Glastonbury Tesco Site Squatters Call for Local Support

By stonesthrow | Sunday, January 08, 2012, 15:05

For several weeks now the former Avalon Plastics site and premises at the Beckery in Glastonbury has been occupied by a group of travellers. The group simply gained entry to the site through the main gate which had been secured by the type of combination padlock which is set by a four digit code. It seems that workmen had previously left the lock open and displaying its code, enabling someone tor note the number and then when the opportuinity arose, simply unlocked it to allow ingress.

The disused factory in Glastonbury

The travellers have now set up camp on the site and have secured the perimeter fence with their own padlocks. No doubt this is set to cause huge aggravation to the supermarket giant Tesco, who have recently gained planning permission to build a new superstore on the site, against much local opposition.

Some locals opposed the original plans for Tesco to come to Glastonbury, in the main objecting to the impact this will have on the High Street businesses and individuality of the town. Others have welcomed the plans for a large store as it will offer much needed employment opportunities at a time when jobs are scarce and many, in particular young people, are finding that gaining any kind of work or career opportunities, very difficult.

The travellers who are occupying the site have recently distributed a flyer throughout the town in order to rally support for their occupation of the site as a protest against Tesco. They are asking for opinions as to whether the town needs another superstore alongside Morrisons and whether the green credentials of the planning application are credible. They are claiming that solar panels will not off-set the carbon emissions created by increased traffic flow to the site.

This occupation of the site has divided opinion once again with people in the town. Some see the travellers as opportunists who are making good use of a redundant building and site, when they have nowhere else to go. With so many empty properties across the country lying dormant when they could be used to house those that need them, this could be construed as a meaningful occupation. On the other hand, are these 'protestors' now simply jumping on the Tesco Opposition bandwagon in order to try and justify squatting the site, gain some credibility and prolong their stay?

"I think it's good they are standing up against Tesco" said Irene from Glastonbury, "we don't need another large supermarket, Tesco is a blot on the landscape and this is just another capitalist opportunity to bleed the local traders dry. I'd much rather see a group of people using the site if they need it. It is sufficiently far away from the town to not annoy local people so I can't see that is a problem".

But Mark, also from Glastonbury doesn't share this viewpoint.

"This isn't about Tesco, this is about a group of people who happened across a site which they could access and who are now trying to justify being there. If they had managed to get into any other site which served their purposes, gave them a base, they would, regardless of what it is intended for. The Tesco protest is an afterthought for being there. And why shouldn't we have another supermarket? The competition won't be between Tesco and the High Street, it will be between Tesco and Morrisons. People only have a finite amount of money to spend on shopping so they will either continue to use supermarkets or they won't. People that shop in the High Street won't suddenly find that Tesco has revolutionised their shopping habits. And my God do we need the local employment. As for the travelling, well, it will mainly be used by people who use the bypass and would be passing. Maybe it's the building of the bypass you should be blaming for the loss of trade to the town."

The occupiers of the Tesco site are offering all the chance to support their cause and invite you to go along and visit them and share a wood fired pizza by donation. For more information phone Dan or Chris on 07804 821374.

What do you think about this latest chapter in the Tesco Glastonbury saga? Are you in support of the occupiers of the site or do you just want to see the site developed? Let us know what you think!

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Comments

I agree the supermarket is where the main shop is done, yet many clone towns with the likes of Primark, Top Shop, Next, WH Smiths as well as tens of mobile phone and coffee shops etc do still attract footfall and it is the smaller independents that fold more often than the bigger retailers, although Woolworths suffered, Argos is faring badly and HMV is downsizing.

Having said many of the major retailers also now have a huge online presence and many of their customers shop online, so this is decreasing footfall in many town centres. Although internet retailing is a fast paced business and those that can't keep up with the changing market soon find themselves out of business.

High street music (record/cd) shops and book shops seem to do particularly badly in the current market as these are items that can be sourced much cheaper online.

