Tesco Lack Sustainability
From 12th to 18th March 2012, Tesco are the headline sponsor of “Climate Change Week” and claim to be seriously concerned about climate change and environmental sustainability issues. Yet Tesco’s current proposal for a store and housing in Ashtead fails to achieve Mole Valley’s required building sustainability standards.
MVDC require new dwellings to meet a national standard known as the Code for Sustainable Homes at Code 3 level (on a scale of 1 – 6, with 1 being the lowest). Code level 3 has been a statutory minimum requirement for public sector housing for a number of years and for all new housing in Mole Valley since late 2009.
AIn 2013 the minimum standard is to be increased to Code level 4 and in 2016, to Code level 6. The majority of recent new housing development in Mole Valley has achieved Code level 3, so why should Tesco’s come in with a sub-standard proposal now (the flats above the store only just achieve Code level 2)?
Within a few years the proposed new flats will be dinosaurs in development terms, and a legacy far from the high green standards that Tesco’s claim to hold.
The proposal for the new store itself is a backwards step as well. The store building standard is something known as BREEAM (a nationally recognised standard produced by the Building Research Establishment). MVDC require developments to achieve a “very good” rating, Tesco’s current proposal achieves a “good” rating.
Tesco and its development consultants know how to do much better – some of their new stores achieve the top level standard of “excellent”. So why are they proposing to give Ashtead less than the best they know how to do? The answer is that the site is not big enough to do this for a store of the size that is proposed! There is thus a fairly obvious point that MVDC should be making to them – the application should be for a smaller store that can be designed to achieve BREEAM “very good” standard as a minimum. Only if Tesco accept this will any of their “green” claims have any validity.
Please help us to put pressure on Tesco and MVDC to think long term and implement the minimum sustainability standards required by Mole Valley’s well established policy.
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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
This really is Private Eye material – Tescos claims that they meet CS19 through ‘doh’ an exclusion that means they don’t have to meet the targets set. As the targets have changed since the last application , we can only hope that sense will be seen by the council (i’m assuming Tesco’s won’t do that for themselves..) to ensure that the really serious issues of sustainability are taken seriously NOW.
There is a very good reason why the national and local targets are becoming more and more stringent – because there is a very real problem that we (Britain , Surrey, Mole Valley) are massively behind addressing.
As a smaller store can easily be built that does address these issues. There really is no excuse for not meeting and , in fact, exceeding targets
When developers buy a site and submit a planning application for a certain number of houses, I believe that they often have to, or are advised, to reduce the number of buildings on the site to meet amoung other issues environmental standards. I don’t see why Tesco should be treated any differently, they should submit an application which does meet (if not exceed) all the MVDC sustainable targets. If they claim that it is not financially viable, that is their problem and a risk they took when they purchased the land, just the same as any other developer or private house buyer.
Very clearly explained, thank you. Climate Week is the 12th to 18th March 2012.
Thank you Caroline, I’ve updated the page with the dates you have given.
The Code for Sustainable Homes applies to all kinds of permanent properties intended for use as homes. It takes a whole house approach and measures the sustainability of a dwelling against nine different categories: energy/carbon; water; waste; materials; surface water run-off; and health and well-being, which have mandatory performance standards; and pollution; ecology; and management. To achieve the levels of the Code, a number of points must be accumulated across all categories and the mandatory requirements must be met. Depending on the number of points gathered, a star rating is then awarded (one star being the lowest achievable level and six stars incorporating zero carbon).