THE reported quotes from the planning inspector on the Tesco Springwood application bring into focus the question of MP Barry Sheerman’s understanding of the world in which the majority of his constituents live, work and play.
This application wasn’t for a new store but a replacement for one that is out of date. The new store was more likely to be a threat to competing supermarkets than local retailers, states the report.
Does he really not think that if Waitrose saw a chance to open a profitable store they wouldn’t have done so already?
Supermarkets provide what customers want – quality, quantity, choice, price and service. They have to do that to make a profit.
Over the New Year reporting period the bosses of Tesco and Morrison have admitted that they got their marketing strategy wrong.
The Tesco chief executive officer even went so far as to say that they were looking at their whole strategy of building out of town hypermarkets, given the changing buying patterns of consumers.
They understand that the retail industry moves on. A pity the same cannot be said for Mr Sheerman.
The anti-supermarket minority wear rose tinted spectacles regarding a golden age of retailing. I am old enough to remember the dawn of the supermarket era.
Before they appeared we had poor quality, little choice, high prices, surly shop assistants, hours spent trailing round individual shops and a trip home on a smoke filled, smelly bus laden down with the week’s purchases.
I know which era I prefer to live in.
Markham Weavill
Linthwaite
Inspector ‘not wrong’
THE Examiner posed the question ‘Do you think the planning inspector’s remarks are unprofessional?’ in the context of the planning furore over the granting of planning permission for a Tesco store at Southgate.
I am not a supporter of Tesco and rarely use their stores but was surprised at MP Barry Sheerman’s persistent opposition to them.
So I agreed with the inspector’s criticism of the poor grounds on which his opposition was based and could see no grounds for describing him (the inspector) as unprofessional.
Mr Sheerman’s concern at the impact on local traders is hard to justify. His suggestion of a Tesco monopoly is particularly silly.
There is no doubt that the nature of town centres is changing but it is driven by public demand. Mr Sheerman has ignored the section of the public who would welcome and benefit from the Tesco proposal.
GW
Mirfield
Presenting the facts
IT sounds like Mr Sheerman went to the public inquiry for Tesco without the facts and figures if what the inspector is saying is true.
It is no good speaking from your heart – you need to present the facts relating to the planning issues. Unfortunately there were no planning issues to present since the experienced planners had approved the plans in the first instance.
It’s just a shame Mr Sheerman did not listen to them and save the taxpayer the expense of this inquiry.
June J Durkin
Kirkheaton
Cost of new sports centre
THE report of the government inspector’s approval of the new Tesco superstore on the site of the present sports centre was followed by ‘news’ that Kirklees is to demolish the latter and build a replacement on the Springwood site at a cost of £35m.
I know that my memory is no longer reliable, but I feel sure that at the outset the deal was for Tesco to take the present sports hall and in exchange to provide a replacement at Springwood.
Perhaps I have misremembered? Or perhaps Kirklees has been badly outmanoeuvred by Tesco?
Arthur Quarmby
Holme
‘Shameful’ liaison
SO now we know. On the eve of the Holme Valley Parish Council planning meeting on the application by Tesco it was revealed that the pro-Tesco group had been funded by the corporate giant (‘We Want Tesco’, February 13).
One tries to see the best in people and hope that they act with a degree of honour and integrity, but this is pretty shameful.
At the very least these people should have made clear their direct or indirect links to Tesco and not hidden the fact of funding.
Transparency is, or one hopes it is, a fundamental principle of democracy.
The action by Holme Valley Voices smacks of the kind of politics practised in the United States where corporations fund special interest groups to the detriment of democracy.
Though, of course, it confirms all the bad things we thought about Tesco and means that one will be rightly suspicious of anything any members of this group say in public in future.
They clearly represent not Holmfirth but merely outside interests.
Stephen Dorril
Netherthong
Changing one’s habits
SO now we have a pro-Tesco group campaigning for the proposed Holmfirth store.
