Campaign march in fight against store bids
Monday 8th March 2010, 10:14AM GMT.
March in protest against the proposed plans for another supermarket in Oswestry.
Hundreds of campaigners marched through a Shropshire town centre to show their opposition to plans for a new multi-million pound supermarket.
The march, which attracted 450 people paraded through Oswestry, and was organised by a coalition of campaign groups which claims the proposed new store will destroy the town’s small, independent traders.
The march, which left the Memorial Ground in Church Street before snaking around the town, was the latest move by the coalition group made up of Oswestry 21, Oswestry Civic Society, Oswestry Chamber of Trade and the Campaign to Protect Rural England.
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450 out of the Owestry population is peanuts, but thats not my point.
Who is the supermarket concerned there is no mention of it as far as I could see.
John Cherrington
Ex Oswestry Lad
Lausanne Switzerland.
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The supermarket concerned is Tescos.
Also where did the new number 450 come from, on Saturday they reported only 350 and then they seemed to count any shoppers who happened to pass them as being a part of the protest. Those of us in town Saturday thought the number of people actually involved in the March was less than 100.
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Dylkov – should they have counted the people I saw clapping and cheering from the pavement?
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The actual number of people who assembled in Cae Glas Park at the start of the March was counted by two people and was 334. More joined in along the way, which is where the figure of 350 comes from. 450 seems to be a bit inflated. ‘Less than 100′ is simply untrue. In any event its not ‘peanuts’. I have lived in Oswestry for over 30 years and this is the biggest demonstration I have ever seen in the town. The idea that people opposed to inappropriate supermarket development are just a ‘vocal minority’ has been demolished. Public opinion in Oswestry is overwhelmingly against the proposals.
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Estimating march numbers is always difficult, so we appointed two tellers. 330 people left Cae Glas, and people were still flowing to the back of the march when our tellers needed to move forward for marshalling duties. No passing shoppers were included, neither were people who joined the march in progress.
The police and the press thought there were more people but we are happy with our teller count. We are pleased that so many people turned out and made their views public.
Andy Boddington
CPRE Shropshire
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It seems that the pro supermarket lobby in Oswestry are so short of arguments for their cause that they have no better ideas than to feebly try to reduce the self evident number of marchers, describe them (on another Shrops Star article page) as “old people’ and “new age traveller types” (what decade to these critics live in?!) and set up pathetic fake web pages, as discussed on Radio Shropshire this morning.
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I didn’t see many people clapping from the pavements, infact most people seemed to laught it off as a joke or complain about them being in the way.
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So even if 450 people joined the protest, thats 2.63% of the 2008 estimated URBAN population of 17,116.
WOW!!!
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I think a cinema would be a great addition to the town of oswestry. I have been born and bred here and it is about time kids had something to do. A cinema would give kids something to do with their mates instead of hanging around on the streets at weekend getting drunk and causing trouble. It be great for family’s to spend a saturday together watchinga good film. It will also bring job opportunities to the town. My brother is disabled and on weekends he is stuck in the house with nothing to do. At least with a cinema he can go with his mates and watch a film, giving his mum who is also his carer a break.
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I confess to being the source of the 450 figure. People were still arriving after the counters left the Park gates and more joined along the way – I was give that as a more realistic figure. It may have been a generous guess.
This was a lightly organised march, with word going out fairly organically. The word simply didn’t reach most people and yet of those it did reach, 400-ish came. Sorry Anon, that’s a very good turnout.
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I think that Dylkvo, by the comments that have been written, must of been on a different planet, or oblivous to what was going on. I watched the march go pass, and I heard people saying well done, I support the cause, etc,even peolpe I saw including myself signed a objection letter to the plans. So I say well done to the organisers, and if anyone actually does really care about Oswestry, support the campaign against the supermarket.Before its to late.
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No more supermarkets please (and definitely not on the car park)! Rather cinema, fitness tracks, dog agility track, BMX course, and any other entertainment/leisure activity not covered in the leisure centre under construction, and privately run to ensure good standards and no vandalism.
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Eleanor:
most of the people marching will agree with you about a Cinema in town. What we don’t want is a cinema tied up with a large supermarket .
Supermarkets offer cinemas as a carrot because they know it is a popular facility. Yet when they build huge complexes out of town, children, young people and the disabled cannot access them as they need cars to get there. Many of the marchers had young children with them and talked about a good future for all the people living in Oswestry, not just quick profits for some big companies at the expense of small, independent shops which are the pride of our town.
If your brother is under 21 contact the Kingswell, Centre North West or the Youth Cafe regarding facilities for children and Young people; from experience I am certain they will be very happy to help. Best wishes.
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Those of us that do care about this town are supporting this development if we keep on letting these little groups drive away every new develoment that attempts to start up in oswestry before long they will stop coming here and there won’ be anything left in this town. These people seem to fear change and progress but trying to hold Oswestry back in last century will kill it quiker that any Supermarket.
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Firstly apologies for the multiple spelling errors in previous posts i’m using a dodgy keyboard, not all the keys work all the time. Secondly how are any of these developments unaccessable. The furthest from the town centre is the Smithfield and that is only a 10 minute walk down Salop Road, its no further for kids to go than the college or the new leisure centre.
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Dylkov, the opposition to another supermarket is not a ‘little group’ but the majority of the town. It’s you that’s out of step here.
I think you should try walking from the town centre, the cross, out to the Smithfield and see just how long it takes you. You’d be pushed to do it in ten minutes, especially coming back with bags of shopping. It’s a drive not a walk.
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It is not the majority of the town opposing the supermarket, as Anon pointed out less than 3% of the town are supposed to have been involved in Saturdays protest, much less than that when you consider all of the surrounding villages outside of the urban population. You only need to read the letter columns in our local papers or look at how many people are joining the online Facebook campaign for the Smithfield site (More than double the number who opposed on Saturdy so far) to see the support is there. It is just not as vocal because as others have pointed out it’s only the opposition that bother to make a fuss, the majority of us fully expect it to happen without the need for any noise from us. Maybe we should arrange for something to drown out them out before once again they are seen to represent us all.
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Whenever i have spoken to representatives of the groups that initiated the march they have stressed that standing still is not an option for Oswestry. Its not healthy and its not realistic. However we are living in rapidly changing times and large retail developments of the kind proposed has caused a ‘donut’ effect in too many small towns, as big trade takes over around the edge and the local businesses in the centre die off. What we need is a different plan for Oswestry that will allow it move forward whilst supporting and promoting its strengths. Everyone agrees that we are defined by our town centre of small shops. After Burbidges and the hospital, most employment in Oswestry is small scale. We need more facilities and more employment land available for small businesses.
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Some posts are getting a bit pedantic about numbers attending the march. Perhaps is worth pointing out that most independent shops in Oswestry have ” Keep our town special” posters on doors and windows, supporting the aims of the march and strongly against another supermarket. They could not march as the businesses needed to be open, but the show of solidarity from chemists, grocers,gift shops, keycutters, antiquarians, pubs, lighting shops, tobacconists etc, was and is still there for anyone to see.
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