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- Asda/Wal-Mart exploits planning loophole
- 2003
- 10 reasons supermarket mergers are bad for consumers, farmers and small businesses
- Asda spinach over pesticide levels
- Asda/Wal-Mart exploits planning loophole
- Biting back at GM crops
- Blair sacks Meacher
- Committee Stage for Recycling Bill
- Cornwall goes GM-free
- Credibility of GM public debate hangs by a thread
- Cumbria goes GM-free
- Deplorable attack on GM scientific critic
- Devon votes to go GM-free
- Dorset demands caution over GM crops
- EU commission calls for GM contamination of organic food to be allowed
- EU meets US over GM trade war
- Farmers and consumers must have a say in Wal-Mart takeover
- Fat cats fight over Safeway, consumers and farmers are real losers
- Fat-cat Tesco: putting on the pounds at farmers' expense
- Garden pesticides health warning
- GM activists make a pilgrimage for a GM-free Britain
- GM activists make a pilgrimage for a GM-free Britain
- GM beet research answers very few questions
- GM contamination - Government experts disagree
- GM jury challenges FSA policy on labelling
- GM public debate fiasco
- GM study highlights need for urgent rethink over GM crops
- GM trade war - who decides what we eat?
- GM trade war accelerates
- GM won't cure hunger in Africa
- GM-free food could be "impossible"
- Government agrees to delay GM debate
- Government failing to regulate supermarkets, says new report
- Government launches GM debate
- Government may ignore public opinion on GM crops
- Government must address GM debate chaos say groups
- Government must clarify role of GM debate
- Government opposes tough Euro GM rules
- Government report on economics of GM crops
- Government to publish GM science review
- Government urges MEPs to vote for GM food
- Government warns GM farmers over contamination threat
- Hundreds of pesticides banned
- Hundreds turn out for Waste lobby
- Illegal GM contamination threat
- Is Tesco spin on Safeway takeover a joke?
- Lake District National Park first to go GM-free
- Lake District National Park to host GM debate
- Local campaigners call for GM-free Britain election pledge
- MEPs back tougher GM labels
- Ministers try to stop GM food labels
- Morrisons take-over bad news for consumers
- MPs call for extension to GM national debate
- New analysis casts doubt on GM farm scale evaluations
- New maps reveal massive extent of GM pollution threat
- Pesticide review fails consumers and farmers
- Recycling Bill clears the Commons
- Safeway decision must wait for code review
- Sainsbury's: making life taste bitter for banana growers
- Scepticism as GM debate ends
- Second reading for Recycling Bill
- Shameful EU plans for growing GM crops
- Shropshire goes gm-free
- Slow progress on pesticide residues
- Slow progress on pesticide residues
- South Gloucestershire votes to go GM-free
- South Hams votes to go GM-free
- Stop Safeway stitch-up, alliance demands
- Supermarket code fails farmers
- Supermarket code fails farmers
- Supermarkets continue to shun GM food
- Supermarkets must be blocked from Safeway takeover
- The US ghost fleet – behind the hype
- UK votes to keep highly toxic pesticide
- UN treaty regulating GM to become law
- Uncertainty over GM safety
- US files WTO GM complaint
- US threat over GM food
- Warwickshire goes GM-free
- Why the Safeway take-over must be stopped
Asda/Wal-Mart exploits planning loophole1 July 2003
US retail giant Wal-Mart is exploiting a loophole in UK planning rules to greatly expand its floor space, MPs and Peers will be told. At a briefing in the House of Commons, Friends of the Earth's Executive Director, Tony Juniper, will be speaking with Colin Breed MP, whose recent report criticised Government for not doing more to address the negative impacts of the dramatic rise to dominance of the supermarket chains.
Asda, which is owned by Wal-Mart - the world's biggest retailer - intends to put in 40 mezzanine floor extensions around the country. It has already installed one in York and is in the process of adding 33,000 square feet to its store in Handsworth, Sheffield. These developments do not require planning permission because they are internal to the building, so the local authority and local community have no say about the development.
But large scale mezzanine floor or basement extensions, like new stores, can have very significant impacts on local communities and businesses. Asda is already claiming that its mezzanine floor in York, housing non-food goods, is drawing people in their cars from much further afield. Traffic generation can cause congestion and pollution and would normally be assessed by the planning authority.
It is not only Asda which has spotted this opportunity. Any larger retailer can exploit the same loophole. The scope for uncontrolled expansion is considerable and could make a mockery of national planning guidance which seeks to protect town centre shops, local communities and the local environment.
Friends of the Earth is proposing an amendment to the Planning Bill which is currently progressing through Parliament. The amendment would mean that the installation of additional retail floor space within an existing store would require planning permission.
Friends of the Earth is also opposed to Wal-Mart's attempt to take over Safeway and is urging the Government to block its bid. Market concentration of the big supermarkets has already gone too far. The top five supermarket chains now account for two thirds of food sales, while half of the country's food is now sold from just 1,000 giant stores. The power of the big retailers has enabled them to squeeze prices to farmers, and drive small shops out of business.
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