Around 240 letters were delivered to Welshpool this morning (and many others were posted separately)!
The planners have confirmed that the consultation period ends 21 days after the latest of the various invitations to comment. The site notice is dated 14 July, so that makes it 4 August. Make it Monday to be safe! If commenting on Monday, email it and then post a copy.
Thank you to everyone who has written to John Pearson at Powys planning. It’s not too late to hit tomorrow’s deadline - if you can possibly write your objection in a letter tonight, and drop it in before 10.30am tomorrow then it will be in John’s desk by 12 noon.
At the moment we have around 50 handwritten letters and 100 signed “template” letters. This is amazing in the time that we’ve had - but this is one of the best chances we are going to get to influence this massive development.
Lembit Opik is going to be in town tonight knocking on doors and spreading the Keep Mach Special message
A fyddech cystal â cheisio cael cymaint o bobl ac sy’n bosib arwyddo ac anfon llythyrau oherwydd mae pob un yn cyfri - rydym angen dros 100.
Mi wneith uwchfarchnad enfawr fel hyn difrodi ein tref - gallwch ganlyn dolennau ar y wefan i weld tystiolaeth awdurdodol a hanesyddol o lefydd eraill. Mae’n rhaid i lythyrau gael eu hanfon Dydd Iau gyda dosbarth cyntaf, neu gallwch fynd a nhw i siop ‘eco deco’ herbyn 10.00 o’r gloch fore Gwener i gael eu trosglwyddo gyda llaw ar y diwrnod.
Please get as many people as poss to sign and send letters because it all counts - we need over 100. A giant superstore like this will devastate our town - the authoritative and historical evidence from elsewhere is documented in links on the website. Letters must go off on Thursday first class or to the eco deco shop by 10am friday and be hand delivered that day.
Here are letters to Powys Planning Department. These are Word docs you can download, add any of your comments to, add your address to, print and post to the address above:
Currently we desperately need these translating - can anyone oblige?
Letters which are posted are given far more weight than ones which e-mailed, so please post yours. The planning department needs to receive at least 100 letters of objection. We will have people on the streets on Wednesday and Thursday, including a team from Lembit Opik, our MP, who is throwing his full weight behind the campaign. We will be going door to door.
If you can, print out five copies and ask five people to sign the letter and send it off. It must go first class on Thursday, or take signed letters to the Eco Deco shop on Maengwyn Street by 10am Friday and they will be hand delivered.
Responses to Powys must be received by the end of this week, Friday 31 July, sooner than we thought. The planning officer has just confirmed this. The letter went out on 10 July, even though we didn’t hear about it for several days.
A new page has been added - Tesco’s maps.
The Co-op has applied for planning permission to demolish the old community centre next door with a view to expanding its store into that site.
The proposals will be available from Wednesday to view in Canolfan Hyddgen, next to Ysgol Bro Ddyfi school, as are the Tesco’s documents. The number is: P/2009/0800.
The existing Coop is 8000 sq ft, and the addition of the new site would bring it up to 13000 sq ft. Spar has 3000 and Harry Tuffins 2000.
That would make 18000 sq ft. in total of supermarket space for Machynlleth. Tescos application is for 27,000 sq ft.
The town does not need that much supermarket space, especially several minutes walk away from the current high street.
John Pearson, the planning officer dealing with both applications, is away till 11 Aug, and will look at responses to both when he returns. But the deadline for responses is 31 July.
Lembit Opik: Tesco Development is
“Fraught with Danger for Town”
Lembit Opik has echoed concerns of many residents of Machynlleth as planning proposal for the Tesco Superstore in the town comes under consideration.
In a letter to a concerned local resident, he voiced his belief that the development is “fraught with danger for the town” and that “businesses will suffer, or close” if the new superstore goes ahead.
His concerns come after a public meeting on the proposed development attracted 250 people, 95% of whom were against the development.
Local resident David Thorpe told us: “There is no doubt that many of the people I talk to in the town are firmly against the proposed development. There are already three supermarkets in the town, and yet another would make trading impossible for smaller specialist shops”.
Jonathan Pickles, local shopkeeper, told us “most independent shop keepers in town are against this development. Our diverse independent local shops are a great attraction for our town. The last thing we need is another Supermarket”.
The facts about Jobs
The study by the National Retailer Planning Forum, examining the employment impacts of 93 Superstore openings, found that they resulted in a net loss of 276 jobs per store opened.
The Keep Mach Special campaign told us: “The impact of a Tesco Superstore on our town would be disastrous. Local business will close, and there would be a net loss of many jobs.
The Greenest Town in Britain
Machynlleth was recently described in the Guardian Newspaper as ‘the greenest town in Britain’ and the Dyfi Valley was recently designated a “Biosphere reserve”; but Lembit Opik believes that the traffic problem that would undoubtedly be created by the development is a “real one”.
Furthermore he says “relocalisation is an environmental imperative. I shudder to understand how we can justify importing New Zealand lamb when we only need to look outside the window to see local livestock grazing”.
Machynlleth is famous for its popular weekly market, with around ½ the stalls selling foodstuffs. Campaigners believe the development would further reduce the viability of what is one of the great attractions of the town and would severely affect local food producers.
They told us: “As small retailers close, small local suppliers will have no other outlet for their products. By destroying the competition Tesco will dominate Machynlleth. We fear for the future of our town”.
Machynlleth – the future
Lembit Opik believes that Machynlleth High Street has “real creative potential”.
“We have to be assertive about what’s best for the town its economy and its culture, instead of hoping a big supermarket chain will come in and fix everything!”
He is hopeful about the future of the town, as an independent and exciting place to live and visit: “I am trying to work with local town leaders to see if we can get something moving on this”.
Keep Mach Special campaigners told us “We do not want to be colonised by these commercial giants. 95% of supermarket takings are siphoned away from the local communities – generating huge profits for shareholders and executives”.
- ENDS -
Editor’s Notes
Keep Mach Special is a community organisation fighting against the proposed new Tesco development in Machynlleth.
Keep Mach Special represents Machynlleth residents who believe a Tesco would be detrimental to the future prosperity of the town and the town’s residents.
Of money spent at our local shops, on average just over ½ of business turnover is returned to the local economy – compared to as little as 5% for Supermarkets
Food Packaging and Waste generated. Packaging now makes up nearly ¼ of household waste. 35 – 40% of all household waste which ends up as Landfill, begins life as a purchase from one of the big 5 Supermarkets.
Between 1997 and 2002 more than 13,000 specialist stores around the UK – including newsagents, Post Offices, grocers, bakers, butchers – closed.
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