We don't need it (From Messenger Newspapers)
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We don't need it
10:29am Thursday 14th June 2012 in Your Letters
I CANNOT understand why Peel Group go against the feelings of the community – Peel Holdings for the supermarket on Neary Way and Peel Energy for the Biomass Incinerator.
Mark Prisk, a Conservative minister, says on his website: “A Conservative Government would make Local Plans, truly local. This means involving people and local neighbourhoods in creating the priorities for their Local Plan. It also means that we will abolish the power of planning inspectors to rewrite Local Plans.”
So why has the government inspector given permission for the supermarket? For the inspector to say that a new store would not be a threat to the town centres seems a nonsense.
I wonder if he visited Urmston and Stretford and saw the empty shops; some in the Urmston Phase 1 Development have not been occupied since they were built.
How many more stores do we need?
There will be an Aldi, Quality Save and Iceland in Phase 2.
There is only a limited amount of money around to spend.
Mr K A Smith, address supplied
Nigel Woodcock says...
9:57pm Sun 17 Jun 12
Regarding the decision of the planning inspector on the Davyhulme supermarket, in such cases the inspector has to base his or her decision on the information before them. In the case of large supermarket proposals, of which there have been many in recent years, I have never come across an instance where the developers have failed to produce statistical evidence that their supermarket would, miraculously, have absolutely no effect on nearby shopping centres.
This evidence is produced at great expense by “experts” and is usually backed up at appeal by top barristers. Unless the Council, or wealthy residents, can produce contrary, and equally expensive, statistical evidence to back up what everyone actually knows is pure common sense, it is almost impossible for inspectors to find against the developers.
So the moral of the story is that money can nearly always overcome local objections. The Peel Group has plenty of money and it is not afraid to use it to earn more. I hope that this picture might change in the future, but it will only do so if people are mobilised and very determined.