Click and Collect

Seems Tesco 'forgot' to make provision for people to collect those things that they had ordered via the internet (Click and Collect). Planning application 11/2134/FUL is apparently to allow this to be constructed in the carpark.

So this means either a smaller car park which would be counter productive for profits, or further Tesco expansion on the site (perhaps reducing the amount of affordable housing). Not so good for employment (less delivery drivers needed) and not so good for the environment (more car journeys).

I wonder what else was not included in the original planning application. I seem to recall that an EDDC planning condition at the time was that the store should be no larger to avoid adversely affecting the town centre. Sounds to me like a death my a thousand cuts.

Green Grass or Sand Pit?

I might have got this wrong, but once land fill was completed the balance of the Tesco land on Harbour Road, the part that is due to have lots of wonderful low cost housing and hotel etc, was supposed to be hydro seeded. I was expecting that this would mean nice green fields, and an improvement in the appearance of the area.

Perhaps it is the unusual growing conditions this year, maybe a bad batch of seed, or maybe even poor application. What ever the reason, the site looks more like a sand pit than a green field. If it was a field planted for food crops, the supermarket buyer would have rejected the lot it looks so poor.

Suerly this should be sorted now while there is at least a small chance for the grass to grow before the winter. What is happening? What about the planning conditions? Who is responsible for overseeing that these are followed through? If they don't do a proper job with the grass, what chance of having the rest of the site planted to the required standard.

Tesco Filling Station

from Hugh Barlow

I was called today by the Devon County Council petroleum officer with responsibility for this area. In a much earlier conversation with Steve Moore of the Environment Agency, the latter had made it plain to James and me that a filling station in this flood-liable location with high groundwater levels would require casing the storage tanks in concrete (to prevent them from "floating" in his words).

Today the Petroleum Officer informed me that, according to the plans which he had received in early July, Tesco had without prompting met all the requirements of a filling station in this sort of location. There would be approx. 1ft (rather than the usual 6ins) concrete slabs below and above the two 125,000 litre tanks, which would rest at datum level (mean sea level). Along the sides would be a coffer dam of double-skin sheet steel, and, once the tanks were inserted, the space would be back-filled with concrete. Pipework would be double-skinned plastic. Regular inspection should ensure that any deterioration in the outer skin was detected before the second layer was affected.

He himself would have oversight, and there was due to be an on-site meeting in August before work commenced in September. Without the licence which he issues, the site cannot operate. But it is the Environment Agency who would be the official consultee.

Similar provision in other South West locations had proved 100% effective in river flooding, with no leakage at all.

Incidentally, he informed me that two earlier filling stations in the Harbour Road area had been cased in concrete when they were decommissioned.

Our concerns on this particular score appear to have been met.