Online campaign launched against Oswestry supermarket plans
Wednesday 17th November 2010, 6:00PM GMT.
Protesters today launched an online campaign urging the Government to call in the decision to build Oswestry’s new supermarket at the town’s Smithfield livestock site.
The Oswestry Coalition protest group has drafted an online letter which it hopes the public will print off, sign and send off to the Government Office of the West Midlands.
The Government Office of the West Midlands could call in the controversial store decision and have it looked at again.
The coalition says the letter campaign would demonstrate to the Government Office the majority of residents do not want another supermarket in Oswestry.
The letter has been placed on the Oswestry 21 campaign group website.
Coalition member and Oswestry town councillor Saffron Rainey said the Government Office should call in the decision.
He said: “The letter campaign will hopefully demonstrate that the majority of people in Oswestry who did voice an opinion said they did not want another supermarket.
“The idea of the campaign was thought up by the coalition and hopefully a lot of people will visit the website and sign up to the letter.
“I think if enough people sign the letter and send it, the Government Office will have a clearer understanding of the public’s opinion.”
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Boy am I getting fed up with these people
This is part of the “will the 21st century please go away” brigade
I wish they would leave the place if they don’t want Oswestry to move forward instead of backward
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I could not agree more with oswesrtrian,Oswestry is dying and we need to bring in as much trade as possible wether that’s a supermarket or any other buisness,although i disagree were it’s being put it’s time to move on.I am 63 and lived in Oswestry all live and and seen a lot changes some good and some bad but progress is the name of the game.If people choose not to use the new supermarket that’s up to them but choice is everyhing.
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I agree with oswestrian, why can’t these people just admit defeat now, nobody is doing more to harm oswestrys future than them with their efforts to turn back time.
They are deluding themselves if they believe ‘that the majority of people in Oswestry’ are against this, in my experience most people are already looking forward to it opening.
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There has to be a moment where the people of Oswestry that want change and would support development on the edge of town finally get behind a campaign of their own.
To bring Oswestry into the 21st Century.
It is up to the town’s growing population to decide to act against the continued protests that give the impression that everyone within the town is against progress.
We are not. We want change. We shall get it.
The small-mindedness attitudes and protests of some shopkeepers, complaining to us that we should “Use them or lose them” holds no sway over me.
We want more than Pound shops and betting shops and charity shops. There are so many good things about Oswestry at the moment and we need to build on them.
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Whats the problem? If you don’t agree, don’t print and send the letter. OS21 and everyone against the supermarket development have a right to say so, just as everyone who supports it has a right to say so too. Does freedom of speech only work if people share your opinion?
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Well said Pig! Perhaps the three ‘fed up’ above should form their own
group. They could call it ” Progress is keeping up with the Jones’s. Everyone has an out of town supermarket so must we. At all costs”.
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The problem is that this group still claims to be working on behalf of the entire town despite the fact that the majority of us don’t agree with them. Progress is not fighting against every new development, business or organisation that is not independently run by one of their members.
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Well if they are claiming to be “working on behalf of the entire town” then that’s unacceptable. But I don’t believe they are claiming that …….. everyone has the right to voice their opinion.
You say “the majority of us don’t agree with them” but where’s your support group to show this? The Council can only react/respond to those who actually make the effort to say how they feel.
Personally, I’m all for a new development, but definitely NOT out of town at the Smithfield. Seems ridiculous to me when there are 3 other sites in town/closer to town.
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I saw the group OS21 on Red Square yesterday and I could also see people queueing up to sign their petition! Good luck to them I say. I don’t see anyone out in the streets campaigning FOR the developments. Probably because they don’t need to as brown envelopes and quiet work behind the scenes is what does it for them. I don’t want another supermarket so I’m going to sign one of OS21′s letters.
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well iam 46, and i have lived in osw all my life, we need more shops and facilities like cinema bowling etc, and i think the smith field is the ideal place for a new super market, i live by richard burbidge, and i dont think that would be ideal for a super market, look at all the disruption it would cause, most super market in other city seem to be out of town, i dont think it would effect the shop in the town, wat effecting them nowis my self,and a lot of people go out of osw to shop, that sould not be the case, but until we move in to 21st centurary, then this will alway happen
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So, you want a supermarket but not in your backyard and one out of town because everyone else has one. That’s very 21st century: I want, I get, regardless of the consequences. Interesting….
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Completely agree with you Robert
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Oh for heavens sake let Oswestry move into the next century.!!. It has been stagnating for long enough. You wont change peoples habits so the store will not remove people from the town centre, and In my opinion we only have one decent supermarket.. the other 2 are second rate, too small and pricier than they lead people to believe.
It’s high time this little world moved on.. and maybe if we have a cinema and drive thro the youth will cease to vandalise the town centre quite so much.
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