There goes the neighbourhood

[callmemadam]

I took this photo on Saturday and posted it the same day. There's been a meeting today and Waitrose have permission to build their new shop on the site. You can read about it here. Apparently it was that or more housing. Decisions, eh?

Comments

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

Answering everyone here. The thing is that the land is privately owned by a local family who own a lot of property and land in the area. Believe it or not, they are nice people but like anyone else they want to ensure their children's future. I think the reason the planners have finally said Yes is that they've accepted the land will be sold anyway and they can't stop that, so Waitrose seems the best option. Some people hope for The Waitrose Factor, which is said to improve an area. In spite of the poor shopping facilities, this is still a place where people want to live and therefore expensive, so some might argue that it doesn't need improvement.
The development will take a huge green space out of the town and one will no longer have the pleasure of looking across the river on a frosty morning at that lovely expanse of white. OTOH as it is the land is private and ordinary bods can't walk about on it. Waitrose claim they will be opening the area up to the general public, so doing us all a favour. What most people would prefer, I think, is that Waitrose took over the existing supermarket site but that won't do for them.
When we moved here there was no supermarket at all but a variety of small businesses plus chains like Cullens and MacFisheries. Safeway came in with bribes of a new library building and more shop premises,the small shops closed and now we have ghastly Somerfield and nowhere to shop at all. An old story these days.