Wednesday, 29 September 2010

Unfair Planning Systems

A few years ago I was campaigning against the Tesco in the Oxford Road.
I had about a thousand signatures on a petition and Tesco didn't even send someone to speak for them. They didn't need to, they still won. The cllrs for the big three parties all supported the plan.

Unfortunately many things I predicted have come to pass. Local shops have closed, traffic has increased. The Cllrs were not interested in my opinion, one verbally attacked me, the others ignored me. They all felt that they could not fight Tesco, they were too big. Some even felt that Tesco would help the local shops, as people could park there and go to them.

In the Castle Douglas Tesco planning process in Scotland claims were made that the system is wrong.

I have witnessed other planning applications; if the person is articulate and can make a presentation they are taken seriously. If they have trouble speaking in front of a rather intimidating crowd they will probably be ignored. So those with better educations and jobs are more likely to succeed, those with learning difficulties, poor educations, manual jobs or unemployed will probably fail.

We have a most unfair system.

2 comments:

Leonora said...

About two years ago, I tried to start a campaign against the construction of a new Tesco in West End Lane (West Hampstead, London). A few people signed up to the Facebook group, and there was some interest by one of the local papers, but nothing came of the protest...Tesco is there!

Adrian Windisch said...

It is possible to beat them, but the system is stacked in their favour. Unfair.