The proposed New Tesco

Splodge · Veteran Member

The proposed New Tesco

tracare · Chief stirrer

I for one will still do my shopping in Swindon as I can't stand Tesco or their cheap meat disbelief

All the council can do is vote against it as the park was put up with strict rules of NO RETAIL .....wilts council may or may not pass it but Tesco will bully it through anyway like they always do.

The only problem I can see coming from the new school road is the lack of a roundabout where it meets the Pewsey road......prediction = one large traffic accident quite soon after it opens

Splodge · Veteran Member

Here's a couple of very recent links which may be of interest:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_yorkshire/8192863.stm

where Holmfirth is trying to fight Tesco - what would Compo say! There is a lot of similarity between there and Marlborough. I wonder why is one fighting them and the other (apparently) welcoming them with open arms?

and

http://www.chambernews.biz/

an interesting report on Monday's Town Council meeting with Tesco. I wonder what the outcome of the "independent survey" will be? Now let me guess ......

Now, where's the wine bottle?

Marlburian · Member

What is the point in planning law, if it can be changed just like that to suit the likes of TESCO? It should not be allowed to happen!

This once beautiful rural area at the foot of Savernake Forest was built upon, simply to bring a much needed BUSINESS park to Marlborough. This was desperately needed to encourage varied employment back to our town once again, and it was clearly cited that the development should not be used for retail, which would discourage trade from the High Street.

If TESCO wanted to come to Marlborough, they should have bid for the old Woolworths or M&S stores. They have High Street stores in places like Lymington, that work well without their own parking. Besides, if on the Business Park parking would be free, which would mean that all all other retailers in the town would be at a distinct disadvantage.

I know a great many townsfolk who would be angry to see an out-of-town supermarket mussel in on land designated for business purposes.

angel · Veteran Member

The Tesco subject is hardly worth discussion really - I'll tell you for why. If Tesco think they can make money in Marlborough - invited or not - they will come. They will clobber any planners with lawyers too expensive to fight.

If they look again and decide there's not much profit to be had - or a long term strategy isn't worth developing - then they just won't bother.

However - I bet they would love to have Marlborough as the backdrop to an advertising campaign - the only town in England who had people thoughtless enough to actually invite them in!!

Frankly - it will make no difference personally to me if Tesco arrive - I won't be going there. However, it may well alter the whole dynamics of the High St - and that is something I can't work out. I've listened to both arguments - will it ease parking for tourists and big money spenders or will it kill the High St?

I don't like the idea of out of town shopping - if the space is so limited on this out of town store - why didn't they take a High St position? If they really want a bigger space in town, I would have thought they might try and bribe someone on the edge of a car park in George Lane to move up to the business park.......

If they want out of town with an eye to the future and as the lady in the Town Council meeting said - somewhere to go and buy everything from clothes to white goods, (at which point I lost the will to live) - then they will take the site on the Salisbury Road.

I can't help but feel that we are on one hell of a slippery slope here - you might want cheap, fast filling food - but the cost could be beyond belief to you, your family's health, the farming community, animal welfare, the town's future and so much more.

Gimme now - pay later is one heck of a legacy for the next generation and shouldn't we be learning from the very recent past?

angel · Veteran Member

Tesco would be really good for one thing - a petrol station!!

I gather that an awful lot of people said that to Tesco as well. What a horiffic entrance to Marlborough our current petrol station is on the A4.

Dirty, broken down looking place which does nothing for the riverbank just there despite the fact they own the land and the beautiful old buildings, which make a backdrop to this ghastly filling station, have been allowed to decay to a criminal point. bleh

I wonder if the plan is to wait until the buildings are so dangerous that they have to be demolished?

This business is a DISGRACE furious

to Marlborough - yet everyone seems powerless to do anything about it....... or are they......?

I wonder. confuse

tracare · Chief stirrer

I would love to know how many people in Marlborough already shop out of town, I do, in Asda as it is cheaper including travel costs to do our weekly shop that way, I have to admit I may get some things from Tesco if it arrives, but their ethics on meat would stop me from buying that there

Splodge · Veteran Member

Angel, I could not agree more about the garage. What can be done? Very little I think unless it is a listed structure. It is a very common landowner/developer strategy to allow their land to become such an eyesore that locals will say "yes" to anything being built there just to get rid of the eyesore. More houses anyone?

As for Tescos selling petrol - they say not but would you believe them? There is still plenty of empty land on the Business Park and the store and petrol station do not have to be adjacent. Once the planner allow 1 retail operation there, it will be impossible to stop another.

I think Marlborough is about to be Tescoed