London Road Tesco approved - Flackwell travellers site rejected (From Bucks Free Press)

Fantastic News.

This is excellent news for Flackwell but sad news for the Costcutter on London Road with the Tesco being approved. Our business is finished since the arrival of Sainsbury in Flackwell, the same will happen to Costcutter sadly. If he can get out now, do it and do not look back. If he has a long lease he will be facing very difficult times ahead.

be ironic if he sells it to travellers :-)

When will it stop? Give independents a chance!

Wycombe council is a joke, I wonder how many people on the planning committee will be watching there brand new 50 inch plasma tvs and how many councillers will be looking foward to there tesco paid for holiday.

I doubt there is any bribery or corruption with the approval of Tesco at Wycombe Marsh. It could only be rejected on planning grounds and there are probably not sufficient planning reasons to oppose the development. 9 - 6 was not a bad effort anyway.

Come on Tesco have been waiting for you bye bye cost cutters. not sure i will be eating your spag bol or meaty balls any more "neigh"

Completely agree with Voyeur.

Please dont start spreading rumours about corruption etc - it simply is not the case. We dont live in 1920's gangland America.

The fact of the matter is that councils basically work with one hand tied behind their back and as stated cannot refuse unless there are planning grounds which this isnt.

Something needs to be done at national level to allow councils to prevent it from happening if they do not want it.

The biggest way of fighting it of course is for people that say they do not want it etc to vote with their feet - but do we honestly believe people will choose cost cutter over Tesco?

As I have already said I will go to Tesco. Take the Bridge St store for example - single priced maximum strength cans of booze for sale sold to the street drinkers, cheap stale bread, poor frozen sections. If anything it could force these places to actually up their game a little and provide a little competition.

Weak Councillors who simply do what they are told by officers is the problem.

Wycombe Council please how many more Tesco stores do You think we need this is getting out of hand, will you only be satisfied when all other shops have gone and there will be no choise and Tesco buys the town for its own imagine a High Street of Tesco owned shops it's not that far off I think !

In France they have a law in alot of cities and large towns where the big supermarket chains are not allowed to build anything within 2 miles of the city/town centre. This has been done to protect local businesses.

At the end of the day you have a choice, you don't HAVE to shop at Tesco. Given the choice between Tesco and the Costcutter along London road I'm afraid it would be Tesco's always since Costcutter provides poor value. If it upped it's game then perhaps it could compete with Tesco

How many more Tescos does this town need?
People going on about value and choice But Tescos Express and Sainsburys local costs are higher than their large shops and the range is very limited.
Perhaps when all the independant stores have closed and the only place to shop is Tescos or Sainburys the council will stop allowing these shops to open.

The travellers needed that space to breed horses for the supermarkets! That's irony for you

Doesn't WDC realise just how our town is being destroyed by the planners? Too many pub site developers are being given planning permission too readily for housing, ignoring the objections of the local community in many cases. At the same time the planners are favouring the large supermarket chains, thereby destroying the independent traders. Also, why would there be plans to build a supermarket on the Handy Cross site, when Asda is so accessable from the motorway and the town? How many supermarkets does Wycombe need?

I have recently seen photos of the many old houses and other buildings in the centre of Wycombe that were destroyed by developers and planners in the 60's. I would have thought a lesson would have been learnt from that period in time.

BEST NEWS......EVA! I can pop to Tesco without fear of being accosted by the unwashed!

BOOKERite wrote:
Doesn't WDC realise just how our town is being destroyed by the planners? Too many pub site developers are being given planning permission too readily for housing, ignoring the objections of the local community in many cases. At the same time the planners are favouring the large supermarket chains, thereby destroying the independent traders. Also, why would there be plans to build a supermarket on the Handy Cross site, when Asda is so accessable from the motorway and the town? How many supermarkets does Wycombe need?

I have recently seen photos of the many old houses and other buildings in the centre of Wycombe that were destroyed by developers and planners in the 60's. I would have thought a lesson would have been learnt from that period in time.

Its all about back handers. You scratch my back, and i'll scratch yours.
Its the same with the 2 hotels in the town, i'm sure they were back hander jobs too. Never see any life in those hotels, does anyone ever stay there?

miccles wrote:

BOOKERite wrote:
Doesn't WDC realise just how our town is being destroyed by the planners? Too many pub site developers are being given planning permission too readily for housing, ignoring the objections of the local community in many cases. At the same time the planners are favouring the large supermarket chains, thereby destroying the independent traders. Also, why would there be plans to build a supermarket on the Handy Cross site, when Asda is so accessable from the motorway and the town? How many supermarkets does Wycombe need?

