Tesco at Little Lever - Bolton News - My response to the Decision

I witnessed travesty that was the decision to approve Tesco scheme

Friday 1st June 2012 

THERE is something rotten at the core of Bolton which has resulted, in the view of many, to the town having been beggared. 

I couldn’t quite put my finger on what could be part of the cause until I took part last Thursday in the travesty purported to be the planning committee scrutiny of the Tesco plan for Little Lever.

As one of only two objectors present and the only one to address the committee, I was taken aback by the planning officer’s presentation of the application to the extent that I wondered if we were discussing the same thing.

One of our ward councillors happens to be the chairman of the committee, but where were the other two? The most important issue facing the village in years and no sign of them. 

The Tesco man did his PR bit and I did my two-minute speech, principally about the lack of any assessment of the impact of the proposal on the viability and vitality of the Village Centre. 

This most important matter, which the members should have been curious about in any event, was completely ignored. 

Then came the scandalous remark from the chairman which you printed in your paper — “Some people (I assume he meant me) seem to have a downer on this particular supermarket chain and wouldn’t have a problem with a different one, which to me seems bizarre.” 

I’m not anti-Tesco. I shop in Tesco nearly every day. My principal problem is that I don’t want the Tesco Metro to move with the loss of footfall at the centre of the village. 

But if, in the considered opinion of the chairman and ward councillor, objections and objectors should be dismissed in this insulting manner, then one might be led to question his fitness to hold either position.

Cllr Peel compared the proposal with Sainsbury’s in Westhoughton. The trouble is that Sainsbury’s didn’t close the dominant store in Westhoughton centre and move it outside. 

Perhaps the degree of flippancy of the committee’s deliberations was reinforced when we were honoured with the presence of the new Mayor — in jeans, trainers and a football shirt. 

So, the committee abdicated their responsibility of scrutiny and agreed to shift the final decision onto the shoulders of the director. A wise move perhaps, in view of the implied threat from Asda’s lawyers of a legal challenge. I’m not sure the planning department had informed the councillors of this. I did, but once again it was ignored. Never mind, in that event the ratepayers will pick up the bill. 

I have no complaint over Tesco’s conduct with this application. They put a gloss on it which any applicant would do and there were no dirty tricks. 

But if the above is an example of how planning applications are treated and decisions made then it’s hardly surprising that the town is in the mess it is. 

As for the quality of representation of their electors by the ward councillors in Little Lever, nothing further needs to be said. 

Paul Richardson 

Ripon Close

Little Lever