Last ever post!

Ohmygod! You beat Tesco?

No, I just found a better place to do my campaigning - I've moved to Jiglu, the first Blogger to do so, but not the last - Jiglu gives me blogging ability (and by e-mail!), a wiki, a feed reader, the ability to let other people post easily, and it generates automatic tags, straight from the content, linking my blog, dicussion, wiki and feeds together - It's the new wave of e-mail.

Come see us at http://spasm.jiglu.com

Jobs to be sued over podRage incident?

It seems that finally someone has snapped over that tinny noise you hear from those iPod headphones. It would be nice if Apple spent a little more on headphones that didn't upset passers-by

read more | digg story

So are Tesco playing by the rules?

Saturday, about 9.45, just on the way to football.

Two Tesco lorries, one in the loading bay, and one waiting outside Oddbins!

Small yellow Mini on the double yellow line, and to complete the picture, a white van swooping round the corner - Totally safe for all those children on their way to Saturday activities!

It's not over - By a long shot

According to one Richmond Council official, all is well in Tesco-land. Parking enforcement is at the correct level and Tesco are playing by the rules.

I don't get into St Margarets as much as I used to during the day, but here are some shots from today, one at 8.30 this morning (when the Loading Bay is supposed to be totally clear), and one at about 2pm - that lorry you notice parked on the corner (notice the absence of driver) is a Tesco delivery. I'm sure he would argue it's not his fault because of the people parked in the Loading Bay.

I have a small amount of sympathy, but if Tesco know a delivery is scheduled, they could easily have a few people waiting by the loading bay, to wave away errant drivers

Instead, I almost got knocked over by someone swinging round the front of the lorry.

Gone, but not forgotten

A few months have passed.

Has the situation got any better? No, not really.

The promised review of the loading bay by the Council has failed to materialise, so it seems we are stuck with near permanent congestion outside the Tesco store in St Margarets.

This means we have juggernauts, vans and private cars parking in the extended loading bay, the bus stop, and on the double yellow lines. This happens throughout the day, and into the evening, causing traffic congestion, and constituting a major hazard to pedestrians crossing nearby roads.

Leaving aside the major quality of life concerns, there is the issue raised before about what it means in pure environmental terms to have these lorries coming into the centre of our village. Tesco is committed to putting more food onto its lorry fleet - ie it wants to deliver the most food with the minimum amount of drivers.

What this means is that the lorries we have will get bigger, not smaller - Transport 2000 says that a juggernaut has 10,000 times more impact on the road infrastructure than an average car. Infrastructure that will then have to be dug up, at local taxpayers expense, and replaced.

As the country's biggest retailer, Tesco is in a position to use "green" diesel in its lorry and van fleet, and to sell "green" diesel at its petrol stations. This diesel (known also as bio-diesel) is made from vegetable oil (Rudolph Diesel designed the diesel engine to run on peanut oil), so it is entirely carbon neutral. At the moment, most waste vegetable oil is mixed with animal feed. As well as the environmental benefits, it is also much cheaper than regular diesel, as the tax is only 20p per litre. Any diesel car, van or lorry can run bio-diesel, without harm or adjustment.

Obviously, the solution for areas where Tesco is placing its smaller stores is for Tesco to employ more drivers, driving smaller vans, all running bio-diesel - One side effect is that this will create more employment. It will not increase congestion, as the amount of road space will be roughly the same -

Tesco pays lip-service to the use of bio-diesel and other bio-fuels (http://www.tescocorporate.com/biofuels.htm), but it has the corporate clout to switch its own fleet to bio-diesel, and allow the rest of the country to do so.

Reaching the boil

Thanks for all the texts - Very useful in collating information.

Here's this week's email to the council:

Dear Mr Potter

I, like you, have better things to be getting on with

So far this week, I have been past Tesco only three times between 8.40,
and 9.30 -

On each day, there has been some sort of delivery - I have left you two
voice mails, and we spoke once.

