‘Ghost Town’ fears over Tesco’s Whitchurch plans
Wednesday 12th January 2011, 11:01AM GMT.
Businesspeople in Whitchurch have called on supermarket giant Tesco to rethink controversial plans for a new out-of-town store amid fears it would render the centre a “ghost town”.
About 40 people attended the launch meeting of new campaign group WH21 which is urging the supermarket group to expand its current town centre store and scrap any proposals to move to Edgeley Park.
Fears were raised at yesterday’s meeting that any move to the outskirts of town by Tesco would sound a death knell for small shops and independent traders.
Guy Butler, a resident and businessman who chaired the meeting, said: “We aren’t trying to stop any supermarket coming to Whitchurch but we want Tesco to show they have seriously considered staying in the town centre.
“There is land available they could expand on to where they are, but have they done anything about it?
“I asked them about it and they said my plans were ‘ambitious’ and we haven’t heard from them since.
“I think they are taking the easy option and this is about making Tesco work harder.”
Bill Smith, former chairman of Whitchurch Regeneration Forum, claimed since its arrival in Whitchurch, Tesco had already “destroyed” the town centre.
He urged members to fight the retailer’s latest plans or face Whitchurch becoming a “ghost town”.
Simon Lyon, from Lorna’s House gift shop on High Street, said one option would be to poll Whitchurch residents to show Tesco bosses the depth of feeling.
“Lots of high streets in the UK are dead but ours is alive and we need to show how important that is,” he said.
Whitchurch property developer Mike Bate said: “I’m ecstatic with the turnout from the business community but I feel our Shropshire Council members have let us down by not attending,” he said.
“This group would like to be friends with Tesco and we want to find a way of keeping them where they are as there are plenty of opportunities for them to expand without moving out of town.”
Tesco currently has a store at White Lion Meadow in the town centre.
Under its proposals with developer Mercian Developments, Tesco would open a new store and petrol station at Edgeley Park.
By Tom Johannsen
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Of course it will – thats how they work, they win more times than lose. They have lost, it’s not the only option. Find someone else to take up in in-town smaller option if you must.
Whitchurch is too big to be a twee tourist town like Ironbridge and has too many small shops to sell off for housing unlike Broseley.
It might sound great to have out of town shiny supermarket, but rendering the shopping section of the town dead and unemployed. If you want a clone town, then fine. But nobody will come to Whitchurch anymore.
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Hallelujah for Tesco!! At last North Shropshire will have a supermarket large enough to cope with demand. North Shropshire villages are bereft with charity and tat shops. Residents want to be able to buy a range of good quality, fashionable clothes and goods without the extorionate ‘local’ and ‘rural’ prices tags – which is lets face it, is whats forcing people to go to larger towns for shopping which are apparently killing trade. I for one cannot wait and will definately travel from Market Drayton to use it, as in Morrisons (drayton) its not big enough to swing a cat !
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I def agree with Vote for Tesco, Whitchurch has grown as a town with all the new housing estates sprouting up. The current Tesco is simply not big enough, we need to be able to buy everything that we want in town, which we can’t at the moment, i have got 2 children 14 and 10 and i cannot get clothes to fit them and the same goes for mens clothing. People are saying that it will kill the town, look at the previous comment, this person is happy to come and use Tesco from Market Drayton, surely if you are going to drive into whitchurch people will use the time too look at the other independant shops as well. So stop being in the dark ages and bring Whitchurch into the present.
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