The Fitzharris Arms closed down last December. Contractors have been busy for the last couple of months converting the building into a Tesco express which is due to open this month.
Not far away down the Wootton Road is the Tesco owned One-Stop store. They operate as a separate business – without ‘Tesco’ in their name – and with a different range of products. So Tesco express and One-Stop will be local competitors.
When did Tesco take over One-Stop? I had no idea.
Very soon, Tesco will own the very air you breathe and the ground you walk upon, you will be paid by and then pay back entirely and that little bit more to Tesco, your children and their children and their children’s children wil be slaves unto Tesco. Verily, I say unto you there is no future but that is Tesco’s.
One Stop has been wholly-owned by Tesco since 2003 but is run as a separate business,
from its head office in Brownhills, Walsall, West Midlands.
tesco is the ultimate democracy – buy some tesco shares, you share in their success.
a locally owned corner shop will never give you a share of the profit like tesco will.
I don’t understand why they were allowed to start work on The Fitzharris months before planning permission was approved (13th May). In fact they started work before planning permission was even submitted (28th Feb)
I’ve also heard that the same thing is happening at the Ox with work already beginning along with removal of the pub sign and historic Morland plaque, despite no planning permission being submitted.
This makes it impossible for anyone to sensibly object because by the time the planning permissions are being reviewed the properties are already gutted, such that it would be impossible to economically revert back to a pub.
It doesn’t matter whether it’s economically possible to revert to a pub, it is all dependent upon the professionalism of the local planning department and how good they are at enforcement, in particular.
It is legal to apply for planning permission retrospectively.
It is my understanding that planning permission is not required to change from a pub to a store. Both are in the same class of commercial use.
Planning permission was required for the signage. They might also have needed permission to change the design of the doors/windows too – not sure about that.
If somebody wanted to turn a pub into residential, or anything that was a change of class of use then they would need planning permission.
That’s what I’ve been told anyway.
For those interested, here’s an article on Tesco’s One-Stop brand, in which it’s referred to as a ‘shadow brand’:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/dec/16/tesco-one-stop-deal-under-fire
It’s from The Guardian, but you can’t have everything.
I particularly liked this quote: ‘The retailing giant added that One Stop is a “separate business with a different supply chain and a separate business model”‘ … if you believe Tesco doesn’t have a single strategy covering all of its outlets you probably believe that the Moon is made of cheese and The Queen doesn’t go to the toilet … sorry about that, but only one fib … the Moon isn’t made of cheese.