The small but very vociferous group opposed to the development of a supermarket at the Warrener Street car park site in Sale Moor are, we believe, misleading the Sale Moor residents.

This group are implying that the choice the residents face is between retaining the car park as it is or having a supermarket. This is most definitely not the case.

The Leader of the Council Sean Anstee and his executive have made it quite clear that the car park is going to be sold by the council to a developer, probably in the near future.

We cannot imagine that any other type of development would be for the benefit of the local residents.

We are under the impression that Park House on Northenden Road was owned by the council.

The building was sold and demolished and instead of the grounds being used as an extension for Worthington Park or for some other benefit to the local people we understand that they are building 24 houses on the site.

We are certain that the future fate of the car park will be the building of flats or houses.

Councillor Mike Freeman conducted a survey to find out what the residents of the area really thought about building a supermarket on the site.

He approached about 3,000 residents but only 20 per cent replied. Of those that replied 80 per cent opposed the development with 20 per cent in favour. So 80 per cent of the local people don't seem to care one way or the other and only 16 per cent seem to actually oppose the development.

We believe that if this small minority opposing the development were given the choice between a supermarket that would be of use to many residents or more flats or houses then most would prefer the supermarket.

If the proposed supermarket goes ahead then we would still have the car park with about the same number of parking spaces, and under the proposed free parking controls there would be even more spaces available for shoppers and visitors to Sale Moor as it appears that many of the current spaces are taken up all day by commuters using the buses and metro to go to work.

Norma and Tony Moore,
Sale Moor