Community centres above supermarkets
Policy SH5 (Use of Upper Floors in Shopping Developments) states (upper case my addition):
"The District Council will permit the use of upper floors of premises in Town Centre Shopping Areas for residential, COMMUNITY or commercial purposes subject to:
In the case of commercial or COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT, no loss of self-contained or purpose build residential accommodation with all basic amenities.
The preservation of any existing separate access to floors above ground level and provision for storage of refuse."
So, you can build community centres above supermarkets. And our supermarket will be bigger than the Tesco at Honiton. AND we are losing community facilities on the site. Can you see where I am going with this!
Just exactly what Section 106 money is the supermarket providing to EDDC? And where is this money going? How expensive is it for a super, super, super RICH supermarket to add another floor (and a lift for access by people with disabilities) to an upper floor of this VAST supermarket? How many SECONDS of its profits would it take (including an agreement to keep the lift serviced, of course and a contribution to its setting up and running costs for the first ten years).
Anyone think the same? Can you imagine the amount of community space we could have ABOVE an enormous supermarket? If we have to have it (although it hasn't yet been decided if we do) then why not make it work for us.
We know what EDDC will say - we are getting the mega-marsh and the Visitors Centre and we should be grateful for our day trippers. But they are supposed to be commercially viable enterprises (if they are not they should not be built) to attract tourists. Anyway, today's supermarkets are so cash rich they could fund all three without batting an eyelid!
posted by Fighting for East Devon's future @ 8:32 am
3 Comments:
The whole 2nd Supermarket issue has me mad.
At the meeting at the Town Hall where over 500 of us attended, we were told that Planning permisson had been passed 5 years ago for this supermarket - Crazy.
I would love to know which councillors voted in favour of this, simply to ask them what in heaven's name their reasons were. I think they owe the rest of Seaton an expanation.
I've also heard that the Co-op were promised a monopoly in Seaton - the reason why they moved to their current location.
What will happen in that respect if the 2nd supermarket is allowed? Will the Co-op stop it?
Also, finally, we simply do not need another supermarket in Seaton. The Co-op is not busy enough to warrant it. The only time its truly busy is the 6 weeks in summer during the school holidays.
I am TOTALLY against the likes of Tesco gaining a foothold in Seaton - they are completely,ruthlessly profit driven and are doing a lot of damage to small business worldwide. They have demonstrated over and over again, in town after town after town, how they do business. A visit to the Corporate Watch website (Tesco profile) and also GAFF (grass roots action for food and farming) is well worth it! We moved away from the south-east to get away from the bland shopping precincts of same old..same old..same old.....
A supermarket of the size proposed is probably going to want to operate 24 hours a day. It will mean round-the-clock big lorries which will have an affect on both people, properties and roads along whichever routes they use.
I feel much the same about the big DIY sheds, as they also are profit driven and only stock high turn-over lines.
The quality of jobs offered by both Tesco and the big DIY's is poor...I am sure Seaton could do a whole lot better if it tried.
The car park will serve the supermarket and shed and no-one else. Ask youself why the mega-supermarkets are trying to come back into town centres (they were banned once because of the impact they had). It couldn't be because they are running out of ways to make more and more profit to feed those ever-hungry share-holders and quite literally need to "have it all" in order to survive...could it?
I believe there is a need to improve and expand the range of goods available in Seaton. Some of the traders in Seaton need a wake-up call but others are excellent and deserve on-going support. What is really needed is for the people of Seaton to put their heads together and think "out of the box" about what we want and how to acheive it.
EDDC should be enabling this process not inhibiting us.
I am all for "green", multi-use, flexible community space, both indoor and outdoor. With all the environmentally friendly technolgy that is available today, Seaton could have really innovative, sustainable community spaces. The more I know about Liatris and Tesco, the more certain I am that they don't fit the bill when it comes to "green"or "community" anything. We have a lot of knowledge and expertise locally, and there is plenty more out there on the net...
A bandstand/outdoor stage would be great and so would a recording studio/local community radio station and ....and....They are all attainable if we try.
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