KEEP THE NOISE DOWN!

It was interesting to hear that Tesco, the big fat bully in the playground of UK retailing, got wrapped over the knuckles the last week, for making too much anti-social noise!

Residents who live near the giant store in Stalybridge got so fed up with being awoken from their slumbers by the constant comings and goings of 40ft juggernauts delivering goods throughout the small hours, that they called in the noise abatement team at Tameside council, who intimated that they were going to install sound monitoring equipment, to assess the problem.

I wish the residents of Stalybridge good luck, but does anyone find it ironic, that in this case, all the Stalybridge councillors, to a man, have unanimously agreed to give their full support to Stalybridge residents suffering sleepless nights, but when Tesco applied for a change of terms to allow 24 hour deliveries at their new Hattersley store, initially, there wasn’t a councillor to be seen. In fact, if it wasn’t for the prompt actions of the Longdendale Community Group (LGC) who firstly sought out and elicited the support of their local councillors; hundreds of residents living in the proximity of the controversial Hattersley store would now be suffering the same night time fate!  

"...the storage depot will be where those houses are now!"

Longdendale volunteers, who are becoming increasingly successful in persuading local councillors to champion the wishes of their residents, gathered hundreds of letters of objection to Tesco’s application, which, if passed, would have irretrievably and adversely affected Hattersley and Mottram village’s nocturnal environment.

Attending the council meeting in numbers, the LCG successfully thwarted the pro-Tesco council planners, by proficiently presenting their case, which resulted in obtaining a complete reversal to the advice given by Planning Officers, who had already recommended that the Speakers Panel approve the application.

Now let’s get behind group on fighting the same short-sighted council planners who are pushing their ‘preferred industrial zoning’ plans, which, if passed, would seriously affect huge areas of our precious ‘Green-Belt!’