store to be built then bit by bit they will change until they have got what they want.

Tesco domination

Not satisfied with being the largest gocery retailer Tesco now have plans to dominate the non-food shopping market.
"Britain's biggest food seller, Tesco, will become the UK's largest non-food retailer by the end of the year as it expands its offering via bigger stores and the internet, according to a new report.
Retailing research group Verdict said that Tesco's share of the non-food market this year was forecast to climb to 3.6 per cent from 3.2 per cent last year. This would push it ahead of Argos Retail Group, owner of Argos and Homebase, which Verdict forecasts to have a 3.5 per cent market share this year versus last year's market-leading 3.3 per cent."
"Tesco's finance director Andrew Higginson said non-food retail was an attractive and growing area for the company. 'Our non-food business, which we still describe rightly as small, growing and a big growth opportunity, is now seven billion pounds in turnover in the UK. It is less than seven per cent market share which why we talk about it as such an opportunity to grow,' he told Reuters."

If you thought it was only the butcher and baker who had to watch out, then think again!

Bridgnorth made to wait

Tesco bosses have revealed they have not ruled out an appeal against the decision to refuse permission for a new store to be built in Bridgnorth. It is a month since Bridgnorth District Council threw out the supermarket giant’s bid for a new store in Smithfield. Spokeswoman for Tesco, Carolyn Robinson, said the company had six months from the date of the decision to lodge an appeal. She said: “They are still reviewing the situation and no decision has been made at this stage either way."
Good luck Bridgnorth, we know how you feel.

Successful carnival

It was great to see so many people supporting the carnival on Sunday. Fortunately the weather was good and even though some of the bands which had been booked for Wednesday weren't present the people on the floats, in the parade and those in the crowd equipped with whistles didn't seem to notice.
Interestingly the feedback from those campaigning on Saturday was that almost all visitors to the town were willing to sign the petition against a Tesco. They don't come on holiday to see the same street of shops they have at home, they enjoy visiting the variety of local, independent stores in Sheringham. And if that causes a bit of hardship to one or two local residents then isn't that something they can live with to ensure the town remains attractive and interesting?

Worth listening to!

On 26th June You and Yours interviewed Simon Partridge, Head of NNDC with regard to the Tesco application in Sheringham. Having listened again it is interesting that he admits that the council are not equipped to deal with Tesco. Surely, this is another reason why the application should be decided by the Planning Inspectorate and not the NNDC.

The real facts about Tesco in Sheringham

As the rain meant we couldn't have our carnival parade on wednesday you may have missed out in getting your copy of the Save our Sheringham brochure, although some 2000 of these and 1000 car window stickers have been printed. This has been produced by the Chamber of Trade and challenges many of the statements made in the brochure distributed by Tesco at their recent presentation. To ensure as many people as possible get to see it the document is now available via the Save our Sheringham web site.

There is a comment section included in the brochure, you can print this and post it or hand it in to one of the shops listed or you can email the details to tescno@campaigner.co.uk and they will be passed on.

Get ready for the LDF!

New development proposals for North Norfolk - are they going to affect you? Get ready to let NNDC know your views! Public consultation on two key elements of the Local Development Framework will commence, for 6 weeks only, at midday on 25 September 2006.Visit the LDF website for up-to-date information, draft proposals, newsletters and consultation details.

The plans include details on where and how big retail and housing developments should be. If this had been adopted last year then the Tesco plans would not have been allowed for Sheringham as the proposals stipulate that only stores below 750sqm and ones that do not damage the viability and vitality of the town centre will be permitted. If the planning committee approve the Tesco store against the LDF guidelines then they are going to look very stupid.

What are chequebooks good for?

Saw this in the Guardian, thought you might be interested.
"Another little wheeze by Tesco and Asda (aka Wal-Mart): they're running trials at their checkouts banning the use of cheques. Why? Because cheques take too long. Who wants some silly old woman diddling with a cheque-book while a monster queue builds up behind her, when she could be whizzing through with a credit card? Why should they bother to pay for more staff to man more tills, when technology allows everyone to be bossed through at top speed?
I'll tell them why. Because we like our chequebooks. The lady before me filled hers in yesterday; she'd got it all ready while queueing, she only had to fill in the amount, then afterwards she filled in the counterfoil properly and went off looking rather pleased, because when she got home she would know how much she had spent, instead of losing her stinky credit-card receipt, not knowing whether she was coming or going, in credit or overdrawn, or should be expecting the bailiffs.
We also like our chequebooks if the account is running on empty, as we have a few days to fill it. Or to pay people we don't like - then we can cancel; or to pay the extortionate utilities by post and make the toads wait that little bit longer; or because we don't like carrying bloody dangerous credit cards everywhere and losing them, forgetting the Pin numbers, leaving them stuck in the thingy at the check-out (I did it last week), being frightened of robbers at the cashpoint, having our money and identities stolen, reading out numbers over the phone to pretend voices, blabbing the secrets of our lives into the mists of the internet and living in a fairly permanent state of terror and anxiety.
Instead of dropping your chequebook, you could just drop Tesco and Asda: cheap, greedy, spreading like Quatermass, swallowing high streets, paying peanuts, ruining farmers, making gargantuan sums of money, but for whom? Who's getting it? Don't they feel the weeniest bit guilty to have so much more than the workers at the other end of the chain? Huge is ugly, small is beautiful. So are chequebooks."

Sheringham carnival

If you are visiting the carnival today ( hopefully the sun will come out soon) then look out for the campaign tricycle advertising the reasons to reject a Tesco store. You can also pick up a Save our Sheringham brochure or even a Save our Sheringham car window sticker. Have fun and enjoy the town.