SOMETHING’S AFOOT AT TESCO’S!

Now why on earth would TESCO want to apply to remove the condition relating to restricting deliveries? After all, it’s not as if demand for their goods is overwhelming is it?

After a mere 5 months trading, could it be that the bosses at TESCO, witnessing a well below expectation in turn over, are intending to convert the huge TESCO extra into a huge distribution centre? After all, with their nearest distribution centres being in Doncaster & Widnes, it would be very handy positioned were it is; directly on a motorway junction, ready to service the whole of Greater Machester!

If this application goes through, all it would take is for the supermarket giant to apply for a ‘change of usage’ order and ‘hey-presto’ before you could check the points on  your club card, the people of Hattersley could find that their council promised food store has become a food distribution centre?

Or, could it be, that that was the intention from the off?

It seems patently clear that something odd is afoot, because the restriction on delivery times was a specific part of the planning approval. At the time, residents made it quite clear that they did not want 40ft Articulated Lorries coming and going 24hrs a day, 7 days a week!

To now suddenly apply to amend the terms of the planning approval, seems to shoot holes in the council’s reason for approving the scheme, which, if I may remind you was to be a boost to the region and especially to provide long awaited jobs for the residents of Hattersley

So if this is the plan, where will the jobs go? Let’s face it; you don’t need 301 people to operate a huge warehouse?

As we all know, TESCO and Tameside council have yet to explain why there was such a large discrepancy in the employment figures, from those that were promised (450) to those that were delivered (301). But on reflection, maybe this application to amend the delivery constraints answers a few of those awkward questions that Tameside councillors have so far refused to!

I therefore suggest that until the council and the local Longdendale councillors, find their voices and come clean with the reason for TESCO’s application, those who represent the vast majority of the residents from the area, strongly oppose the application.

Hopefully then, it should send a clear message to the Strategic Planning Committee or whoever it is that sits in judgment of these matters, together with the local member for Hyde, to oppose the application.

This time, I hope the voice of the people will be heard and this development will not go ahead.