I have recently seen photos of the many old houses and other buildings in the centre of Wycombe that were destroyed by developers and planners in the 60's. I would have thought a lesson would have been learnt from that period in time.

Its all about back handers. You scratch my back, and i'll scratch yours.
Its the same with the 2 hotels in the town, i'm sure they were back hander jobs too. Never see any life in those hotels, does anyone ever stay there?

Maybe those hotels are used for another kind of 'business'!!??

Excellent news for Flackwell

Interestingly
All the councillors that voted to stop Tesco were town councillors and those who live in town or use London Road Daily

The ones that approved it were rural councillors who don't care about the town

it is interesting that both applications were recommended for approval by the planning dept & both have strong teams of lawyers. Why is it that councillors are willing to fight the gypsy application (rightly so) & not Tescos? do they think there/our coffers will stretch further re travellers or do they think they will gain more brownie points for rejecting one & not the other. Its an interesting & slightly demotive subject ..me thinks!

jtintinb wrote:
it is interesting that both applications were recommended for approval by the planning dept & both have strong teams of lawyers. Why is it that councillors are willing to fight the gypsy application (rightly so) & not Tescos? do they think there/our coffers will stretch further re travellers or do they think they will gain more brownie points for rejecting one & not the other. Its an interesting & slightly demotive subject ..me thinks!

Or you could read the planning officer recommendations. Despite recommending approval for the Flackwell Heath site, there was acknowledgement that the argument for the Green Belt "Very Special Conditions" was weak and that there were other options open to the applicant that further undermined the proposal. The London Road application was somewhat different where you have a retail/comercial unit that would be redeveloped into a retail unit.

It's not the role of the planning committee to decide whether there's enough convenience stores or not. That's where simple commerce and market forces come into play - if the locals don't want to use Tesco's they're under no obligation to.

gpn01 wrote:

jtintinb wrote:
it is interesting that both applications were recommended for approval by the planning dept & both have strong teams of lawyers. Why is it that councillors are willing to fight the gypsy application (rightly so) & not Tescos? do they think there/our coffers will stretch further re travellers or do they think they will gain more brownie points for rejecting one & not the other. Its an interesting & slightly demotive subject ..me thinks!

Or you could read the planning officer recommendations. Despite recommending approval for the Flackwell Heath site, there was acknowledgement that the argument for the Green Belt "Very Special Conditions" was weak and that there were other options open to the applicant that further undermined the proposal. The London Road application was somewhat different where you have a retail/comercial unit that would be redeveloped into a retail unit.

It's not the role of the planning committee to decide whether there's enough convenience stores or not. That's where simple commerce and market forces come into play - if the locals don't want to use Tesco's they're under no obligation to.

actually the planning dept didnt argue the very special conditions was weak or other options were available to them. They recommended that since there was no 5 year plan in place there was a duty to recommend this application. It was tge councillors who took it upon themselves to reject this claim. Pretty much the same as what happened with the sainsburys application in flackwell heath as to london rd, ther is no commercial sense in letting another stock market company come in & push out the small indepedants. The only reason it has been allowed (from a reliable source) is this council is TO scared to fight the big boys, I think it's time the people we elected in grew some Testicles

realist_highwycombe wrote:
Completely agree with Voyeur. Please dont start spreading rumours about corruption etc - it simply is not the case. We dont live in 1920's gangland America. The fact of the matter is that councils basically work with one hand tied behind their back and as stated cannot refuse unless there are planning grounds which this isnt. Something needs to be done at national level to allow councils to prevent it from happening if they do not want it. The biggest way of fighting it of course is for people that say they do not want it etc to vote with their feet - but do we honestly believe people will choose cost cutter over Tesco? As I have already said I will go to Tesco. Take the Bridge St store for example - single priced maximum strength cans of booze for sale sold to the street drinkers, cheap stale bread, poor frozen sections. If anything it could force these places to actually up their game a little and provide a little competition.

Please, open your eyes, there is systematic corruption and mutual backscratching at the heart of local councils and planning commitees across the country. Even those that aren't corrupt are normally peopled by well intentioned but ultimately good for nothing self publicists and windbags.