From the Hillman Imp to Tescotown

 

Yesterday marked the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Rootes Factory in Linwood that made the Hillman Imp. To accommodate the workforce, the small industrial village of Linwood was expanded and the first “Regional Shopping Centre” in Scotland was opened in the town centre.

Land in Linwood had been acquired for development in 1930 by the Parish Council of Kilbarchan. But with the new factory, a major expansion was required. So in 1965, land for the new Regional Shopping Centre was assembled by the County Council of Renfrew under the Linwood Compulsory Order 1965. In 1967 this land was leased by the County Council of the County of Renfrew to a company called City Wall Properties (Scotland) Ltd. for development as a shopping centre on a 125 year lease (expiring in 2092). For twenty years, Linwood, its residents and its shopping centre thrived.

Then, in 1981, the car plant closed its doors with the loss of 6000 direct jobs and a further 7000 in the wider economy. The community entered a period of catastrophic decline with families leaving and emigrating.

Bathgate no more, Linwood no more
Methil no more, Irvine no more
Bathgate no more, Linwood no more
Methil no more, Irvine no more

Linwood was immortalised by the Proclaimers in Letter from America, their 1987 ballad of emigration and economic decline.

As the Daily Record reported on 14 April 2013 in the wake of the death of Margaret Thatcher

Mary Bowman, 63, moved to Linwood 40 years ago and watched as the town went from boom to bust.

“People just left,” she said. “They closed two primary schools because the population dwindled away. The town had 30 shops.

“We had a Woolworths, two bakers, a cafe, video shops, a supermarket as well as Clydesdale Electrical and an advice centre. The place was buzzing and you didn’t even need to leave Linwood for anything. There was even a Chinese and an Indian restaurant – places you could sit down in – not takeaways.

The town centre struggled on in the the midst of the economic ravages of the Thatcher years but somehow survived. By the end of the nineties, however, it was a mere shadow of its former self although the leaseholder, Ellison & Company from County Durham had attracted tenants for almost every unit in the centre.

And then a strange thing happened.

A new company, Balmore Properties Ltd. acquired the lease in 2001 for £1.7 million. In the six short years that followed, as the Scotsman reported in 2010,

“.. community leaders and retailers claimed that dozens of shops were closed as Balmore evicted tenants for minor misdemeanours and refused shopkeepers’ requests to have their leases extended. The precinct became blighted with derelict shops and graffiti-covered walls and plaqued by antisocial behaviour from local gangs.”

The chemist and the optician opted to relocate to portacabins.

Balmore Properties Ltd. was incorporated in September 2000 and by 2006 was under the control of a sole Director, Dallas Peter Rhodes who owned the full paid-up capital of the company – 2 shares worth £1 each. By 2006, residents were fed up and the local MSP, Wendy Alexander, organised a petition to “Boot out Balmore”. A total of 3100 people signed the petition – full half of the town’s residents.

By early 2007, Alexander and the residents appeared to have succeeded. Tesco were interested in taking over the development and as a report in the Herald on 3 February 2007 noted with some surprise, when Nick Gellatly, Tesco’s Head of Corporate Affairs, visited the town the day before he was greeted with tumultuous applause by residents. He talked about putting a “new beat in the heart of Linwood” and building a new superstore together with a library, clinic and community centre. In July 2007, Tesco Stores Ltd. took over the lease from Balmore Properties at no cost “for certain good and onerous causes” – a transfer for no consideration where there is an unspecified obligation to do so. (Title here and plan here)

But nobody in Linwood was aware of that. Tesco had come to town and was rescuing their shopping centre from the blight of Balmore. Locals worked enthusiastically with Tesco to develop their plans. Some even appeared in their promotional videos.

Then in 2010, the folk of Linwood discovered the truth about what had been going on. Dallas Rhodes’ company Balmore Properties was not an independent retail property company.

It was set up as a front on behalf of Tesco.

Some commercial property sources will happily claim that this is normal practice, that if owners get wind that a major supermarket chain is sniffing around, the value of the property will double or triple. Fair enough. But if that was the case, Tesco should have revealed its hand in 2001 or 2002. It didn’t. Instead the tenants were driven out and the community was left with a town centre that, later in 2011 would earn them the Carbuncle of the Year award.

Dallas Rhodes is and has been a Director of a number of other companies. One of them is Whitecastle Properties Ltd., a company wholly owned by Tesco Stores Ltd again with a paid up share capital of two £1 shares and with Tesco executives as Directors. Rhodes was a Director of this company from 2003 until 2008. The net assets of the company as at February 2012 came to a total of £236.

But unlike Balmore Properties Ltd. which never submitted any annual accounts because it enjoyed an exemption as a small company, Whitecastle does submit accounts and thus has to state its purpose. Its 2012 accounts admit that the Company’s principal purpose is “to act as an agent for Tesco”.

Tesco town is now well underway and developments can be followed at its website.

In the 50 years since the opening of the Hillman Imp plant, Linwood has enjoyed great hopes with the car industry, rapid and brutal decline and, finally, a takeover by a corporate retailer that dishonestly appeared as a knight in shining armour to rescue the townsfolk from their fate.

What Linwood has not had, until the establishment of the Linwood Community Development Trust has been any proper understanding, control or influence over how their town is governed.

And that is the challenge for all of Scotland’s towns.

OTHER LINKS

Linwood in Scottish Screen Archive

This article was first published at Andy Wightman’s blog Land Matters

Comments (10)

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  1. George Gunn says:

    Tesco are a social scourge in Scotland. They blatantly “land bank” and local authorities seem to fall over themselves to facilitate this. In Thurso they have duped the Highland Council and across the Highlands they are systematically killing town and village centres. They do it because they can. They should be halted and legislation passed at at Hollyrood to ensure no corporation can pull the wool over already depressed communities. Tesco no more.

  2. Ninian Fergus says:

    Getting independence next year should help stop them.

    1. andywightman says:

      How?

  3. Jen says:

    Surely some form of due diligence was carried out by the Labour’ Wendy Alexander before she committed to backing Tesco under the name of Balmore? This seems very odd.

  4. andywightman says:

    My understanding is that Wendy Alexander did what any good constituency MSP should do – she tried to assist. First of all by giving support to the boot out balmore campaign and then by mediating with Tesco. Remember, many folk in Linwood were & are delighted that Tesco came along. They are not to be judged for that given the hell that they went through before. By the time that Balmore was called out for being a front, folk were faced with a difficult decision – anger at the duplicitousness but also seeing no alternative. It is tough when you are powerless. You have to make compromises with yourself, your family, your neighbours and your community.

  5. duncan lamond says:

    is andy a pr man for tesco

  6. Catherine French says:

    I believe the same tactics are being deployed in a nearby township.
    Contact me in confidence for further information

  7. Kirsty Flannigan says:

    The link below is the follow-up to this blog.

    Linwood CDT has made significant waves of change since 2013. It would be great to tell the continued story of our journey since then.

    Thank you,
    Kirsty Flannigan

    http://www.andywightman.com/archives/2524

  8. Liz fulton dowling says:

    It was criminal I was kicked out of my gift shop and then my cafe. I was promised a unit when the development was finished. All lies

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