Local Tesco smashed to pieces and 281 Kennington Lane refurb

Some of you might have missed the great Tesco-drink-and-smash, being that the store is at the north end of Kennington, but the new Tesco Express at 38-40 Kennington Park Road had its windows decimated at about 1am on Thursday 19th May. 

I assumed from the damage that it was a van job where a gang had tried to steal the cash machine (on the far left of the top photo, you can see the window has been entirely boarded up).  Apparently not.  Tesco may regret their decision to open next to a pub!  It turns out that the extensive damage to all of the front windows is just the work of one very drunk man!  Somebody doesn't like Tesco...

In other news, some of you may have noticed that big gay Tesco on 281 Kennington Lane is currently being refurbished and is consequently closed.  It's going to be re-arranged and presumably enlarged somewhat and will reopen on Monday 30th May.  I've no reason to assume that stock control will improve in any way or that they'll fix the freezers, so it might just be a re-arranged disaster zone as usual, but you never know...

The ever onward march of Tesco - application for expansion at main Kennington store

Tesco continue their ongoing march towards world domination with a request for planning permission to expand their ground floor at their largest SE11 store on Kennington Lane.  See
11/00263/FUL.  You have until 10th March to comment.  The site would need a new pedestrian crossing and pick up point, but the expansion would cause the loss of 41 car parking spaces.  It's an interesting move because it looks as though they're either presuming that much custom will move online or come from people who live within walking distance of the store... or...?

Well, the other possibility is that they'll expand on the currently empty piece of land opposite their site, and located next to the Beefeater distillery.  I can't remember whether they own the land next to the distillery, but I think they might.  There's a 1999 planning application that was withdrawn prior to submission,  99/02207/FUL, which shows the street record for Gasholder Place (an original name for a street) with an application submitted by Tesco.  I wonder whether there's a possibility they'll decrease the size of the car park, increase the size of the current store and then claim that there isn't enough parking, so look to expand on the empty land on the other side of Gasholder place?  It's a heavily residential area so I doubt residents would support additional parking, but if my guesswork is close, it's potentially a clever way of expanding the Tescopoly.

Also, I mentioned a while ago that Tesco have plans to open a new metro store in Kennington Park Business Centre and Caldwell Street (opposite Vassall Road).  One local resident asked that I publicise a petition requesting that the Council refuses permission for future expansion.  If you don't support the continued expansion, you might want to sign here. 

Improvements at Tesco Kennington?

I've been away for a week or so, and in my absence, the comments seem to have proliferated. One of the most popular posts /ever/ on the blog is the one with all my photos of the empty shelves at Tesco Kennington.

This is demonstrated by an extended comments section on that page, detailing all of the experiences of various residents at the store. However, some recent comments suggest that there's a new Deputy Manager, different staff, new loos (not seen this one) and new tills that work.

I'm vaguely concerned that lots of the staff have suddenly arrived here to make comments and talk it up, but I think we need to be fair. I want to give them a chance to get it right, so let me know if you've spotted any differences yet or whether you think things are improving!

216 Kennington Road (again)

Sorry everyone, but yet again, there is another planning application on 216 Kennington Road, SE11...

In August and September, I blogged that the application to change the use of the basement portion of 216 Kennington Road (old cinema) from D1 to commercial was refused. Prior to that, in May, I blogged that I oppose a bid by a large commercial retailer. Many residents heard on the grapevine that Gallagher are representing Tesco, who are behind the request. So, you'll be unsurprised to learn, if you've not already read it somewhere else, that another planning request has been made.

The planning request is on Lambeth Planning Database here where you can submit comments.

There are a various local voices that say that since the ground floor of the building was originally set aside for community use (this was sadly a missed opportunity), it should be used for such. The problem is that no tenant has been found (but then, I think it has been "off the market" for some time now, due to the Gallagher/Tesco planning application bombardment.

There is another body of people who have suggested it would be better to have a retailer occupy the space than nobody at all, but I do wonder why it has to be Tesco. For my very long blog moan about our local Tesco, see my post from June (and photos of empty shelves) at Trouble at the Big Gay Tesco in Kennington. The page is still getting large numbers of hits, and regular comments, and indeed a defence from somebody who (presumably) works there, alleging staff cuts. With such poor service from the brand at the moment, I hardly think we should be encouraged to support another store in the vicinity.

It all raises the question of how often any company can continually submit planning applications to the local authority, without the authority opening a debate about change of use of buildings (or new developments) to local residents.

Trouble at the Big Gay Tesco in Kennington

I know that it's really not cool to go shopping on a Friday night, but last weekend was busy, and it was rainy and miserable so we decided to complete the shopping early. I also understand that Friday night might not be a time when the shop is well stocked so I could understand one or two items being missing...

IT IS PERMANENTLY WORSE THAN THAT.

Shopping at Tesco in Kennington is an appalling experience. There are often major food shortages. Even food that people eat all of the time eg. salad items are frequently missing. The interior is scruffy and messy. The queues are ridiculous and staff do not open new tills even when prompted. The self-service shopping computers are so slow and very buggy. The queues are ridiculous during the evening. The younger staff are downright unhelpful and undisciplined. (The older staff are sometimes better.) Tonight, we asked three members of staff for the managers' last name. Her picture is on the wall and the name badge says "Nikki", but none of them knew her last name. That may be because she is not in the store often enough to realise how yucky it has become.

Last Friday, I finally lost my temper, and started photographing everything in an attempt to get somebody to take some notice.

These are the items that Tesco did not have in stock last Friday night:

1. £1.97 - Tesco Smoked and back bacon:



2. 5 or 6 different varieties of ham



3. £9 - dinner for 2 section. Very empty.



4. £2.00 Tesco finest oven baked potatoes with bacon and £1.97 Tesco finest dauphinoise potatoes:



5. Tesco (not finest) potato croquettes:



6. Tesco Paracetamol Tablets 500mg 16 tablets:



7. Tesco Paracetamol Tablets 500mg 16 capsules: [Clearly, shopping in Tesco has become too much for most locals...]



8. £4.93 Tesco Luxury Soft Toilet Roll White (16 for 12) [for expensive bottoms]:



9. 41p Tesco Value Toilet Roll [for cheap bottoms]:



10. £1.97 Tesco unsmoked back bacon:


11. £5.32 "Just for Men" Brown hair dye is missing. [Fine to shop at Tesco if you want to dye your hair black, but don't bother if it's brown you want]


12. Something that cost 15p, but now cannot be deciphered due to camera death.


At that point, the camera died (it is four years old, and has started doing an open/close shutter thing at random). Sadly, I'd barely scratched the surface of the products missing. I just took pictures of the most noticeable gaps. I even have a big list of over 30 other items missing (including pretty much all quantities/styles of rice), but it's sad enough to take pictures of missing items without actually typing it all up, so I shall not!

I think I might rename the blog to "Whinging about SE11.

In the meantime, please, Nikki, whoever you are... Take note of this public SE11 plea of Tesco management inadequacy and fix it!