One of the main arguments in favour of the store is the number of people in the Holme Valley travelling to the supermarkets in Huddersfield.
This argument assumes that all these people are all travelling to Tesco.
We shop at Asda, neighbours shop at Sainsbury’s, some at Morrisons and so on.
The fact there may be a Tesco in Holmfirth will not change people’s supermarket loyalty and many will continue to shop at stores in Huddersfield. Tim Radcliffe (Mailbag, February 11) states that increases to traffic if a store goes ahead is only seven cars a minute at peak periods on Friday and Saturday.
It doesn’t sound much, but that is 420 extra cars an hour, 4,200 cars in 10 hours.
Thank goodness I don’t have children at any school in the proposed store area.
Anyone who considers it acceptable to increase traffic to this extent is totally irresponsible.
Roger Lindley
Holmfirth
Right to reject Tesco
JUST a line to congratulate Holmfirth Parish Council for rejecting the planning application from Tesco for a large out-of-town supermarket.
Holmfrth certainly needs more retail development, but this is the wrong site and the wrong size
E J Heywood
Huddersfield
Splitting Kirklees
KIRKLEES Conservatives, as reported, plan to split Kirklees and merge services with Calderdale. I hope people don’t think it is a hastily planned move to garner votes.
The group have been carefully working on this for a long time and have been waiting until the launch of the election campaign to officially announce their policy.
By merging some backroom activities in both Calderdale and Kirklees there is a great chance to cut the costs of administration to the council taxpayer.
The plan to split Kirklees into North and South roughly based on Huddersfield and Dewsbury will be gratefully taken up, I believe, by an electorate that looks Šlongingly at the council administrative make-up pre-1973.
Many letters to the Examiner over the last 40 years have expressed a desire for a return of the old County Borough. Be sure that by voting Conservative this is what they will aim to do.
The Conservative group believes the electorate will back them in their plans and that it will bring down the overall costs of administration to them.
It is a further example of them wishing to give the local people a say in which way their affairs are governed.
Bernard McGuin
Marsh
A debt to society
THE Examiner says Kirklees Neighbourhood Housing is owed millions in rent.
All the money could be used for a lot of other things. They say times are hard. They are always hard, for some more than others.
My mother was a council tenant for 63 years. She paid her rent often with difficulty in the days when they did not get help.
Two years after she died aged 85 I received a letter to tell me my mother owed 50p. Will it be all right if I stop paying my rent which is full rent, not benefit-supported?
SD
Deighton
Dirty old town again
MAY I thank MS of Golcar for their contribution to the Mailbag of February 10 regarding our Dirty Old Town?
I would like to point out that I was not exclusively referring to our town centre streets, urban roads and ring roads, which are the responsibility of local councils.
It is also the responsibility of councils to enforce clean up orders to private land owners. I have in mind an area at the top of Chapel Hill in Huddersfield where there is what looks like a sub station or former one. If so, it must belong to one of the utility companies.
The land surrounding it is awash with rubbish that’s been there for many a year.
It really is an eyesore to anyone passing it.
If environment departments of local councils are short of resources then it is an issue that should be addressed.
We see fewer and fewer services, road maintenance being one.
Finally, if cigarettes are at some time banned from being sold in shops, so should the sale of chewing gum.
Cigarette butts can easily be removed but it’s not so easy to remove the unsightly mess left by chewing gum. If more people were caught and issued with on-the-spot fines and with more publicity of being named and shamed, it may have more impact on their behaviour.
Anthony Smith
Springwood
A great night out
ONCE again it’s pantomime time and once again it’s great. Frankenstein comes to Almondbury.
I would like to thank everyone who made a miserable night (rain-wise) great, from the Clare Doosey dancers, the junior chorus, the adult chorus and the crazy, mad, lovely cast. And the kids in the front row (thank God for kids). Pantomime is participation and the kids did that. Thanks to all.
Mr Samuel Quinn
Almondbury
