Oswestry supermarket meeting venue ‘not big enough’
Wednesday 20th April 2011, 3:34PM BST.
Campaigners today called for a meeting on controversial plans for a new supermarket in Oswestry to be held at a bigger venue, claiming the current location will not be big enough for everybody who wants to attend.
Plans for a store on the Smithfield Livestock site are back at the strategic planning committee to “refine” words on its cash commitment to the town.
The meeting will take place in the Shropshire Council Chamber, in Castle View, at 2pm on April 28.
But town campaign group Oswestry 21 has written to the unitary council on behalf of the Oswestry Coalition calling for it to be held at a different site.
In a letter a spokesman for the group said: “We are concerned therefore at the choice of venue, which given the level of public interest, is inappropriately small.”
The letter suggests moving the meeting to the church in Cabin Lane or East Oswestry Community Centre.
In a letter, a unitary council officer said due to the timescale it was “not possible to look at a new venue.”
But Os21 spokeswoman Jessie Miller, said: “We feel this is totally unreasonable and amounts to the public being prevented from attending.
“It seems strange to me that there is not plenty of space. It feels to us that they are trying to brush it under the carpet.”
When members of the planning committee granted permission for the Smithfield application in Shrewsbury Road it was on the basis a shuttle bus be provided from the town centre to the site.
The committee will be discussing the 106 agreement wording of the permission which was granted.
Miss Miller said this was an “important step” and people want to “secure the best possibility for the town centre”.
Tim Rogers, principal planner at Shropshire Council, said: “We have recently been contacted by Os21 with regards to the meeting venue.
“As we have not been alerted to any significant wider public interest in the wording of the Section 106 obligation we feel it is in the best interests of all to retain the venue, taking into account the difficulties of finding another venue.”
By Chrissy Symmons
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I know of at least 15 people who have arranged to go to this meeting, as the decision by the councillours was baised and in some way flawed by the way the previous meeting was held.
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There won’t be room for 5 members of the public let alone 15! This is a really bad decision by Shropshire Council and doesn’t say much for their commitment to involving local people in big decisions.
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Not surprised the council wants to keep this quiet. The Smithfield developers were chosen mainly because a shuttle bus linked the site with the town centre for the lifetime of the development. But that promise was before they got prospective planning permission. Now it comes to putting their money where their mouth is, they’re pleading poverty. They want to provide a shuttle bus on the cheap. And they want an option to pay off the council and withdraw the service in 3 years.
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” Refine” words on its cash commitment…”? It is more than ‘refine’: it’s changing the whole premises on which this scheme was won! There is no decided supermarket, details on the cinema ( the carrot on which the scheme was sold to the public), are worrying, as no completion and running has been guaranteed when ( and if) the superstore opens. The Shuttle bus, so loved by the Councillors who voted for this, is now a two man operation, managed by Liberty Mercian. What when a driver is sick or on holiday? What if the bus breaks down? Where are the £5/7million promised going to go? Why is the Town Council, supposedly those who look after our interest, not asking these questions? If they have answers, why not inform the public? Where is the Localism Agenda in situations like this, when local people are kept in the dark or fooled into a scheme that turns out to be well short of what we were promised? This is not about pro or against supermarket anymore: it’s about democracy, transparency and not allowing greedy developers to fool citizens and elected politicians alike. We must attend this meeting as a matter of principle.
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