Campaigners in Stokes Croft, Bristol objected to the opening of a Tesco store in their neighbourhood
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Campaigners are calling for greater transparency in UK planning law so communities are made more aware of new businesses opening in their area.
The Tesco Express which was the focus of riots in Bristol in April is still boarded up and has now been covered in graffiti.
“I love community,” has been daubed on one of the hoardings.
Another scrawled message reads “not welcome”.
For those who witnessed the disturbances in the Stokes Croft area of the city earlier this year, it is clear who the messages are meant for.
For years Stokes Croft has been a bohemian area, crammed with independent shops, squats, bars and clubs.
It is this individual character which some people felt would be compromised by the arrival of supermarket giant, Tesco, even in its smaller Tesco Express guise.
These objections were not confined to a few disgruntled squatters, say campaigners, who claim thousands of people sent postcards to Bristol City Council objecting to the opening of another supermarket, with thousands more signing a petition.
Much of the anger is directed at the planning process which failed to make it clear a new supermarket was on the cards.
The Tesco case prompted Bristol City Council to write to the Department for Communities and Local Government.
The Tesco Express store in Stokes Croft remains closed after it was vandalised in April this year
Along with the London Assembly, they have called for a new ‘supermarket’ classification in planning law.
At present, express supermarkets come under the ‘A1’ classifiction which can cover any type of retail outlet – a vintage clothes shop, a hairdressing salon, even an undertaker.
The impact a new supermarket can have on an area, such as frequent deliveries from heavy goods vehicles, should put Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Lidl and the like, in a class of their own, say campaigners.
“Despite the recession it’s hard to see any sign of the supermarket expansion slowing down”
Professor Cliff Guy Cardiff University
Bristol councillor, Alex Woodman, said “what we’re asking the government to do is refine the A1 class so that it distinguishes between, say, small local independent retailers and national chain stores, where the impact on the local area is potentially more significant.”
He told BBC Radio 4’s The Report, that had his committee known about Tesco’s interest, they would have given more consideration to the potential impact the store would have on the local area.
“Because we didn’t know that at the time, the council wasn’t able to consider the impacts and we were in a situation where planning permission was granted without any thought being given to them,” he said.
In response to Bristol City Council’s call for changes to planning regulations, the Department for Communities and Local Government said that it was not the role of the planning system to restrict competition, or give preference to one retailer over another.
Claire Milne, coordinator of the ‘No Tesco in Stokes Croft’ campaign, believes Tesco deliberately kept quiet about their intentions.
“We know from various people in the community that Tesco have been looking in this area for at least a few years,” she said.
“If they were genuinely being true to what they claim in their social responsibility report and on their website – that as soon as they identify a site they start talking and listening to the local community – then we would have heard from them.”
But Tesco’s head of property communications, Michael Kissman, says there was nothing underhand about the way Tesco went about setting up in Stokes Croft.
He said the original planning application was put in by the administrators of a comedy club, who were struggling to find someone to takeover the property.
“They were clear that the purpose of its change of use was to make it more marketable to future occupiers,” he said.
Mr Kissman told the BBC that Tesco had decided to invest in an area which had long been abandoned by other retailers, creating jobs and providing products and services.
Despite the campaigners’ plea for greater restrictions on supermarket chains, retail experts believe there could be a continued expansion in the number of supermarket convenience stores in the future.
Professor Cliff Guy, from the School of City and Regional Planning at Cardiff University, said “despite the recession it’s hard to see any sign of the supermarket expansion slowing down.”
Up until now it has mainly been Tesco and Sainsbury’s which have been opening smaller, convenience-style supermarket stores.
But Professor Guy believes fellow retail giants, Waitrose and Morrisons, have clear plans to develop more shops in this field and the current economic climate could make their ambitions easier to fulfil.
“In one sense the recession helps because it makes property more available and so there is more opportunity.”
“Despite worries about this, lots of planners will be quite receptive to [the supermarkets] because they want to see their town centres functioning properly – they don’t want empty shops.”
The Report will be broadcast on Thursday 19 May at 2000 BST on BBC Radio 4.
You can listen again via the iPlayer or download the podcast.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Live: The Queen is attending a state banquet at Dublin Castle where she will make her only public speech during the historic trip
The Queen is due at Dublin Castle for a banquet at which she is to make her only public speech of her Irish visit.
Earlier she visited sports stadium Croke Park in Dublin, where 14 people were killed by British forces during a Gaelic football match 91 years ago.
Gaelic Athletic Association president Christy Cooney said her presence “does honour to our association”.
On the second day of her visit to the Republic of Ireland the Queen also laid a wreath honouring Ireland’s war dead.
She is the first British monarch to visit the country for 100 years.
The Queen was met at the main entrance of Croke Park by Mr Cooney and President Mary McAleese, who is hosting the visit.
