History of the site
2006 proposals
In 2006 residents in Tolworth formed a campaign group to oppose plans for a Tesco development in Tolworth, Kingston.
The planned development included a new 89,000 sq ft superstore (with 52,000 sq ft retail floorspace) and 662 flats in blocks 12 storeys high.
A public planning consultation forum was held in November 2006 at which Edward Davey MP spoke against the plans and which received local press coverage. The meeting was so full that a second session was held.
On both occasions the overwhelming view was one of opposition.
A decision was expected by the Council in March or April, but Tesco announced on 20th February 2007 that it was withdrawing its plans for Tolworth.
2008 proposals
However, in November 2008 Tesco launched new proposals for Tolworth and exhibited its new plans at two public exhibitions on Friday 21st and Saturday 22nd November 2008.
The site
The site, known as the Toby Jug site after a famous pub that previously stood there, and found in the A-Z as Hook Rise South, is next to the A3, a road believed to be the most heavily used non-motorway road in the UK.
Tesco bought the site from the Government in 2002 and worked up plans for the site.
Ironically, the site had been used by the Ministry of Agriculture Food and Fisheries and had mostly single-storey barrack-style buildings on it.
It emerged at the public meetings held in November 2006 that Tesco purchased the site by private treaty and the site never entered the open market.
The local authority, the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, has made it clear in the Planning Brief for the site that it was deemed that a retail store would in no way be considered to be acceptable for the site.
Tesco's first consultation
In October 2006 Tesco published a 4-page pamphlet showing illustrations of its designs and identifying the proposed development as "The Bridge".
Tesco made strong claims for the sustainability credentials of its proposals. The development was dubbed "The Bridge" because it proposed to build a new pedestrian bridge across the A3 from Tolworth Broadway to the new development, thus circumventing the existing pedestrian subways at the Tolworth junction maintained by Transport for London.
The bridge would have had an airport-style travelator in order to help people get up onto the bridge from the Broadway side, which is where the commercial activity is currently centred.
Tesco's brochure for "The Bridge" trumpeted that the development would be "powered by natural resources" and that it would "become a perfect example of sustainable development."
It illustrated this using two cartoon characters, one named 'Gus' who it is said "will munch up the organic rubbish and turn it into bio-gas to help power the boilers, producing electricity and heat for every building on the site." Meanwhile 'Chip' is their friendly character who is their combined heat and power system. "Taking bio-gas from Gus, he will mix it with mains gas to produce electricity and heat for every building on the site." (sic)
What Tesco left out of its brochure is any mention of traffic and how that might affect the local area. It didn't mention how many car parking spaces they intended to provide for the shop and for the flats. Neither was there any discussion about how the Tesco store would affect the trade in nearby independent shops.
Residents, notably from Tolworth Residents against Over Development(TROD), wrote to the local newspapers expressing concern about over development and in particular the pressure on health and education services in the area if the population increases by the projected 2,000 inhabitants. Kingston Friends of the Earth had stories in the newspapers about the threat to local businesses from Tesco.
In the early part of 2006 Tesco was due to meet residents and councillors but didn't attend. It said that since it had been asked to revise its plans by the Council and Councillors, there was no point discussing the original proposals.
Impact on Tolworth Broadway
Tolworth Broadway currently has a lot of independent traders including a fruit and vegetable store, a butcher, cafés, a chemist, an electrical shop, a photo-processing shop, and an opticians as well as a small Boots Chemist, a Marks & Spencer store and a Budgens supermarket.
There is also a Tesco Express in the Tolworth Broadway shopping centre, and a large Tesco Extra just 3 miles away along the A3 in New Malden.
In the 2006 consultation, Tesco indicated that it would be prepared to pay for the removal of a pedestrian safety guard railing that is currently down the centre of Tolworth Broadway and to replace the pedestrian subway with a pelican crossing.
What it neglected to say was that Transport for London is funding the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames to do this in any case. It said that by doing this, and by providing more on-street car parking on what is the main route from the A3 to Kingston town centre, it could "encourage people back to Tolworth to shop", but said nothing about what this would do to traffic congestion and delays to buses.
Tesco across the UK
If you'd like to know more about some of the other concerns that people have about Tesco developments, check out the Tescopoly website which includes a page on Tolworth.
Thanks to Tescopoly for some of the information on this page.
