Letter: Paranoia over supermarket plans?
Monday 15th March 2010, 7:42AM GMT.
An artist's impression of how the proposed development on the Oswestry Burbidge development site would look
LETTER: Re: Proposed Supermarket Developments in Oswestry.
There has been an overdose of paranoia over the perceived threat to existing Oswestry town centre businesses and there does not seem to have been enough attention paid to the need to retain and attract employment to the town.
If the Smithfield cannot redevelop, the cattle trade will go elsewhere, quickly followed by the remnants of our agricultural trade and the associated farmers’ business that rides on it.
The Burbidge redevelopment should be allowed, in order to secure the future of the firm.
Surely we have a duty to try to ensure that our major employers have all reasonable encouragement to remain.
Without the level of employment thus secured, there will be little need for a supermarket, or for specialist town centre shops.
JT Hughes and Guttercrest should also be allowed to redevelop their sites, for similar reasons, but for additional housing, thus completing the run from the old football field down to the cemetery.
Finally I believe that the central car park should be retained, in its present form.
Proposals to develop a supermarket there must be turned down because of totally inadequate access for delivery vehicles around the Smithfield Hotel site.
I sincerely believe that Oswestry can benefit from two further supermarkets and one housing development.
Peter C Carkeet-James
Oswestry
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