Today, for example, there was a delivery at 8.40 that I saw (I have a
text saying it started at 8.25), and then at 9.05, another lorry turned
up, and because someone was parked in the loading bay, parked in the bus
stop - So a bus had to unload on the crossing!

At 9.15, the person in the loading bay moved up to the double yellow
line.

The lorry moved up, and filled the whole loading bay (as all these
lorries do) - Which meant that the Tecso personnel started unloading in
the bus stop.

So, three days out of three Tesco has loaded when they shouldn't, parked
in the bus stop, and then unloaded into the bus stop. An impressive
average.

One of those lorries (out of the 5 I have seen) got a ticket (Wednesday,
I think) - It still hung a round, though, from 9.00 to past 10.00, when
another Tesco lorry came and parked behind it in the bus stop (this is
not one of the 5 previously mentioned, of course)

I phoned Sureway today - The person assured me that at 8.40, Tesco could
unload, as the Council had "waived the restriction". I found it hard to
convince him otherwise.

One of the few rights I seem to have in this is to ask for information,
and I feel complelled to do that right now, as nothing is happening.

So, could you please let me know:

1. What steps have been taken in the last 4 weeks to communicate the
loading restrictions to Tesco?

2. What has their response been?

3. Have any further communications taken place to complain about the
continuing infractions?

4. If so, what was their response? If not, why has no such
communication taken place?

5. Aside from the three month review as to the operation of the loading
bay, if Tesco continue to flout the loading bay and bus stop
restrictions, at what point will the Council take more draconian action?
Does it intend to allow three months of infractions to take first?

6. What will those measures be?

There's probably a lot more I could ask, but you are busy, and I'd
rather you spent your time sorting Tesco out.

You can imagine, though, that when everything I said would happen with
the new loading bay has actually happened, I'm a bit frustrated to see
little positive action taking place to really enforce the restrictions -
One parking ticket doesnt quite cut it.

Perhaps you an Councillor Kreling would like to join me when I finallydo
lie down in the loading bay?

Many thanks

Nigel Cannings

No Goods at all

9.08 this morning - Not only in the restricted window, but so big that it had to be unloaded in the bus stop

There is such a thing as too long...

Interesting loading bay discovery

The loading bay is the exact size of Tesco's largest lorry. If a lorry parks totally in the loading bay, the unloading has to take place in the bus stop!

To get round this, Tesco is parking almost to the corner of Broadway Avenue to give them room to unload in the loading bay - But in doing so, 5 or 6 feet of the lorry is outside the loading bay, and totally obscuring the view crossing the road

Well done Richmond Council!

Children under threat

Dear spasm

Hilary may well have made this point but as a walker of the walking bus to
St Stephens and Orleans Infant School on Fri am, the presence of anything
more than pedestrians on the pavement is a nightmare in keeping safety on
the bus. There was a delivery this morning. Ideally there should be either
early morning ie 7am or mid day.

John Cranna

REMEMBER - EMAIL m,potter@richmond.gov.uk

Email Mr Potter!

I'm delighted to see a number of emails to the Council coming through m.potter@richmond.gov.uk

Cllr Kreling said on Tuesday night it would be THREE MONTHS until a review took place.

Guess what, every morning, there's a lorry there when there shouldn't be - During the day, people park in the loading bay illegally, and when Tesco turn up, they use the bus stop!

A small sample below:

Dear Mr Potter



My understanding was that Tesco would limit deliveries between 9 am and 3 pm. Why then yesterday and today at 8.47 am they had deliveries. This is at the peak of school drop off time.

Surely, it is time for the council to admit that all policies, monitoring of this issue has not worked, and that you are insulting the intelligence of the residents of St Margarets. Yet again there were no enforcement officers to hand, unlike on other days and times when normal folk are in the vicinity.

When Tesco have deliveries, the carts block the pavements and people have to walk into the road to get past.



I like everyone else, am at a loss to understand how you gave approval for this to happen. No doubt if it was a smaller retailer, you would have declined.



