There was a final good reason for me to be at the Traffic Management Panel this evening - but for the agenda item that I did not expect any debate on.
One of the parking measures agreed was an extension of the loading ban on busy Crown Street (the main A4 into Reading) seven days a week. This has had to be introduced to stop Tesco delivery lorries (which all seem to be articulated, the biggest possible, of course) parking on this main road, often on the pavement, to unload.
Yet at the meeting cryptic warnings were given about 'issues regarding potential litigation'.
What are these then?
(A good question: I am only a ward councillor for the area, so naturally I have been told precisely nothing)
It appears that Tesco have, predictably, been breaking all the rules about loading and unloading, be it on London Street (a major bus corridor and a Conservation Area with listed buildings and paving slabs) or Crown Street. It appears that, because of them loading at unsociable hours, they have been served a noise abatement order (and rightly so: dragging a trolley down paved streets outside people's homes at 6am is pretty antisocial).
And, apparently, Tesco has now sent the bully boys in to threaten and intimidate the Council with legal warnings, when it's Tesco who think themselves above the law. (Behaviour more commonly subscribed to gangsters)
I must say that I'm looking forward to hearing the formal report of this, but I can report it here as it was all said at a public meeting. I was always baffled why Tesco chose a corner side with barely any parking and nowhere for all but the smallest vehicles to load and unload. (As a senior Council person - who must remain anonymous - commented, they must have been incredibly poorly-advised to choose that location).
Someone has to stand up to Tesco and their corporate gangsterism. I hope that Reading Borough Council does. I will certainly be pressing for them to do so in the strongest possible terms.
It strikes me (as a layman) that in choosing this site, Tesco have gone for a few different markets;
1 - local people just popping out for the odd thing they've forgotten in their main shopping. Thus taking business away from the local shops already close by; at least three within very close walking distance. I still use the same local shop I always have for such purchases.
2 - people buying things coming home from, and going in to, work. London Street is a rather busy street in this respect, so there's bound to be a fair amount of passing trade.
3 - the students living in the Unite premises at the same building. This, combined with the speculation that the empty plot of land opposite the store (and extending along to where the car wash is now) will be another block of student flats in the future may have been enough to swing the decision to have the store there.
In anycase, it always seems to be quite busy every time I walk past it.
I would much rather see Fun 'n' Frolic back in that site than Tesco. It was such a shame they had to move out.
Posted by: Ash Stewart | Wednesday, 10 June 2009 at 22:27