City backs new Tesco

Jul 4 2005 By Neil Elkes, Evening Mail

TESCO has ended months of speculation by submitting its plans to rip up city playing fields to make way for a superstore.

The retail giant will buy some council playing pitches at Brockhurst Road, Hodge Hill, if the development is approved by planners.

A new store has been in the pipeline for a year, and the planning application comes as a report reveals that the nearby Fox and Goose shopping precinct could become a "ghost town" if Tesco moves in.

A critic of the scheme, Hodge Hill MP Liam Byrne, believes the future is bleak for small traders.

Mr Byrne highlighted Ghost Town Britain, a report by think-tank The New Economics Foundation, which warned that the dominance of major superstores increased the number of derelict shops

Reliance on shopping by car would increase traffic congestion at the already clogged Fox and Goose junction, it added.

Mr Byrne said: "This news just confirms fears that a megastore on the Brockhurst playing fields is bad for everyone.

"It's bad for the kids who want to play football on the pitches, it's bad for the shopkeeper who will be driven out of business, and it's bad for the area as shops will be left empty and open to vandalism, while more cars clog up already overcrowded local roads."

He said promises to spruce up the existing shopping area with "a few bins and pretty plants" did not go far enough and that Tesco must be made to invest heavily in the area.

The Tory cabinet member for regeneration, Coun Ken Hardeman, said the Tesco cash would be used to benefit the area.

Nothing had yet been decided and the implications for the neighbourhood would be considered in full during the planning process, he added.

"The Tesco planning application will be subject to full local consultation and also full consideration by the planning committee, based on all the available information."