Time to map out a plan for Villa's future
- Says blogger Matthew Turvey
Battle of store giants to drag on
Wednesday 30th September 2009, 11:30AM BST.
Sainsbury’s today announced it would continue to fight Tesco to transform prime land in Wolverhampton, meaning decade-long supermarket wars with its main rival will drag on.
The store giant has already lost two High Court showdowns with Tesco over the right to build a multi-million pound retail and homes development in Raglan Street, Graiseley.
But bosses today vowed to continue the battle, and will be seeking permission to appeal the decisions at the Supreme Court.
Sainsbury’s is fighting to overturn Wolverhampton City Council’s ruling that it should hand over its 86 per cent share of the site, off Ring Road St Mark’s, to its main competitor. Tesco currently owns around 10 per cent of the land.
Lawyers working on behalf of Sainsbury’s have previously argued that city planning chiefs acted “unlawfully” when they backed Tesco’s bid, partly due to the firm’s pledge to use some of its profit from the Raglan Street revamp to redevelop the landmark Royal Hospital site it owns in All Saints with a £50 million transformation.
Tesco spokesman Tony Fletcher said today: “I expected that Sainsbury’s would appeal but it is very disappointing.”
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Council chiefs have blundered again – right minded citizens of Wolverhampton don’t want Tescopoly in our City.
Sainsburys is much better !
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Take it of both of them and just fill it with affordable housing, we have Waitrose not that far away!
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Speak for yourself Big D. You want a supermarket that charges over the odds then stick with Sainsbury’s.!
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If Sainsburys owned most of the land…why did Tesco get the go ahead???? That is a truly strange decision.
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Tesco blah blah blah Sainsburys blah blah Council blah Brown Envelopes blah so so so so bored. JUST DO SOMETHING ITS BEEN 10 YEARS
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Danimal..your so right…The council just need to sort the mess out..NOW!! W’ton don’t need another Sainsbury’s..They have Wednesfield, Perton, wolves and now Wombourne.just give it to TESCO…Wolverhampton is a doss hole, with swaths of land with no glimmer of regeneration..The council has had a good 12 + years to push this city forward and look at it, they’ve done SFA…Shame on them :-(
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Yet another example of how Wolverhamptons development control operates as development prevention. The city is full of aborted schemes, to the extent that Wolverhampton is slowly being killed off by planning policy.
Well done WCC, thats another key site in Wolverhampton thats been left to rot. It truly is an absolute disgrace.
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I agree with Rob (6) why do we want another Sainsbury.
Nearest Tesco superstore in Telford or Dudley.
Come on Sainsbury’s, do the decent thing and give it up. We dont need so many Sainsbury’s in one town. You have lost two High Court desicions already, its only your money you are throwing away or are you scared of the competition as your prices are higher than that of anyone else.
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I’d have been purchasing nappies and baby food from the new store if it had been built when it should. At this rate I’ll just dodder in with my stick for steradent and wrinkle cream.
Anyway, we want TESCO TESCO TESCO!!!!!
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Wolverhampton doesn’t need another supermarket FULL STOP! Particularly on that peice of land.
I find it disgraceful that both The Raglan and Rico’s nightclub were knocked down so big business can argue over the land.
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Let them both build a supermarket. There is enough land. Then there might be some real competition. It would be a major attraction.
Wton once again blunders around doing everything except what is right.
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I think it’s disgraceful that a company which owns the majority of the land is told to ‘hand it over’. What society are we living in where such things can happen. If Sainsbury’s legally purchased the land they should be able to use it. Anyway, quite right, another supermarket is not needed. Next we will have the market traders complaining about lost customers
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I am angry that wcc has again made a wrong choice why dont the courts make one out come and make it final either way get this eyesore cleared up its a mess around there.Its a sad part of town and a bad reflection on the city that a store cannot be built because of silly companies fighting with each other, just grow up tesco and sainsburys some one build the dam thing and develope this area .
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WCC Tell Tesco and Sainsburys if they keep arguing over it, No of you will have it, and give the land to Morrisons. It always worked in our family.
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