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Someone actually cuts the fence where it's more convenient/direct for people to enter on foot or by bike. And these typically don't get repaired, as I assume the management know that if they put a new fence up, it would only get cut again. So they're left and become unofficial and quite busy entrances.
Here is an example Oliver. The entrance and exit road to and from the retail outlets is designed for vehicles - there is no footpath for pedestrians and its a long way round from and to the bus stop.
But its a tricky slope when laden with shopping hence ...
2 Attachments
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not4sale
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Ah, cheers. Where is that (can't read the bus stop flag)?
I've found quite a few, but most of them don't show up on StreetView. Here's one that does, at Gateway Retail Park in Beckton:
The fence that's been destroyed separates a footpath that I don't think is part of the retail park from the A13, but then people also made a path through what used to be continuous shrubbery. With some thought, they could easily have worked out that this would be a pedestrian desire line, but nobody spent any time on it.
Oliver Schick
Have a look at the distances those vans have to travel. Many come from very few large distribution centres on the edge of London. Even if they came from a more nearby supermarket, they would still be undercutting independent local shops. They don't actually carry that much stuff, either. While large supermarkets, especially out-of-town ones, are already totally unsustainable, delivering shopping individually is even more so.
Also, while I'm sure in some areas most people drive to the supermarket, you'd be surprised how many people, especially in London, walk and cycle there. Driving always makes a lot of noise and wastes a lot of space and attracts all the attention, and as above, if you put a couple of hundred car parking spaces next to a supermarket, it's a sustainability disaster, but that's not the whole story. I don't like 'retail parks', but one of the interesting things about them is that they're generally built entirely for driving there, and people still walk and cycle. They get built as fenced-off estates with one entrance or a couple of entrances for drivers, which are not usually convenient for people from the surrounding area, as they mostly connect to the local major road/dual carriageway network. This means that people make their own entrances. Someone actually cuts the fence where it's more convenient/direct for people to enter on foot or by bike. And these typically don't get repaired, as I assume the management know that if they put a new fence up, it would only get cut again. So they're left and become unofficial and quite busy entrances.