Tesco at Little Lever - Dossier - Appendix to Point No 2

Appendix to Point No 2

Downloaded 1APP requiring Net additional Gross Internal Floorspace

Actual Application form filled in online. No Gross Internal Floorspace shown

Actual Application form showing No of proposed employees as Nil and showing Sunday and Bank Holiday opening times as 10.00am – 6.00 pm

Actual Application form certifying notification to the ‘owner’

Email from Alex Allen re missing notifications.

From: Allen, Alex

Sent: 30 January 2012 16:57

To: Stephen Harris (SHarris@epp-planning.com); Chris Bowman (chrisbowman@ladsongroup.co.uk); Smith, Peter (Surveyor)

Cc: McCreesh, Aubrey

Subject: Planning Application 86999/11 - Bradley Mill Crossley St et al Title Registers and Plans.

Stephen/Chris, 

Further to my discussions last week regarding clarification over the land ownership information, please clarify where possible. 

Mr Richardson raises issues of whether all the correct owners of been served with the relevant planning notices (Notice No. 1).  Obviously issues of whether the Council has agreed terms for the sale of any land in our/their ownership is not a material planning consideration. 

 Are you aware of the issue with Bolton at Home or in fact that if the owners of No. 15 Ainsworth Avenue need to be served with the Notice No. 1 if they own half Crossley Street?

In any event the Certificate of Ownership is a legal requirement and therefore needs to be accurate otherwise any future planning decisions could reasonably be challenged. 

Please clarify these issues. 

Regards,

Alex

Reply from Stephen Harris.

Interestingly, this was posted on the Planning Website under the date Ist January 1900.

Tesco at Little Lever - Dossier - Point No 2

Point No 2

The Application Form – Errors and Omissions

The Applicant is Ladson’s – NOT Tesco. (This is an important point in later arguments)

The developer has throughout the Application documents sought to minimize the scale of what is proposed. (Opinion)

Size of development:-

The Application form merely states the Net Retail Area of the proposed store as 1,728 sq metres. They have not stated the Gross internal floor area which is 2,880 sq metres.

Had they downloaded the 1APP document for filling in by hand they would have been specifically asked to state the Gross figure (see Appendix).  On the online 1APP, if you don’t fill the Gross figure in, it doesn’t appear on the form.

Number of employees:-

The Application form states the No of employees at this development as Nil

Opening Hours:-

The Application form states that Sunday opening hours would be from 10.00am to 6.00pm. This is in contravention of the Sunday Trading Laws which state that shops over 280 sq metres are restricted to 6 hrs opening. It may well be that the intention is to open for six hours within the period 10.am – 6.00pm to give them some flexibility – I feel however that this should be stated.

Certificate of ownership:-

The submitted Certificate B only includes Mr & Mrs Seddon as owners of the Site and Bolton Council Estates as owners of the Tree Plot and Crossley St.

However I pointed out to Mr Allen the existence of a Charge against the Site in the name of Mr Wayne Seddon and the fact that half of Crossley St was owned by Bolton at Home.

Mr Allen wrote to the Agents pointing this out and they duly issued the additional appropriate notices on 2^nd February. The Application form has not been modified.

Conclusion:-

These are only technical points but the Committee may wish to take a view on whether they make the Application invalid – or not.

Tesco at Little Lever - Dossier - Appendix to Point No 1

Point No 1 – Appendix

Taken from UK Land Directory Website

http://www.uklanddirectory.org.uk/land-for-sale.asp?id=12656

Land for Sale in Little Lever Bolton, Lancashire

Residential Development Land for Sale in Little Lever Bolton

Guide Price: £2,500,000

Size: 2 acres

Land Type: Residential Development

Planning Permission: Outline Planning Permission

Land Designation: Brownfield

Seller Last Active: Within the last 23 months 

Summary: We have a prime piece of land for sale at the heart of Little Lever which is between Bury, Bolton and Radcliffe just outside Manchester, ideal for residential development or retails scheme such as an adli (sic)type store.

Additional Information: Full details available on request

.

Features Include:

• Vehicular Right of Access to Site
• Pedestrian Right of Access to Site
• Water Supplied to Site
• Electricity Supplied to Site

Tesco at Little Lever - Dossier Point No 1

Point No 1

The purpose of this development   (Opinion)

The Pennine Pets site was advertised some 22 months ago as suitable for residential or retail scheme such as an Aldi type store. (See Appendix)

Had Aldi or Lidl or Iceland or similar store acquired this land and successfully gained planning consent, then the threat to the viability of the Tesco Metro store would have been severe.

