Iain writes to the Mayor of London again stressing his concerns about Tesco in Highams Park
Boris Johnson November 2009
Mayor of London
City Hall
The Queen's Walk
More London
London SE1 2AA
Tesco development in Highams Park Chingford
Further to my correspondence of 20th October and to yours of 9th November, I am writing to inform you that new information has been brought to my attention regarding the Tesco development in HighamsPark.
As part of their proposal, Tesco stated that they were planning to build 500 new affordable houses in the area. As I mentioned in my previous letter, Tesco plan to do this by changing the whole landscape of the area which will include destroying trees that have stood for over 100 years. However, I have been informed that at present there are in excess of 500 unoccupied houses within the Borough of Waltham Forest. My concern is that the reason why councillors from other parts of the Borough were persuaded to vote for this proposal was the inclusion of this housing plan. However, at no time did they make clear how many unoccupied houses already exist in the Borough.
Furthermore, as you will recall, I highlighted the large number of supermarkets already within 5 minutes drive of HighamsPark. However I realise that alone doesn’t explain the sheer scale of the existing supermarket footprint in my Constituency. I have, therefore, included below a table to show the total area occupied by supermarkets within a 5-minute driving distance from Highams Park Station.
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Store
|
Net Sales Floor space (Sq M)
|
|
Budgens, Station Road
|
443
|
|
Co-op, Station Road
|
542
|
|
J Sainburys, Hall Lane
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1,808
|
|
Budgens , Larkshall Road
|
585
|
|
Iceland, South Chingford
|
367
|
|
Morrisons, Chingford
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3,193
|
|
J Sainsburys, Low Hall, Chingford
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5, 812
|
As well as these supermarkets, within a 10-minute drive away to the north of Highams Park Station there are other supermarkets; Tesco Metro, Tesco Superstore, Waitrose and Sainsbury which are, on aggregate, in excess of 10,000 square metres. This shows that the overall footprint of all these supermarkets is some 23,000 square metres, an area twice as large as St. Paul’s Cathedral. Surely there is no need for an additional store, in such a sensitive and historic location and one which will only encourage more use of cars with all the environmental problems which that will also cause.
On 30th October, I met over 200 residents of HighamsPark who reiterated their opposition to the Tesco development. My office is constantly bombarded with phone calls and correspondence in opposition to this proposal.
I sincerely hope that you will take my constituents’ concerns into consideration when reaching your decision.