Tesco Express @ The Essex Arms
Tesco have leafleted residents of the Blackhorse Road area about their plans for a Tesco Express store on the site of the former Essex Arms pub on Forest Road. For those that don’t know the location it’s about a 2 or 3 minute walk up Forest Road from Blackhorse Road tube (or about 0.1 miles) (see map).
We’d like to know what residents think? Are you pro or anti Tesco building a 3,000 sq ft store in the Blackhorse Area? Let us know your views either by leaving a comment or emailing us. Tesco would also like feedback either by returning the form on the questionnaire or for more information email Carol Leslie.
The proposed store would have 9 car parking spaces, secure bays for 14 bikes and would be open between 7am and 11pm.
“We want to bring this site back into use for the local community to use and enjoy”
The leaflet is obviously designed to sell the store to the community, Tesco say up to 30 full and part time jobs will be created and that the new store will regenerate what is a semi derelict site. Deliveries would be restricted to two or three lorries a day, between 7am and 4pm (this does not include deliveries by other suppliers e.g. milk, newspapers etc).
More questionably they claim the local store will “boost local businesses”. In their view, new Tesco stores give other local businesses a boost by encouraging more customers to the area.
For a balance to the Tesco PR side its worth visiting the Tescopoly website. It was set up in 2005 “to highlight and challenge the negative impacts of Tesco’s behaviour… on small businesses, on communities and the environment“.
Their view would be that Tesco destroys small independent stores, that the money spent in Tesco’s does not remain in the local community and independent stores have a greater bond with their area:
“A shopkeeper is likely to notice when the old lady from number 26 doesn’t come in to pick up her paper. But checkout 13 is not going to do that.”
As a community group we want to represent the opinions of the local residents, so let us know what you think?
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It would be a wise move to stop Tesco’s propaganda
and balance opinion on this matter.
I strongly oppose the proposal of the Essex Arms becoming yet another Tesco.
Thanks Danny.
What are your reasons for opposing Tesco’s at Bakers Arms? We need to get residents views.
I am all for the Tesco on the Essex Arms site. The area currently is a blot on the landscape and makes the whole area look run down and scruffy. There are few facilities in the Blackhorse Road area and a new supermarket with more choice for customers is required as the nearest one is a 15 minute walk away.
Cheers Paul,
As expected there are opposing views for and against Tesco. I feel a survey coming on…
They ain’t leafleted me !!
Oh no, not another consultation !
I am for the Tesco Express at the Essex Arms. It is a derelict site and the facilites in that area are awful. I don’t normally support Tesco but will make an exception in this case as it will bring jobs to the area.
Dear BAG
Whilst almost anything would be an improvement on a derelict pub, I am strongly opposed to the continuing Tescoisation of our streets. Their claim that it would be good for local businesses etc is nonsense. There are already far too many Tescos in this country and I support the aims and views of the Tescopoly website. Private Eye regularly reports on Tescos’ shady planning deals and tax arrangements. But they are so powerful it is difficult to stop them. Having said all that it is difficult to resist the notion that a shop is an improvement on a run-down boarded-up old pub. Tesco knows this of course, and the lesser-of-two-evils argument is likely to win I expect.
hi
i actually live dead opposite the bakers arms. i have concerns regarding early morning deliveries but thats it.
has for local business with all due respect most of them have no idea of customer care can be quite rude. They also do not provide the quality or variety of products that tescos would.
I worry that Tesco will wipe out all other local food outlets. It happens – I think we should support and encourage independent businesses.
It would be great to have a local bakers, butcher, greengrocer fishmonger – call me old fashioned! The Tesco monopoly needs halting
A local restaurant would be good – were Tesco the only company interested in this site?
All shopping malls look the same no matter which part of the country you visit – it really is depressing – Tesco is everywhere.
Looks like a split down the middle between the for and anti’s?
Keep the comments and emails coming.
I would be absolutely delighted to see a Tesco Express here – the area desperately needs to be regnerated, and this would greatly improve the look and feel of the whole area. The current site is an eyesore and a potential hazard.
I have my doubts about Tesco too, but we have laws which regulate businesses, and as long as they stay within the law they are entitled to expand. It might also mean that local shops have to re-consider the hugely inflated prices they charge.
I live within a minute of the Essex Arms which I think is a loss to the community, not just a run down pub. It is daft to allow something to replace it which will no doubt cram as much as possible into a small space – i.e. suffocate rather than improve the outlook – and give less back to the community than we had when it was a pub. Closing local shops is not a good idea. Losing a community meeting place is also detrimental. Yet another Tesco and a few housing units without consideration for community needs is something we need to think through carefully before accepting it.
What do you want in your community. A Tesco and some bland flats, or…?
I walk past this derelict site everyday, and am fully in support of development. If Tesco are showing an interest then I am more than happy to support them.
