STOP THE SUPERMARKET – Part Two
Shipston Town Council Rejects Supermarket Proposal
When Supermarkets Move In...
See through the spin and really go Green
Rob Hopkins April Podcast
Save Shipston Town Centre Campaign Meeting Thursday 22nd March - report from Trev Trevithick...
This was the follow on meeting from the one at the Townsend Hall when 120 people filled the hall but many could not get in. There had been rumours that the pro-supermarket campaign had organised a mob to disrupt the meeting and there were a good number of supermarket supporters there, but in the event it all went off very peacefully. I suspect about a hundred people turned up all told, it half-filled the Sheldon Bosley Hub hall.
Paul Rathkey, the mayor, chaired the meeting, Helen started the discussion and other speakers included Richard Cheney and Jonathan Gullis, the district councillors, and Kate King from the traders, before the meeting was opened for public discussion. Paul took questions and comments from those who had not been able to get in to the last meeting or who had not spoken at the last meeting as far as possible, but in fact most people got a say. It was generally a much less antagonistic meeting than the first one.
Comments ranged from one lady who had done a comparison shop between Tescos in Stratford and the Coop, which was £30-£40 more expensive in Shipston (Helen countered with the Transitiion Shipston comparison survey done a couple of years ago, its recent update and an independent on-line comparison of common household purchases. In each case Shipston came out £2-£3 more expensive, but this was before travelling time and expenses were taken into account); Mark Wildish, involved in the Pettifer's Garage development, pointed out that the greenfield site application was an outline application only, if agreed in outline then the full application may have a bigger supermarket, a smaller one - or none at all. He said the supermarkets' general policy was to get the principle of development agreed and then expand their plans, in this case he was concerned that if the outline plan was agreed then an application for a bigger supermarket on the Norgren site would be not far behind and very hard to resist. One young man said he had recently moved in to Shipston, moving his young family off a crime-ridden drug estate. He loved living here and was delighted his children were going through the town's schools, however he was very concerned about the future. He had been working at one of the local businesses, but had recently lost his job because the owner felt that business was dropping off and the future looked bleak - and this was before the supermarket application was decided, so could not be considered a factor. One lady who lives opposite the proposed site was very concerned about increased traffic, visual impact and the fact that the supermarket would be brightly lit possibly for 24 hours a day but certainly for very long periods of time.
Of particular interest were the comments from three separate young people. They all said that the town had to develop and move forward. Each said how much they valued the community and living here and why couldn't the energy being used to oppose the supermarket and the energy expended in supporting it be combined to come up with a plan to develop the town centre? One older person said that the town centre was like a supermarket, you just had to go in and out of shops instead of wandering to different departments. In general, the idea of developing the town centre received a huge amount of support.
We collected a significant number of signatures on the petition and many people took individual forms to oppose the application. In addition a collection at the end to help off set the cost of hiring the hall was well supported. A display of before and after pictures of towns suffering from supermarket development and various news stories and internet comments attracted a lot of attention.
After the meeting closed about 25 anti-supermarket supporters went upstairs to the bar and broke up into the three groups again - but this time each table was packed, there was a lot of support and I was delighted that a lot of young people came up to join in.
Shipston
Town Council Rejects Supermarket Proposal
Here
is an extract from the Town Council's response to the District
Council strategy for the town:
“Firstly,
that there is not a need for a large out-of-town retail development
as indicated in previous drafts. The town council welcomes the
down-scaling of retail provision to a store (retail provision) of
some 410 sq ms (net) within the town centre and the principle that
developments over 1000 sq ms are not appropriate for market towns
such as Shipston. Secondly, the principle of keeping new housing
estates below 2% of the existing residential stock (46 units in the
case of Shipston) is deemed appropriate for Shipston to meet its
targets of 140-220 new dwellings by 2028. Small-scale (15-45 units)
developments spread around the town and over a number of years is
the only way forward in limiting the effects on an already
over-strained infrastructure, which is in itself in need of
improvements.”
For more see... http://shipstonblog.org.uk/draft-core-strategy/
When
Supermarkets Move In...
A
report from Lewis of what can happen when supermarkets take over...
Today,
in Lewes, we spend about fifty million pounds a year on food and
drink and most of that – at least forty million – is spent in
our three supermarkets: Tesco, Waitrose and Aldi. In those hundred
years - and especially the last fifty years since I was born - we've
managed to let all this natural capital be diverted into the hands
of a few multinational corporations. Our local food economies have
dried up; local money no longer circulates around and about the
town, building wealth and relationships as it goes. A tenner spent
locally multiplies many times over as it circulates. Spent in a
supermarket, that tenner goes straight out of town and into the
hands of Tesco and co, and its shareholders.
