Good Riddance, Terry Tesco – 4

Anyone doubting the determination of the Tesco empire to bring its particular version of choice to a part of the country near you – whether or not the people want it – need look no further than the upmarket Buckinghamshire village of Gerrards Cross.

The population of Gerrards Cross is less than seven and a half thousand, on the face of it not a compelling case for Tesco – or any other supermarket chain – to ride to the rescue. But the area is also uniformly prosperous, and this may have tempted Terry Leahy’s finest to open a store there. Unfortunately, the locals were vehemently opposed to the proposal.

It’s entirely possible that there was a significant element of Nimbyism among the residents, but their objection would be no less valid as a result. However, despite the opposition, permission was given for the store to be built, and in 1999, work began.

In order to provide sufficient space for the store and a car park, much of these would be situated above the railway adjacent to Gerrards Cross station. A “new tunnel” was therefore assembled, and then material used to fill to the sides and top, producing what was hoped would be a nice level surface (the railway runs through the area in a cutting excavated at the time it was built).

So far, so logical, and as the filling over the reinforced concrete tunnel segments progressed, the frame of the supermarket took shape. Although by now some six years had passed, the end was in sight. Except that it wasn’t: on the evening of June 30, 2005, part of the “new tunnel” collapsed. Fortunately, no trains were caught up in the event, but services had to be suspended and did not resume for over a month and a half.

And Tesco now had several more bills to pay: clearing the result of the collapse and making the railway safe, loss of revenue to train operator Chiltern Railways, recovery and reinstatement of the tunnel, reinstatement of the store structure (the original had to be dismantled following the collapse), and the legally complex change of main contractor resulting from the affair.

A less determined company might have wondered. Tesco came through the Gerrards Cross tunnel collapse still determined to give the locals the retail opportunity they had so plainly said they did not want.