Oswestry is having serious thoughts about letting Tesco in after Ellesmere local traders suffer badly from Tesco opening there.

“Traders in Ellesmere say takings have plummeted since Tesco opened in August, with some forced to cut jobs and others having to reduce employees’ hours.”

The link below is only part of the story in today’s Shropshire Star, which reports the centre of Ellesmere town now being like a “ghost town” on some days.

http://www.shropshirestar.com/2009/10/20/alert-for-town-as-tesco-hits-traders/

http://www.shropshirestar.com/2009/09/25/shops-battling-to-survive/

We have received the consultants’ Retail Assessment report for Powys Council. It contains good news, on the whole coming down in favour of the Co-op expansion and criticising the Tesco Retail Impact Assessment, while leaving the door open for a compromise of a smaller Tesco store. We know if this were to happen that Tesco would soon reapply for an extension.

Highlights:
“If the Council is satisfied that the Co-op store can be extended and that this enlarged store can meet the identified need and address the deficiency in food store provision in Machynlleth, then it would be inappropriate to permit a further food store within a sequentially inferior site.”

“sequentially” meaning adjacent to existing shops, ie the Farmers mart site is a bit further away.

“In our view there is a qualitative need to improve food store provision in Machynlleth.”

It says that if Tesco opened the Co-op would likely close.

It criticises the Tesco (DPP - their consultants) report:
“We believe DPP has under-estimated the level of impact.”

“In our view DPP has not provided conclusive evidence there is quantitative capacity for the scale of food store proposed (1,711 sq m net)”

“DPP has under-estimated the level of impact on convenience shops because the assessment assumes the store will trade significantly below the company average. DPP may also have over-estimated the turnover of existing convenience facilities in Machynlleth by about 19%.”

What about drawing in traffic and shoppers from outside the area?
“the alleged benefits of trade draw from zones 4 and 5 can be discounted because, on balance, it is likely to lead to longer and less sustainable, rather than shorter, shopping trips. Expenditure capacity within these zones should ideally be provided elsewhere e.g. Aberystwyth and Tywyn. This is a disbenefit of the Tesco proposal.”

The impact on local shops:
“Impact on comparison shops is estimated to be about 9%. This level of impact should be offset by expected comparison expenditure growth in the catchment area up to 2014, but again is a disbenefit of the proposal, if not a ground for refusal on its own.”

“The main impact of the Tesco store is the potential closure of the Co-op”

Conclusion
“The proposed Co-op extension, as a town centre proposal, complies with the relevant factors set out in MIPPS, and in our view there are no retail planning related grounds for refusal.”

“There is insufficient expenditure capacity to support the scale of Tesco store proposed, particularly if the Co-op extension is permitted and implemented.”

Therefore if Tesco is green-lighted:
“the benefits of the Tesco store improving choice and competition may be lost, because Machynlleth would still only have one large store.”

So:
“The Council needs to decide whether the potential to improve choice, i.e. two stores in Machynlleth, is worth the risk of Co-op closing.”

Finally, the door is left open for a fudge by the Council:
“If the Council is minded to approve the Tesco proposal then it is appropriate to impose planning conditions to restrict the amount of net sales floorspace, i.e. 1,711 sq m net including checkouts, of which not more than 249 sq m net of comparison sales floorspace. The provision of in-store franchises such as post office, dispensing chemist and hairdressers etc should also be restricted. These conditions would help to minimise the impact of the proposal on the town centre.”

Click here to download the retail assessment

Tuesday 29 Sept 7.00 upstairs White Lion
Dydd Mawrth 29 Medi 7.00 Llew Gwyn, ar y llofft

Everyone welcome • Croeso y bawb!

This TV documentary shows how heavy handed Tesco can be to get what they want, and how successful they can be at defeating their competition. They promise the earth with a highly professional PR team, but does it really work out as promised? Anyone who is expecting Machynlleth to be enhanced from the presence of Tesco should watch it:

Thanks for all your letters - we hope to send the packs out very soon!

Powys planners have received a stunning 685 letters opposing the Tesco plan and just five for it! (The Co-op plan has received one for it and none against.)

The population of Machynlleth is just over 2000 including children. Some
letters will probably have come from outside Machynlleth, but even so, perhaps over 1 in 4 adults were bothered enough about the development to write to the council.

Thanks a million to all who did. This is a unprecedented response!

The Council has therefore called in an independent retail impact assessor to produce a report to see how much new superstore space a town of this size can really take. A transport impact report is also in the pipeline.

But the campaign continues. We must get the facts out there to counter the lies and misinformation that have been circulating and fuelling division of our community. It’s very important to talk to people and explain. We will be producing a factsheet.

