Representatives from Cheshire East Council, Wilmslow Town Council, Wilmslow Trust and a local residents group have met with Tesco employees to request that improvements are made to the external appearance of their Alderley Road store.
Clive Bassil (Wilmslow Trust), Ken Watson (Holly Road Area Residents) and Councillor Rod Menlove carried out an inspection of Wilmslow town centre towards the end of last year to identify areas in need of action to improve the environment. The Tesco Express store was identified as one of the sites in need of a facelift.
They then approached Tesco to express concern about the upper areas of the store's frontage, the storage of waste off Green Lane, the parking of the skips and the external areas at ground level - which they feel are all well below an acceptable standard.
On Wednesday 23rd April a meeting took place at the Alderley Road store between Stuart Kinsey (Vice Chairman of The Wilmslow Trust) Ken Watson, Cllr Menlove and Cllr Ruth McNulty with three executives from Tesco where they discussed a schedule of improvements so the store "will make a better contribution to the Wilmslow retail experience than currently".
The improvements requested of Tesco include: repairing of the front window; rejuvenation of the store's appearance - refreshing the fascia, re-painting the wood and tower; screening the bins to the side of the store; reducing the number of 'cages' that sit adjacent to the store; replacing the locks on the bins; addressing the large puddle that forms to the front of the store on rainy days and addressing the parking of cars on the pavement.
Tesco spokesperson Mark Thomas said, "My colleagues and I were delighted to meet Councillor Menlove, Councillor McNulty and Mr Kinsey at our Wilmslow store last week.
"The store plays an important part in the community, providing local customers with the high standard of service that they rightly expect. We're always conscious of being a good neighbour and met to talk about what improvements could be made to the store's appearance.
"We're grateful for the views that were shared and we'll take away the recommendations that were made and provide further details on the changes at a later date."
Comments
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A Wilmslow retail frontage imaging booklet would help integrate the look and feel of our town. Making Wilmslow a more beautiful town would increase footfall and help our retailers prosper.
A one off booklet would cost less than the annual spend on flowers, which I'm sure we all hugely appreciate. Cllrs could easily organise this.
Also, discouraging builders from putting their name at entrances to estates would be no bad thing either. Looks tacky. Free advertising? WTC send invoices please.