Home Page: Latest News 15th May 2009

Plans for joint Tesco-Sainsbury Inquiry raises wider questions

All plans for supermarkets in Hertford and Ware have been thrown back into the melting pot following the decision of Hazel Blears, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, to intervene and call in the planning application for Sainsbury to develop the old McMullen brewery site.

The Tesco inquiry – planned for up to seven days between May 26 and June 16 – has been cancelled following a request from East Herts District Council (EHDC) to the Planning Inspectorate to hold a joint inquiry on both the Sainsbury application and Tesco appeal. The appeal was made the unanimous decision of East Herts District Council to reject Tesco’s £40 million plans to double the size of its Hertford store and overwhelming rejection by the people of Hertford.

An enquiry joining both applications is to be arranged for a future date, probably later this year, and the Minister’s intervention looks set to affect the proposal by Asda for a large store in Ware. Such action is generally only taken by the minister when issues of greater than local importance are involved. Recent planning legislation has also put new requirements on the minister to review applications for shopping projects of more than over 2,000 square metres within a radius of 10miles.

As a result, the Planning Committee of EHDC has also been asked to re-examine the entire matter of supermarkets. While this decision was seen as a set-back for Sainsbury – which had been given the go-ahead by the council against the recommendation of the planning officers – it makes the appeal more problematic for Tesco since it will bring into question whether such a huge store, creating near monopoly is needed.

Described by council members as “an abomination”, the Tesco proposal was also condemned by more than 3,000 people who shop in the town and signed a petition against plans to build a monolithic edifice rising to five storeys on the Ware Road. And, despite Tesco’s claims of support, only one resident wrote to EHDC planning department in support of the scheme, compared with 557 calling for the plans to be thrown out.