The argument for killing off local shops is redundant. Forest Road, around the site has many mini-mart shops, 4 I think. In fact the old video shop has just turned into one, and is in direct competition to its neighbour. If the shop owners believe this level of competition is fine then they can’t complain when Tesco want a piece of the action.
I live directly behind the Essex Arms site, which is currently an eyesore, and attracts troublemakers, rough sleepers and kids hanging around and causing mischief.
One positive that I saw immediately after the Tesco planning application went in was that the site was made more secure and that the outbuildings round the back (that previously had people sleeping in them) were removed.
Whilst I do share the reservations that many others have about the imminent world domination of Tesco, that site has been a problem for too long and something needs to be done.
So I am afraid that lacking any alternative scheme, I come into the ‘lesser of two evils’ camp, and am in favour of the development.
If anyone wants to make their views known, I suggest they contact the planning officer in charge of dealing with the planning application (he writes recommendations which goes to the plannign committe)
kevin.herring@walthamforest.gov.uk
tel 0207 496 6706
You might want to cc in your local councillors as well so they know your views and you can ask them to promote your view to the planning committee and to officials –
cllr.liaquat.ali@walthamforest.gov.uk
cllr.james.orourke@walthamforest.gov.uk
cllr.johar.khan@walthamforest.gov.uk
(remember to give your postal address in your email).
and you might want to cc in the members of the planning committee too, their details can be found here -
http://www1.walthamforest.gov.uk/moderngov/mgCommitteeDetails.asp?ID=297
and of course email BAG to keep them informed!
As far as my view goes, I am worried that if we get a Tescos on that site, it will make it difficult for other local businesses to survive, that it will mean fewer jobs, not more jobs, and also fewer, not more, food and shopping choices (there is lots of research to back this up, for examples see New Economics Foundation research and also http://www.tescopoly.org.uk). Also, the Blackhorse Rd area development plans currently have proposals for a quality market and retail development – but these plans become a lot less feasible, surely, if there is a Tesco just up the road?
I do agree that we need something on the Essex Arms site and I think it is a shame that we have all had our expectations so lowered, that we think Tescos is the best we can hope for!
What ELSE would people like to see there? I’ll start – I’d like to see an adult education centre to replace some of the several we’ve lost, there’s none in our local area! Maybe it could have a covered market or a cafe in the daytime to make some money, but also have much more of a community feel than a Tescos would have? Any other ideas?
A big YES to Tesco! What “local businesses” are you talking about? Do you people actually LIVE here? Blackhorse Rd area is a desert! Local shops are selling overpriced stuff, fruit&vegetables are wilted and old, wine is crapy, the floors are dirty and the owners are surly and rude. They are worse than the shop assistants back in my country during the communist regime. The choice of stuff they are selling is about the same.
I know many older people here who would be happy to have a proper shop here so that they don’t have to walk or take a bus to do their shopping. They all hope that Tesco gets a green light.
Essex Arms was a dump. If you need a meeting place go to the Tryst or the Palmerston or… If you want an adult education centre, put it in the Willowfield school once they move to new premises. But I for one would like to be able to buy fresh bread every day and not walk for miles.
Hear Hear Barica. Do these people that protest about the “Local Businesses” forget that Walthamstow has two much bigger Supermarkets on the high street, and have they killed the Market? We don’t have a bakery or a butcher, the only other local businesses that will be effected by this mid-size Tesco are a couple of mini marts. These should face this competition, and hopefully make them more efficient, and competitive, for too long have they charged a premium for their convenience. The claim about local employment is surely out of proportion in this case. Do we really think more local people work in these few shops then the Tesco Express shop would employ?
So Tesco have withdrawn from this site – what a disappointment. I guess the area will now lie derelict for many more years. I hope the council can do more to encourage a suitable redevelopment of this current blot on the landscape for all our sakes.
What happened to the Esssex Arms anyway? Anyone know? I used to go in from time to time to watch a football match. Always seemed busy.
As for a Tesco, nah. Too many of them. You’d get the shops further up Forest Road closed down and boarded up in no time.
Has anybody heard what is happening with the Tesco Express at the Essex Arms? It’s been 10 months since Tesco sent us a leaflet asking for our support. Is it still going ahead?
Hi Paul,
We last spoke to Tesco back in February after they withdrew their planning permission
http://www.blackhorseactiongroup.org.uk/index.php/2009/02/09/tesco-express-still-planned-the-essex-arms/
See the story above, but basically they said they were reapplying later after consulting with the council. The underlying truth was that I think the council and/or council wanted to put more residential units on the site so were reapplying.
Might give them a ring to see where they are at, but the plan in feb was to go ahead at a later date with more housing squeezed in
Thanks for this. It would be interesting to see what the hold up is that’s for sure. That area remains an eyesore!
Is it 10 years that the “Arcade” site has been unused? Prhaps the Essex Arms will be the same….