Holmfirth Web » Public Focus on Tesco Plans

25 August 2009

Public Focus on Tesco Plans

Posted by patrick under: News .

Controversial plans to build a Tesco Supermarket in Holmfirth will be probed by the Planning Committee of Holme Valley Parish Council at a special meeting tomorrow (Wednesday 26th August) at 7.30 pm at the Methodist Church, School Street, Holmfirth.

The plans have been hotly debated in flood of emails to Holmfirthweb.com – scroll down the page to read recent messages from readers published over the last few weeks.

This special meeting has been called because of wide public interest in this planning application and the Open Session at the beginning of the meeting will be extended to allow as many people as possible to express their views on the application.

The usual rules of Parish Council open sessions will apply:

Each person will be allowed to speak for up to 3 minutes and where a group is involved, the Committee would request that one person speaks on behalf of the group.

If you wish to speak at the open session, before the meeting starts, please give your name to Mrs Sally Barber, the Council’s Admin Support Officer, who will be available from 7.00 pm. The meeting will start at 7.30 pm prompt.

Views may be expressed opposing or supporting the planning application. The Planning Committee has not made any decision on its views on the application.

A copy of the planning application will be available to view from 7.00 pm in the Methodist Church. Prior to that, a copy of the plan is also available in Holmfirth Library.

It is expected that the open session will last an hour or more. Time, however, must be allowed for the Planning Committee to discuss the application and to decide upon its comments to be submitted to Kirklees Council.

Members of the public are allowed to listen to the debate at this stage but there is no opportunity for further discussion between the public and Councillors after the close of the open session.

Please remember that Kirklees Council is the Planning Authority, and the Parish Council only submits comments, which must be based on relevant planning considerations, to Kirklees Council, the Planning Authority, following its discussions.

Meanwhile, the emails continue to flood in with mixed views:

Reader Dominic Stankiewicz, of Thongsbridge, said in an email:

I appreciate that there is lots of hype over Tesco, but there are lots of facts. Firstly this would be an out of centre superstore, which differs from in centre stores such as the Co-oP or edge of centre stores like Sainsbury’s at Shorehead. Research by Somerfield shows that for every pound a shopper spends in an in-centre store another 46 pence is spent at other shops, for out of centre stores this falls to 10 pence. Secondly, Tesco are not offering just an alternative to the CO-OP, their proposal is 3 times the size of the CO-OP, store that size can only survive by closing the CO-OP down. This is evidenced by examples from elsewhere. At Stalham, Norfolk , Tesco opened outside the centre, the CO-OP in the centre closed down within months and the Somerfield in the Centre within 2 years. The result – nowhere to shop in the town centre. Tesco had a similar result in Castle Douglas, and in Leominster an out of centre Sainsbury’s development was followed by the closure of the 2 in centre supermarkets. I have done some independent work on Tesco’s figures and the conclusion is that Holmfirth Co-op will shut, along with most village shops.

Richard Thornley, of Hade Edge said:

Don’t believe all the hype, we simply don’t know what the impact is going to be, however I for one would welcome lower prices and stiff competition for the Co-op which is completely overpriced, and has an unfair advantage in the Valley. A Tescos might mean I can come back to shopping in the Holme Valley again.

An emailer who asked to remain anonymous said: “If Holmfirth had a clutch of small independent stores like grocers, butchers and other food outlets, then I could understand everyone getting worried. But take a look around – Holmfirth is no longer a Wetherby. Are the charity shops, travel agencies, coffee shops, restaurants and gift shops really going to be scuppered by a Tesco on the edge of Holmfirth? I think not.

One Comment so far...

Simon Nelson Says:

2 September 2009 at 5:20 pm.

Don’t believe the hype? Don’t miss the point more like. Tesco will be the onset of homogenisation. As for impact, hype is easily avoided by reserach…all of which suggests Tesco will drown local retail. Further, much local business re-invests in the local economy….will Tesco do similar….a plough back of Holmfirth store profits into Holmfirth….you know the answer to that one.

The unsaid and unwritten element is the price of hugely increased volumes of traffic on our roads and, statistically speaking, the accidents which will become more frequent, some potentially fatal. Melodramatic perhaps but also a very chilling reality.

So homogenisation of a cracking, almost unique town, masses of traffic leading to inconvenience and potential accidents, closure of small business, damage to the local economy, the door ajar for more ‘competition’……

…..what price are you prepared to pay for enhanced competition and convenience? Too high a price for me.

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