Published: Wednesday, 12th April, 2006 09:50
No planning permission for Tesco
By Border Telegraph Newsroom
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TESCO bosses have been blasted after it emerged the temporary store in Galashiels has not yet been granted planning permission.
The short-term shop is due to open on April 24 to plug the gap until Tesco finish their new multimillion pound store.
But members of Galashiels Community Council are exasperated that Tesco did not ask for planning permission before they began putting it up.
Tesco say they were unaware that permission was needed, and have submitted a retrospective application for Scottish Borders Council to consider.
SBC planning officer, Alastair Lorimer, said: “The works had started on site, and we indicated to them that they needed to make a planning application for it. Tesco have jumped the gun, basically.”
Community council chairman, Bill White, is angry at what he sees as double standards.
He said: “If it was Joe Bloggs down the road doing this, then the first thing the council would do would be to tell them to take it down.
“I just feel that if you need planning permission for something, then you should put it in before you start any work, regardless of whether you are a one man band or whether you are Tesco.”
And Mr White is also unimpressed at Tesco’s lack of foresight.
He said: “It has obviously been a slip up somewhere, but you would have thought that a company of that size would know to do these things.
“But what does the council do? Do they force them to take it back down again?”
Community councils are given the opportunity to make comment or lodge objections to planning applications, but the temporary store will already be open before the April 28 deadline for submissions.
Mr White said: “We feel that we are wasting our time on things like that if companies are allowed to get away with that.
“If that continues, then there is no way I would want to sit on the committee if no-one was listening.”
But Tesco say there was nothing untoward in their actions, and that planning permission is not always needed in similar situations.
A Tesco spokesperson said: “As pointed out by the council, we didn’t think that planning permission was required for the temporary store, and have since submitted a retrospective planning application to ensure that all the relevant consents for the store are in place.
“There is always a reasonable debate about temporary stores and structures, whether they do or don’t require planning permission.
“We do temporary stores across the UK and in Scotland, but every local authority and every scenario is different. You can’t really compare like for like every time, and Galashiels is a unique situation.”
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