One assessment we have done is to look at the figures Tesco normally gets from selling goods. We worked out that if, as Tesco say, their shoppers would only come from Machynlleth, we would each have to spend over £15000 a year. Clearly they are expecting traffic from far away, in contrast to their claims.

Please also keep sending your letters of opposition.

Tuesday 6.30 upstairs White Lion
Dydd Mawrth 6.30 Llew Gwyn , ar y llofft

A town councillor is quoted in the Shropshire Star today, saying “A lot of people have told me that we as a town just couldn’t afford not to have these 140 jobs come to Machynlleth. And I feel we will need a very good reason on why we should refuse this application.”

Here is the reason.

Tesco claim in their application that the jobs are “additional”. They don’t define what this means, but it appears to be one of several instances where their application is either inaccurate or deliberately ambiguous.

Reading it in full, it becomes clear that the figure is the total number of people they employ, without any subtraction for the jobs lost in other shops or other sectors locally.

This is critically important, because the superstores’ own research shows a major NET LOSS of employment whenever a large new store opens.

In its exhaustive report on the issue, the National Retail Planning Forum, which was financed by Tesco, Sainsbury, Marks and Spencer, Boots and John Lewis, showed that every large outlet causes the net LOSS of 276 jobs. That’s hardly surprising: work by the New Economics Foundation shows that independent shops employ five times as many people per unit of turnover.

In other words, if this Tesco opens, it will create jobs, but it will also destroy jobs. The research suggests that it will destroy far more jobs than it creates, as small shops either close or downsize as a result of the loss of trade. This alone gives the county council a very good reason for refusing the application.

The Tesco application is a development which would cause a major loss of jobs in the Dyfi Valley.

Oner other thing, in addition to the post earlier today also on retail impact. It’s not just the obvious shops that will be under threat, the ones that sell goods which Tesco will sell, from the bakers to Dovey Electrical. Many of the others rely on passing trade, drawn by those who shop in the other shops. These too will be vulnerable.

More criticism of Tesco is here (unsurprisingly it’s ‘neutrality’ is ‘disputed’ - by whom? - but the article is well attributed at the end): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Tesco

Please make your views known, to:

planning.services@powys.gov.uk, mach.council@plasmachynlleth.co.uk, mel.biffin@plasmachynlleth.co.uk, rayq@ceredigion.gov.uk, cllr.joy.shearer@powys.gov.uk, eurfyle@ceredigion.gov.uk, cllr.geraint.hopkins@powys.gov.uk, steve.burgess@powys.gov.uk, hpw@ceredigion.gov.uk, simon.shouler@wales.gsi.gov.uk, mike.steward@powys.gov.uk, news@countytimes.co.uk,

In its retail impact assessment, Tesco is severely under-estimating the turnover of its store, concealing its true impact. Tesco quotes their average sales density for convenience sales at £12,538 per square metre (as used in the Holmfirth application). Page 6 of the retail impact assessment quotes 1306 sq metres net convenience floorspace.

1,306 square metres of convenience floorspace therefore = £16,374,628 of sales.

Why are Tesco quoting a ‘benchmark’ turnover of £11,552 and in table 5 of the draft capacity assessment using convenience floorspace of 1095 square metres giving a convenience turnover of only £12,649,440?

They have deliberately hidden 23% of their convenience impact.

Why would they do this? To hide the real impact of the store on other shops and traffic. This is why their traffic assessment makes it seem that with the store opening there will be LESS traffic coming from over the Dyfi bridge not more (see the 2010 projections). Yet our independent survey of desired journeys should Tesco open, conducted in Tywn and Dolgellau, and submitted by Ecodyfi, showed that of course a significant number of car journeys will result.

Tesco knows this - it is why they have chosen to apply for such a large store. But they are trying to make us think its impact will be less than it will.

Even using Tesco’s modest assumption that it will take £2.01 million from the £6.13 Machynlleth Co-op million turnover, enough to close it anyway, the true turnover figures, using the same proportions would increase diversion to 42% of the CO-OP turnover. The Co-op will definitely close, not to mention many smaller stores, whose operating margins are tiny - they only need to lose 10% of turnover to fold.

Do you want to live in a town with a ghost high street? Tesco brings jobs? Don’t make us laugh.

Write your letters of objection today!

We warned against attempts to use the Tesco application to divide the community. This is not wisdom or good leadership/stewardship.

Divided amongst ourselves we are open to the worst of all outcomes: a planning application that is not properly examined, that wrecks the town.

It is about the issues, not who says what. We’re all in this together.

We want the best of outcomes: moving forward, preserving the best of Machynlleth and trying to give people what they say they want: choice and good value.

It’s not even about Tesco. If people want a Tesco, they can have one.

BUT not such a large supermaket in that particular location.