A display of Irish set dancing was followed by a meeting with GAA officials.
Addressing the Queen, Mr Cooney said the visit would underpin and advance the peace process and “go down in the history of the GAA”.
He said: “Your presence does honour to our Association, to its special place in Irish life, and to its hundreds of thousands of members.”
At the scene
On Tuesday, the Queen had laid a wreath in memory of those who died fighting for Ireland against her own country’s forces.
Less than 24 hours later, she was on the opposite side of Dublin for another memorial – this time, honouring Irishmen who fought and died for Britain in WWI.
Dignitaries, including the Northern Ireland First Minister Peter Robinson and many other representatives from the unionist community, looked on as the Queen laid a wreath of poppies.
A lone piper played a lament and the band the Last Post before the Queen went to look at the Roll of Honour – the names of 49,400 men who went to war for the crown and did not return.
He added that he was “deeply saddened” to attend the funeral of GAA member PSNI Constable Ronan Kerr last month.
The Queen was presented with a limited edition book outlining the GAA’s history, and Prince Philip was presented with a hurley stick and a sliothar (hurling ball), with the aside that he should use it “in the back garden”.
Dublin footballer Kevin Nolan, who was one of four players from across Ireland to meet the Queen at Croke Park, told Radio Ulster’s Evening Extra it was a “great honour” to represent the GAA at the event.
On 21 November 1920, during the War of Independence, 13 spectators and one player were killed when British forces opened fire at a football match at the home of Gaelic sports.
Earlier that day, IRA assassination squads had shot dead 14 suspected British intelligence agents in Dublin.
The BBC royal correspondent Peter Hunt said the Queen walking out on the hallowed nationalist turf at Croke Park represented “the once unimaginable becoming the norm”.
Her speech at Wednesday’s state dinner is likely to acknowledge past UK-Irish difficulties without offering an apology, he added.
The Queen laid a wreath at the Irish War Memorial in Islandbridge.
The Queen and Prince Philip were shown how to pour a pint of Guinness on their first stop of the day, but declined a taste of Ireland’s most famous export.
They then met Prime Minister Enda Kenny and were shown around government buildings in the capital.
The Queen then laid a wreath honouring almost 50,000 soldiers at the Irish National War Memorial.
The Queen’s attendance at the ceremony honouring the Irish soldiers who died in World War I reflects an aspect of history that has been troubling for her hosts.
For decades, when the focus of admiration was on the rebels who fought and died in the 1916 Easter Rising, the soldiers’ contribution went unrecognised.
Northern Ireland First Minister Peter Robinson, who was among the dignitaries at the ceremony, said: “Everyone remembers the past but we have to look to the future, but there are clear indications as a society – in the UK and Republic – people are moving on.
“They want better relations and we are in a new era.”
In Dublin Castle, which used to be the seat of British rule, the monarch will deliver a speech in the same room where Queen Victoria once dined.
UK Prime Minister David Cameron will be present at the state dinner, after flying in and holding talks with the Taoiseach, Mr Kenny, on Wednesday evening.
Mr Kenny has said he wishes to discuss the release of UK government files on the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings, in which victims’ relatives believe there was British state collusion.
At prime minister’s questions on Wednesday, Mr Cameron told MPs that the relationship between Britain and the Republic of Ireland “probably has never been stronger”.
“I think the scenes on our television screen last night of the visits that Her Majesty made, to heal the wounds of the past, but also to look to a very bright future between our two countries, are remarkable and hugely welcome,” he said.
The first day of the royal visit went smoothly, although there were some protests.
During the Queen’s visit to the Garden of Remembrance, in Dublin, riot police officers jostled with demonstrators at two separate protests on streets several hundred yards away.
The garden is dedicated to people who fought for Irish independence from Britain.
As the Queen, with President Mary McAleese alongside her, laid a wreath in the garden, the sounds of protesters could be heard and black balloons were released by some demonstrators.
Broadcaster RTE reported that 20 men had been charged with public order offences on Tuesday night in relation to the afternoon’s violence.
Early in the day it emerged that a pipe bomb found on a bus bound for Dublin on Monday had been made safe by the Irish army.
One of the country’s biggest security operations is in place for the Queen’s four-day visit.
President’s residence
The Queen and Prince Philip’s signatures on the visitors’ book at the official residence of the Irish president
Garden of Remembrance
Wreath-laying at the Garden of Remembrance, the Queen (left) with President Mary McAleese (right)
Trinity College 
The Queen inspects the Book of Kells at Trinity College
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Government Buildings
The Queen signs the visitors’ book at Government Buildings, while meeting the Irish prime minister, on right
National War Memorial Gardens
Irish veterans meet the Queen and the Irish president at the Irish War Memorial Gardens
Guinness Storehouse
The Queen is offered a pint at the Guinness Storehouse
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
