Last Thursday, St Albans MP Anne Main met with Tom Lowe of ITN News outside the Tescos site on London Road in St Albans.

Last Thursday, St Albans MP Anne Main met with Tom Lowe of ITN News outside the Tescos site on London Road in St Albans. ITN were there gathering information for a report on the findings of a damning report issued by the Office of Fair Trading which looked at the actions of the four largest supermarket chains. St Albans is a prime example of Tescos' approach to buying up large tranches of prime retail site and then leaving them undeveloped for years, this practice was slammed in the report.

The plans for the Tescos site on London Road to be developed into a superstore, complete with a number of houses, seem to have stalled and the land remains undeveloped. As the time passes the site is becoming increasingly run down, nothing has been done to maintain it, litter and fly-tipping are occurring and local properties are subject to blight.

Anne said, 'I am totally disappointed that Tescos, despite assurances from the Acquisitions Manager, Mr Rozier, have still not put in a planning application for this site. Last November Mr Rozier assured me that plans were reaching a conclusion, and felt sure that an application would be submitted in January once a deal with Esso had been finalised, it is very clear that this has not happened and still no progress appears to have been made. However now there has been a shake up at Tescos, and Mr Ed Heppenstall is in charge of this project. Mr Rozier told me today that they have got Esso back to the table, and are confident they can make progress. However we have had many false dawns and I will be having a meeting with Mr Heppenstall to stress my complete dissatisfaction with the cavalier attitude of Tescos towards my constituents and St Albans as a whole.

In light of the Office of Fair Trading Report into a review of supermarket giants, I have written to the Chief Executive of Tescos, Sir Terry Leahy, asking him to explain why his company is not proceeding with this site speedily, and to press him to either instruct his team to proceed with a planning application, or to consider other options such as allowing someone else to develop that site if they cannot proceed with a scheme that will benefit St Albans.'"