Monday 12 March 2012
Letter to the Editor Re Tesco's
Dear All, I have sent the following letter to the Cornish Times via a reporter for publication
Dear Editor, I believe that it would be good for me to reply as local councillor to the issues regarding the proposed application for a Tesco’s supermarket in Looe and the comments made in your paper last week. Planning is a legal process that can be challenged in the courts and there are two cases locally that show how important that the process is carried out in the correct manner. The first is the Incinerator at St Dennis which has been challenged in the High Court and because the correct impact study had not been carried out there are added costs to every resident of Cornwall for the extra landfill costs. The second is the building of 400 houses in the Bude area where a developer challenged the decision of the council and Eric Pickles judgement via the courts and won. Any decision regarding planning needs to be made with the best information available as a challenge can be made by both sides, the developer and the supporter or objector may raise a challenge to the councils decision.
I attended both days of the consultation event at the Community School and from speaking to a large number of those who attended I would say that 80% expressed a positive preference for the development of a supermarket. Yet whilst that tells me what the community thinks, there needs to be a check against any material planning consideration for the site (conditions that need to be considered during the planning process) and these might be Highways, Safety and Ecological etc. All of these need to be checked, the impact on the road and the junction at St Martins the increased traffic movements, the safety of the public and pupils attending the school, pedestrians crossing to the site, the sewage and water connection, the increase in population on the towns infrastructure (doctors, schools and dentist). If any of these fail then it will be the council who people will come back to and say we failed to consider, so we are in a no win situation and by doing the right checks we can make an informed decision.
This started with a farmer and developer coming to a deal, then a developer and supermarket coming to a deal, the next part is for the local councils to consider all the factors and make a good decision and no matter what, some people will not like the outcome. If or when the developer and Tesco’s put in an application to build the supermarket and the houses I will put a leaflet through the letter box of the residents of my ward and if they choose to respond I will get a further informed look at how people feel regarding this.
When I have any further information on this matter I will let people know via e mail, the press and notice boards.
Regards Armand
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In principal I am in favour of a new supermarket it would save local money and time instead of having to travel to Liskeard. My concern is the highway, not just on the entrance to the supermarket but other connected justions like the junction of Sandplace Road and St Martins Hill, something must be done. There will me more traffic on the road once the new house have been built. Lets fix it before we have a death on the raods as a result of poor forward planning. Ross Fisher, Fisher Management
ReplyDeleteThis is a very sensible article and I welcome most of what you say, however I think it is unwise to quote percentages in favour or against the proposals when a) who knows whether attendees of the exhibition were representative of the community as a whole and b) your count is your own unverified opinion.
ReplyDeleteDavid, Good point about percentages and that is why i'm doing a full survey with the leaflet drop
DeleteArmand
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ReplyDeleteFor those who live in Looe let's not forget there's an edge-of-town superstore only 7 miles away and what is it doing for the centre of Liskeard?
ReplyDeleteAre we really prepared to make Looe pay such a high price in terms road congestion, loss of the Barbican shops, the sub-post office, a diverse future for the town centre, all this for the convenience of supermarket shopping on our doorstep and debatebly a handful of jobs?
What do we think of the selected greenfield site on top of a hill, bright lights in an Area of Outstanding Landscape Value, not included in any development plan, a petrol station next to the town's water reservoir and opposite a school? Do we want our children tempted across the road to a Tesco at lunchtimes?
Looe has already expanded by twice the rate for Cornwall for some considerable time now. Continued expansion will surely erode the unique character of the town as we know it. We've already lost much, if we continue this way there'll be nothing left, just another tacky seaside resort dogged by traffic and congestion.
But this needn't be the end of the story. If we reject the Tesco bid there's other sites and there'll be other proposals - maybe one of them will respect the town for a better future here for everyone.