The No Clapton Tesco Campaign

At this stage we cannot object to Tesco Express itself, but we can oppose to the applications to change delivery hours and loading at the front of the store (ultimately this will prevent them moving in).

We have been advised by Tescopoly that individual letters from neighbours are a stronger way to object than petitions

Please be aware you can withold your address from any planning application agenda (but not to the planning officer) – and if you write is it not necessary for you to appear before the committee. although if you do not want to write in person, you can email Cllr Ian Rathbone at Ian.Rathbone@hackney.gov.uk and he will write on your behalf

Please send you objections to Caroline Ozor, the Planning Officer in charge, in one of the following ways:

• By Email, to: caroline.ozor@hackney.gov.uk
• By Post, to: Caroline Ozor, Planning Officer, Hackney Council Planning Permission Dept, 1 Hillman Street, E8 1DY
• Via Hackney Council’s Website by following this link

Objections must be received by the 5th June, and please include planning reference 2010/1041.

Grounds for objecting

The points below are valid reasons for objecting to the planning permission.

Application 2010/1041 – parking lorries in the bay outside Palm Two

This application seeks to have condition 10 from the original planning consent removed. Condition 10 says that any delivery has to be made behind the shop, so as not to obstruct Lower Clapton Road & pedestrians on the footway. The reason is:

“To assist in ensuring that the Public Highway is available for the safe and convenient passage of vehicles and pedestrians.”

Reasonable reasons to object include:

• The condition was included to limit the size of delivery vehicles to those appropriate to the development. This has not changed since the original planning consent was granted. It was specifically designed to prevent retailers whose size was larger than appropriate delivering to these premises.
• The applicant will be delivering in both 10.35 and 13.4 metre lorries. They have not mentioned the longer vehicle length in their application, but there is copious evidence from other Tesco stores where they have claimed in planning applications that they will deliver with 10.35 metre lorries, and then delivered with 13.4 metre lorries. The bay is 11.1 metres long (the 12.5 metre figure in the planning application is incorrect), and so this will obstruct the roadway and damage the pathway as they reverse into the bay. Any attempt to increase the length of the bay will obstruct the busy bus stop outside the premises
• The Design and Access statement materially omits to consider the following considerations, on which the Planning Department should seek expert advice from the Traffic and Transportation Department:
  • The suitability of the existing loading bay to regularly support the mass of the proposed 10.35m rigid large goods delivery vehicles, fully or partially loaded.
  • Rigid LGVs of this size are among the least easily manoeuvrable vehicles on the road. There would be likely over-run onto the footway (soon damaging it), and/or manoeuvres partly inside and partly outside
    the loading bay until a satisfactory parking position had been achieved. The latter is particularly hazardous for vulnerable road users.
  • There is no information on tracking the entry and exit of such vehicles into the bay, which is barely longer than such a vehicle. An auto-tracking exercise should be performed to enable traffic engineers to assess the likely scenarios.

  Any of these considerations, if proved to obtain, would demonstrate the continued requirement for condition 10.

• Traffic and Transportation should also be asked to assess:
  • The extent of the consequent disruption to the operation of the local highway network, in particular the bus stop, but also the operation of the immediately adjacent junction (sightlines obscured by parked high-sided vehicles);
  • The impact on road danger of the regular operation of such delivery vehicles throughout more of the borough than before
• Deliveries would have to be wheeled across a footway which is not wide considering the number of bus passengers gathering there at all times during the permitted delivery hours. It frequently gets crowded and passengers rush for buses. This operation would also create an additional hazard for disabled people.

Application 2010/1039 – deliveries on public holidays

The application seeks planning permission to extend deliveries to the development to Bank Holidays by a variation to condition 13 of the original application (2004/0412).

Bank Holidays in the London Borough of Hackney see high cycling and walking activity in a borough noted nationwide for its high percentage share of cycling. This affects people in a leisurely mood.

The operation of large good vehicles presents an especial danger to people walking and cycling and the operation of the respective vehicles as they pass through the borough would create more unacceptable risk for vulnerable road users. The movement of the vehicle as it attempted to park in the loading bay adjacent to the bus stop (see comments on 2010/1041) would create a hazard to cyclists passing along Lower Clapton Road. This is an area of high bus activity. Buses are routinely pulling into this stop and would come into such conflict with delivery vehicles, whether rigid or articulated, that situations would be hard to read for
cyclists.

If you need some additional help with your application please contact us