I agree that high rates, rents, and parking charges are often more of a threat to smaller retailers than supermarkets. Despite this the pricing policies of supermarkets which force down the money paid to their suppliers and the method of selling products at a loss to attract trade is something the smaller shops cannot afford to do.

Some towns which offer a niche market to the clone towns continue to do ok in the recession even if profits are down: Totnes, Lewes, Glastonbury and Sherborne seem to fare better than most and although in the past few days a couple of Glastonbury's shops have ceased to trade (the Eco Friendly Shop and Dusty Attic Bears), some retailers here are reporting that their Christmas takings were actually rather good and in fact much better than last year.

By Cydertron at 22:30 on 09/01/12
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One thing that is *always* missed from these endless discussions as to whether a town 'needs' a(nother) supermarket - of whatever flavour - or not, is the fact that in Britain, as elsewhere, THE NATURE OF THE HIGH STREET IS INEXORABLY CHANGING. Get that into your heads, and use it as a start-point for thought on any any sort of future development, and many things will become clearer and more obvious.

The high street is *no longer* where everyone shops.
Everyone shops a) on the internet; b) at the nearest supermarket with free parking.
Period.
The high street is where you go to socialize; to meet with folk in your community; to pick up the latest gossip. To have a coffee; note the latest fads and fashions -- and in Glastonbury, to laugh at the outrageously self-conscious 'hippies' parading themselves in their alternative finery -- but NOT to burden yourself down with a week's shopping.
The only shopping you're likely to do is from small, specialist shops.
So why don't local councils and communities realistically accept this ?

Councils should realize that the days of filling their coffers by ripping-off the townspeople in exaggeratedly and prohibitively over-priced 'public service' rates. rents and parking fees have passed.
The punters are voting with their feet. The decline (change) is well under way.
And the public are just too hung up on what the high street looked like in days of yore to realize what a golden opportunity lies before them, to embrace the new, and re-define the nature of their own town centre.

High street shoppers of the world : Unite ! You have nothing to lose but your outdated opinions of what a high street *should* be; not what a high street *could* be, if you only dared face *and participate in* the inevitable change.

By martinwheeler at 17:26 on 09/01/12
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Choice is good I agree Jim, but allowing a few large corporations to dominate eventually means that the underdogs can no longer compete against the buying power of the supermarkets and small shops go to the wall. Supermarkets sell all sorts of things now from banking to insurance to white goods to pharmaceuticals to clothes, so their impact is far reaching and impacts on a wide range of other retailers (I appreciate not all of these will be available in Glastonbury, although would have been if original planned store was allowed).

Free parking is good too. Unfortunately council run car parks are so expensive in Mendip that they are detrimental to the high street, That too encourages people to favour supermarkets to local shops.

As far as choice in supermarket shopping goes I'd choose Waitrose over any other - there are plenty of Tesco stores in Mendip but no Waitrose, but again Mendip have been less than good in dealing with the planning applications from Waitrose, Sainsbury's and Morrisons in Wells and some suspect that plans for a larger Tesco in the town built on council owned land may be on the cards. Let's see what happens in the next month or so when the Wells supermarket inquiry result is known.

By Cydertron at 11:15 on 09/01/12
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I'd much rather live next to a disused plastics factory occupied by squatters than a supermarket with free car park. I wish I actually lived in Glastonbury so I could support this worthy cause.

By almufasa at 10:05 on 09/01/12
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Surely in this country of ours people still have a free choice as to where they wish to do their shopping. I have been to Tescos stores in Street, Shepton, Wells, and in other towns including London.They have all been very busy, they are not the cheapest but it is useful to park your car for free, and to do most of your shopping in one place. Their popularity is based on comparative customer footfall, people in the main enjoy shopping at Tescos or else why go there? NUFF SAID.

Jim Barron.

By jimbarron at 20:22 on 08/01/12
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