Thursday, September 16, 2010

Objection to Tesco's latest planning applications for Knowle's Friendship Inn site

No comments:
Please refuse Tesco planning permission for an ATM (cash machine), for installation of a new shopfront and external alterations, and for internally illuminated fascia signs and projecting signs:

a) the proposed cash machine will attract even more traffic (in addition to the car park already permitted) and is very likely to result in irresponsible and dangerous parking habits on an already busy road in a residential area - its location anywhere on the site would do have this effect but its location on Axbridge Rd is particularly dangerous. The look of the cash machine is entirely out of tune with the rest of this traditional style building.


b) use of red, blue and white signage and lettering in a modern style in several places - and of a large size - is entirely out of step with the rest of the building


c)the design all the ground floor windows and doors are a complete mismatch with the upper floor windows and also completely out of tune with the general traditional style of the building


d) by making applications bit by bit, first car park, now signs etc and with a future planning application (for 'plant') in the offing, Tesco have not been completely open as to their full intentions and have made it much more difficult for the public, for councillors and for officers and for planning committee members to see the development as a whole and assess its impacts as a whole (see photos of before vs during car park construction work). This is a deliberate and dishonest, underhand tactic designed to make it more likely that they will get their way.

The latest on Tesco/The Friendship

No comments:
Knowle's Friendship Inn - now a site Tesco are trying to develop into yet another store - is currently surrounded by a very high fence so that its difficult to enter or see into the building site in the key place. Its not easy finding the door to the site to ask people anything either and on several occasions I've found it locked. However, I'm reasonably tall and so I took the photos below by peering over the wall that surrounds part of the site (formerly a pub garden being developed into a car park). Contrast these with the images before work started (towards bottom of page) - believe it or not I was told by a council planning officer early on in this saga that there would be no significant loss of trees but, despite that, all the larger trees at one end of the site have been chopped down and cut up....

Now that work is ongoing (two photos taken today):























Before work began...



Plans for a £92 million stadium at Ashton Vale have once again been thrown into turmoil.

No comments:
This is an excellent decision by the inspector. The council should now proceed to formally register the whole site. There is a value to this green space well beyond cash - leisure, recreation, entertainment, health benefits, storm water drainage and thus flood protection, taking carbon dioxide from the air thus helping to fight climate change, provision of wildlife habitat and food supply, which aids biodiversity. Green spaces are vital to the quality of our lives, offering relief from the all too common congestion and other negative effects of development and helping us to connect with and appreciate the natural world – vital to wellbeing and to encouraging respect for nature.

Plans for a £92 million stadium at Ashton Vale have once again been thrown into turmoil.

Plans for a £92 million stadium at Ashton Vale have once again been thrown into turmoil.
Residents who live near the site have won their fight for the 42-acre site to be designated as a town green.
An independent inspector has recommended that the whole site where the stadium would be built - including the former landfill site - should be given town green status.
If approved, it would effectively rule out any development on the site for ever...