Tesco offers Sheringham £1.2million

COUNCIL coffers will get £1.2m from super-market giant Tesco if the controversial store at Sheringham gets the go-ahead. But North Norfolk District Council has stressed that the deal does not affect the long-running planning saga - which is due to come to a head at an inquiry, which will take place in July. Tesco's planned site covers a range of council-owned land, which includes flats, a community centre and fire station. Part of an original deal between the council and company over the Lockerbie Flats in 2003 included asking Tesco to provide 11 replace-ment homes at nearby Weston Terrace and £150,000 in cash. But the council changed tack, and sought a total cash deal, which has now been negotiated at £1.2m and was agreed by the cabinet on Monday. Chief executive Phillip Burton said the cash offered more flexibility in how the money was spent, and got around problems being encountered in developing the Weston Terrace site. The homes plan had sparked opposition from neighbours as it would remove land which had been for allotments, and was in a sensitive location near Beeston Common. The report to cabinet added that all the former Lockerbie tenants had been rehoused, and the Weston scheme for bungalows for the elderly did not really tackle the higher local need for family accommodation. Resources portfolio holder Peter Moore told the cabinet: “I must emphasise the deal has no bearing at all on the planning appeal. We are just making sure our position is safeguarded if Tesco are successful, and if they decide to build.”After the meeting council leader and cabinet chairman Simon Partridge said: “People may talk of this being a Tesco bribe, but nothing is further from the truth. “The land and planning issues are totally different. If the appeal finds in our favour we don't get Tesco or the money.” If the council lost and got the money most of it would be spent on affordable housing. The Tesco appeal hearing will start on July 1, at the council headquarters, and is expected to last three weeks.A sum of £200,000 has been earmarked to prepare the council's case, and a further £350,000 set aside in case it loses and has costs awarded against it.

Cambridge still fight against another Tesco store

Campaigners against a new Tesco store have challenged the supermarket's claim that few shoppers will travel there by car, after a survey of another shop in Cambridge. The No Mill Road Tesco campaign surveyed the Tesco Express in Cherry Hinton over 12 hours on February 12 and found 110 people parked their cars on the street while they shopped. The figure rose to 142 during nine and a half hours on February 15. There were nine deliveries on the first day and five on the second. Tesco has said there will be 30 deliveries a week if its applications to extend the former Wilco building in Mill Road, and install new signs and a cash machine to make an Express store, are allowed. Campaigners claim their survey of the Cherry Hinton shop shows the company's estimates of the traffic generated by the plans are too low and also fear it will add to car parking problems due to there being far fewer spaces in the Mill Road area. Richard Rippin, from the campaign, said: "In less than two full days, the Cherry Hinton store received almost half their projected weekly total deliveries, so it is clear that there will be far more than they say."On Tuesday, one lorry turned up before the time it was allowed to unload, as people who live near the Tesco Express on Chesterton Road have told us happens most days."He said the peak times for shoppers arriving by car and parking on the street were the morning and evening rush hours. He added: "This tells us that a significant number of customers appear to be stopping on the way to and from work to do 'top-up' shopping by car."Since Mill Road is one of the main routes into and out of the city centre, we can be sure that at the times of day when Mill Road is already heavily congested, there would be more traffic congestion created by people, many of them likely to be parking illegally, dropping into the Tesco Express."No Mill Road Tesco has given the data to planning officers and members of Cambridge City Council's East Area Committee, which will decide the application when it meets on March 6 at 7.30pm.