Richmond Council - Don?t upset the very hands that feed you unless ofcourse Tesco?s hands are bigger!





Del Randhawa

So much for the new regulations

Yesterday, I saw a Tesco lorry parked in the bus stop from 9.10 to 9.30

Today, I got this email:

Today Friday 11 November:

8.30am 2 large lorries unloading into Tesco, road obstructions, backed up both ways beyond the roundabout, usual pavement obstructions with empty "trolleys", now further exacerbated by two unloadings going on. All this joined at 8.45am by third equally large Superdrug lorry to unload.... so much for "new regulations from 31 October".

OT, but incredible

Just had the most amazing technology demonstrated to me.

An email system that learns the information in your email as it comes in, creates a database of the interesting stuff, sends you digests, automatically organises it, puts hyperlinks in your email to link it to other emails, and which manages information for one user, a group, or a whole organisation.

Imagine being a sales director, and having all of the information from your sales people extracted, and accessible. Or a CEO who can get information about what the company is doing. All automatically.

It was like magic - I'd love someone to automatically sort and organise my mail, and extract the useful stuff as it came in. It's like the holy grail of email management.

http://www.kinomi.com

Text in this am

This morning the tesco lorry is parked on the brow of the hill on white zig zag lines and the bus stop. Dangerous. Inhibits the use of public transport and causing tail backs. This should be stopped.

Tescopoly

Got this today:

"Hi there,

[I am] a resident of Broadway Ave, and I attended the
Area Consutlation Meeting with local councillors last night at York
House.

I'm sure that either you or someone connected with your excellent
website must have been there last night and obviously you will have
heard the overwhelming amount of protest and frustration regarding the
recent opening of both Tesco and Superdrug in the area.

I do know that you have an objective editorial stance and I respect this
and you may also know that St Margaret's residents (or a lot of us) are
not alone in regretting the uninvited arrival of the two multi- nationals
in our quiet, small residential area. I have recently found an
organisation dedicated to oppostion of the 'Tescopoly' of our local
streets and the link is attached below. It gives people the opportunity
to protest to the DTI, the Tesco Chairman and a wide variety of other
bodies concerned with connected issues.

Would you consider offering the link on your website to interested
parties? If people don't want to protest, that's fine, but if they do
at least they have somewhere they can go to register their frustration."

Yes we would be delighted to.

Go here

AdWords irony

See those adverts at the top - when I view them, they are all for Tesco! Might as well use their money to fund the campaign against them!

Told you so...

This one is at 9.10
(in the bus stop)
This is at 8.45

And this one at 9.20
(in the bus stop)

What do we have? One lorry parked in the bus stop because a Tesco customer's car is parked in the loading bay (and it's earlier than the permitted 9.30 start in any event.

The other loading at 8.45, obstructing traffic during the height of the rush hour, obstructing the view for people crossing on their way to school, and of course, doing it in the middle of the no loading blackout period.

Tesco's new Car Park opens...

Step one of the new loading bay was unveiled today - A key part of the Council's strategy is to ensure that the new loading bay is kept clear of non-goods vehicles so that when the juggernauts turn up, at least they are in the new loading bay, so the sign says "Goods vehicles only"

My response was that all you will do is create a bigger car park for customers.

Above are two pictures, taken from the same spot - On my right was the sign (See "Goods Vehicles Loading only" towards the bottom) - On the left, the car of a woman who parked, and walked straight into Tesco.

I think 2 pictures still equals a thousand words...

That Standard Article

Yup, fame at last...

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money-savers/article.html?in_article_id=404448&in_page_id=5

Bet you didn't think it could get worse.

Obviously attracted by the publicity in The Standard, there has been a little lorry get-together this morning outside Tesco. Thanks to Kevin for these photos, taken between 9.25 and 9.45 this morning

Street Scenes

Just a small selection of recent photos sent in by the disgruntled people of the village