Supermarkets are no longer able to ‘land bank’ and thus the only way Tesco could prevent a competitor from moving in was to build on the site themselves.

My view is that the existing Tesco Metro is undertrading (as are most retail outlets). I know that staff have left and have not been replaced.

The confidence that Tesco expresses that they can increase turnover in the new store over the old store by £12million annually is, in my view, fanciful, especially since only a wider range of convenience goods will be offered. No comparison goods at all.

Conclusion

I can only conclude that Tesco’s main purpose with this development is to prevent any other competitor from building there.

Tesco at Little Lever - Dossier - Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Point No 1                   The Purpose of this Development

Point No 2                   The Application Form – Errors & Omissions

Pont No 3                    Scale of the Development

Point No 4                   The Applicant’s attempt to minimize the size of what is proposed.

Point No 5                   The need for an Impact Assessment.

Point No 6                   Distinction between Little Lever Town Centre and Zone 6 of the Bolton Retail and Leisure Survey

Point No 7                   The need in Little Lever for this Development

Point No 8                   Market Share

Point No 9                   Access to the Site

Point No 10                 The Impact on ‘The Junction’

Point No 11                 The Highways  Plan

Point No 12                 Response to parts of the Officer’s Report

Point No 13                 Response to parts of the Officer’s Report

Point No 14                 Response to other statements in the Officer’s report in brief

Point No 15                 Better end uses for the Pennine Pets Site

………………..          Final Points, Summary and Conclusion

Tesco at Little Lever - Dossier covering letter

                                                                                                                        

Dear Councillor, 

The enclosed Dossier relates to Planning Application 86999/11 which is to be placed before the Planning Committee on the 24^th May 2012.

The Planning Application is for the building of a Superstore on the old Bradley Mill site in Little Lever.

The Applicants are the developers Ladson Construction Ltd and the operators of the Superstore will be Tesco.

The Applicants have been in pre-application discussions with Officers of the Planning and Highways departments for some considerable length of time. During those discussions, certain agreements have been reached between the parties which will be commented on. The committee in their wisdom may view one or more of those agreements to have been inadvisable.

I am led to believe that the Officers recommendation to the Committee will be to delegate the decision on this Application to the Director of Development and Regeneration.

In view of the size of this development and its likely impact on all aspects of life in Little Lever from traffic  to viability of existing businesses, I cannot stress enough and recommend that this Application ought only to be decided by the deliberations of the members of Planning Committee themselves.

The purpose of this Dossier is to assist the Members in that task.

The Dossier will point out amongst the documents submitted by the Applicant, discrepancies, deficiencies, omissions, flaws in logic and argument, misleading statements and figures and, in one or two cases, outright untruths.

Where these relate to Planning matters and requirements (and the vast majority do), the Committee members, should they agree with my submissions, may consider that the Application doesn’t meet Planning Requirements.

The Committee may resolve therefore, that there are sufficient grounds for Deferral until such matters are resolved  - or even outright Refusal.

I have attempted to design this dossier for ease of reading by making submissions in point format. Supporting evidence, information and facts and figures will be in related appendices linked to each point.

Where I am expressing merely my opinion I will say so.  

I apologise for the length of the dossier but the devil is in the detail.

Thanking you for your forbearance in reading and reflecting upon the points made in this Dossier

I remain

Yours sincerely

Paul Richardson

Tesco at Little Lever - The end of the fight - or perhaps not.

As the date for the Planning Committee meeting where this Appliction was going to be decided approached, I decided to submit to each of the Councillors a Dossier examining and explaining whether, in my view, it was acceptable on Planning or other grounds.

Having completed the Dossier, I reckoned I have a pretty good argument for Refusal or Deferral.

It did depend on the willingness of the Councillors to read all 50 pages  - plus it depended on their ability to understand what I had written

In the end it didn't matter whether the Councillors did or could.

They just ignored it.

I've decided to post each element of the Dossier on the Blog just for the record.

There is a covering letter and Table of Contents, 15 Points and Appendices and a Final Summary.

Each is posted as a seperate Blog.

Have fun reading, folks.

Paul