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Costs of a Tesco appeal would not fall on taxpayers
• YOU report on the decision by Camden’s planning committee to give permission for a store on the site of a demolished pub in Belsize Road (Tesco Express store gets go-ahead, September 4).
You state: “Planning officers said that the council would be unlikely to win should Tesco appeal against a no vote, leading to a court case which would cost taxpayers money”.
I hope that this statement was not made because it is factually incorrect. If there had been a no vote then Tesco would be able to appeal not to the courts but to the Planning Inspectorate.
In these appeals costs are only awarded if one of the parties has been “unreasonable”, not just because the case is lost.
While I do not know the details of the case it does seem likely that the concerns of such a large number of residents would be a reasonable ground for refusing permission and so this would not apply.
David Kaner
Mercer Street, WC2
q I was surprised by your coverage of Liberal Democrat councillor Janet Grauberg claiming to be campaigning against a new Tesco.
What she forgot to mention was that her Lib Dem colleagues on the planning committee all voted in favour of most of the application, and two out of three of them supported the other final part.
No wonder people get turned off when the Liberal Democrats say one thing and then do another. This is especially galling as a friend of mine in Hampstead says that Lib Dems have been claiming in their by-election literature there to be supporting small shops through the planning system! Their actions in the latest planning meeting clearly suggests otherwise.
GIOVANNI SPINELLA
West End Lane, NW6
•IT'S interesting to note that people who are against Tesco stores change their mind once the store opens.
They find it handy and wallet friendly, hence the queues. The site of the Britannia pub is ideal for a supermarket and I am not the only one in the area to welcome it.
Councillor Janet Grauberg should mind her own ward. There is a Tesco in her Kilburn ward. Is she campaigning for its closure?
MARIAN GISH
Fairfax Road, NW6
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