As
a direct result, the local economy in Lewes is struggling. There are
no more bakers in Lewes. We have one greengrocer, at the top of town
where the rents are affordable, and only two butchers are left. Just
in the last five years, according to the new economics foundation,
Lewes has gone from being a 'home town' with a wide mix of
independent shops supporting a strong local economy, to a borderline
clone town. The independent shops we once were so proud of are now
either chains or strange chi-chi shops selling expensive string, as
the joke goes round hereMore...
http://www.transitionnetwork.org/stories/adrienne-campbell/2012-03/goodbye-supermarkets
See
through the spin and really go Green
That was the message
that TV architectural designer Charlie Luxton at the Townsend Hall
on Wednesday 21 March, at the Community Energy Fair.
Charlie started by
saying that it was essential to improve the energy efficiency of our
homes because according to oil experts we are already at world “Peak
Oil” production. From now on fossil fuels will become more
difficult and expensive to extract leading to sharp increases of the
cost of oil and gas.
Houses
waste a third of their heat and they produce 27% of UK’s CO2. They
use twice the energy for space heating as Nordic houses, taking into
account size and temperature. 3 million homes have such low levels
of thermal comfort that that are officially a health hazard. He said
that the Great British Challenge is to improve 25 million existing
houses in the next 40 years.
Charlie
showed examples of new “Passivhaus” designs with a projected
heating bill of only £90 per year then discussed various ways of
insulating, improving air tightness, solar gain and saving
electrical consumption
Microgeneration
he said should only be installed when all other energy efficiency
measure have been taken. For solar PV panels and other forms of
renewable electricity generation the government Feed-in Tariff
should provide 8% to 10% return on investment. For renewable forms
of heat such as wood-pellet boilers and solar hot water the
Renewable Heat Incentive due to be implemented next year is aimed at
providing 12% return on investment.
He then talked about
Hook
Norton Low Carbon, a
community co-operative that has invested over £400,000 into
village-wide carbon reduction schemes. This includes
green-furbishing thirty houses, creating a car pool, installing a
12kW solar array on the local school and exploring the potential for
a community wind turbine.
Charlie's is currently
co-presenting “Brick by Brick: Rebuilding Our Past” on BBC 2
see:
Links...
This Month’s Transition Podcast
The
interview Rob Hopkins did recently with Lee Brain one of the
founders of Transition Prince Rupert, in British Columbia, Canada,
was one of the most inspiring he has yet published. In this
installment, he gives a fascinating taste of what it looks like when
an emerging Transition group gives over some time to getting the
foundations of its work as solid as possible before proceeding any
further.
CONNECT THE DOTS
Artists
Project Earth www.apeuk.org
the locally based environmental charity in association with 350.org
are launching a global participatory creative project to show the
world that ‘This is Climate Change’ and to highlight the
communities that are on the frontlines of the climate crisis. The
impacts of climate change are everywhere, but so are we. If your
community is affected, this is your day to share the reality of
climate change with the world, or to stand in solidarity and share
the stories of those who are already impacted. Whether your
community is experiencing the effects of the drought in the UK or
diminishing harvests in Africa, we’ll use the day to drive home a
message to politicians and fossil fuel companies alike: “We're
connecting the dots: we know fossil fuels are changing our climate
and causing extreme weather conditions. We are standing-up for
climate justice!”
Join
350.org on May 5th 2012
to show this world for what it truly is: a deeply beautiful but
changing planet, full of people fighting to make it better. It’s
time to Connect
the Dots.
A
Sunday Market for Shipston?
Following
the success of last years Harvest Fair and with the controversy over
the proposed supermarket Philip Vial has proposed a regular market
see the discussion on Philip's blog www.shipstonblog.org.uk
Sustainable Building Centre This link was sent in by a Transition Shipston supporter: http://www.sustainablebuildingscentre.org/pages/faq#q1
Listen
again to Val Rainbow's interview about Transition Shipston and the
proposed supermarket on the Alternative Show:
www.livestream.com/thealternativeshow
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=de1ALwFJ9O4&feature=youtu.be
‘’
Pollinators in
Gardens (and beyond!) ‘’
A talk by Dr Jeff
Ollerton
Wednesday
18th
April 2012
7.00
for 7.30pm at Pillerton Priors Village Hall,
Pillerton
Priors, Warks. CV35 0PH
Dr
Jeff Ollerton appeared on television recently as the adviser on
Pollination to Sarah Raven , presenter of ‘Birds, Butterflies and
Bees’.
This
talk will be tailored towards the interests of Beekeepers, Gardeners
and Farmers - - - but also anyone who is interested in the sad plight
our pollinators, the effect this will have on us and our food
supplies; and what we can do about reversing this situation - -
-including advice on planting.
Tickets
£4.00,
Information and Booking - Tim Newcombe Tel. 07970 037325 E mail
tim.newcombe123@btinternet.com
Seating
is limited so there is no guarantee of tickets on the night but
tickets can be held for you.
Please
do inform us as soon as possible if you are unable to attend and your
ticket will then be available for someone else.
Contents:
STOP
THE SUPERMARKET – Part Two
Shipston
Town Council Rejects Supermarket Proposal
When
Supermarkets Move In...
See
through the spin and really go Green
Rob
Hopkins April Podcast
