News from Westminster Labour

Westminster’s Conservatives fail to collect £100,000 from Tesco to pay for new Church Street shopfronts

Labour’s Church Street Councillors Barbara Grahame and Aziz Toki have revealed that Westminster Conservatives have failed to collect a £100,000 payment from Tesco which was due to the Council following the granting of planning permission for the new Tesco store on Lisson Grove which opened in 2008. The £100,000 payment is earmarked to pay for new shopfronts for independent retailers in Church Street.

Labour say that the Council’s failure to collect the money from Tesco shows the Conservatives’ lack of concern for the many shopkeepers in Church Street who are currently battling against 25% rent increases demanded by the Council.

Councillor Barbara Grahame said:

“The Conservatives failure to collect £100,000 from Tesco but are quick to demand huge rent increases from small shopkeepers. The £100,000 could help to improve shopfronts along Church Street and it is a scandal that the money has not been collected. We insist that the Council chases this money as a matter of urgency.”

Councillor Aziz Toki added:

“Small shopkeepers in Church Street are getting a very bad deal from the Conservatives. It seems to be one rule for big business and another rule for everyone else. Only in Conservative Westminster can the Council lose £17 million of public money investing in now-failed Icelandic Banks and, at the same time, fail to collect a £100,000 from the UK’s most successful food retailer!”

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