Oswestry21

Article by By Michael Haynes, Business lecturer at the University of Wolverhampton’s Shropshire campus from Shropshire Star, Feb 21st. Read ful article HERE.

“One in eight shops across the UK is empty. In some towns it is as many as one in four. In the worst cases many of these shops will remain empty until they are knocked down by redevelopers.

Becoming a ‘retail ghost town’ is a real danger in some of Telford’s component towns………..”

There is an undoubted surge of realisation that the supermarket game is up, which only adds urgency to the four cornered fight for another one in Oswestry. Throughout the media, journalists and commentators ponder and question what has happened to community, and the social connections that hold successful and viable communities together. Anywhere, you can embark on, or over hear conversations with ordinary people about the same subject. While there are a number of reasons, the role of supermakets - their control of production, consumption and retail, their destruction of independent and small retail business, it’s consequence on the life, appearance and vitality of town centres, the lack of any real choice they offer and the total lack of any human scale and interaction beyond the all important “Have you got a Nectar Card?” have a very clear quantifiable and qualitative effect on all these tangible opportunities to engage in life in meaningful ways.

Telford supermarket decision “called in”. Council have “a duty to protect the town centre from inappropriate development”

A decision on controversial plans by a supermarket giant (Tesco) to increase the amount of space it is allowed to use for non-grocery products at its Shrewsbury store has been put off for one month.

Newport, Shrops council oppose Lidl store plans in Newport 

Hard not to visualise Oswestry marching alone & resolutely in the opposite direction.

While the Strategic Planning Committee ponders the retail future of Oswestry, it’s gratifying to see Shropshire Council leader and ex Oswestry Town Councillor Keith Barrow praising and supportive of independent local shops in the Shropshire Star & the Shropshire Council website. Worth remembering, as if we need to be reminded, that is exactly these kind of shops - corner shops, butchers, grocers, bakers, rural garages/post offices/shops that are the first to feel the brunt of increased supermarket presence and which soon become unviable in the face of such oppressive competition, and thus unable to supply local need in the way Keith Barrow describes below:

“I know from personal experience just how important the shop in my village has been for me and my neighbours over the past few days. I’d like to thank all the shop keepers and shop staff for the valuable role they have been playing over the past few days, often working long hours to provide a fantastic and vital service to local people”.

“Given the rural nature of the county, Shropshire’s local shops provide a valuable service all year round. However, it is during spells of bad weather when this becomes even more apparent, as village shops reduce the need for people to travel, or to travel further then necessary, to buy vital supplies. Once the weather improves I hope people will continue to support their local shops.”

Last Saturday evening Sainsburys was sold out of almost all vegetables, milk was low and tinned food was taking a hit. Earlier in the day, the vegetable stalls in the market at the Bailey were full of veg, and throughout the weekend corner shops and stores had veg, milk and tinned food. An example of how food reliance on large single suppliers can be a weakness and not a strength, and how the importance of a variety of small, local suppliers and retailers will be crucial in future. We jeopardize them at our cost. Centralisation of supply did not work under Communism, nor will it ultimately work under Capitalism.

The Executive Summary of the The Location Model Town Centre survey carried out by Skillsmart for Advantage West Midlands and Shropshire Council in Nov/Dec 2009 and published in December makes interesting reading. The full content will be made public at a presentation in January, but  the above makes an interesting contribution to the supermarket debate, taken as it was from a random sample of 100 people in the town centre who were all interviewed as part of the greater survey. 82 were residents or lived within 10 miles of the town, and 18 were visitors. It somewhat vindicates the argument that the “need” is more about the requirements of supermarkets and developers than the needs of people who live in and shop in the town and form what is the town community.

The next Local Joint Committee (Oswestry Town) is at 6.30, 3rd December at Woodside School, Gittin Street.If you’re interested in the town and local community, these are opportunities to voice your thoughts and opinions and question your elected representatives.

Keith Barrow will be attending, to answer questions on Shropshire Council budgetary plans for the coming year, which could be interesting in the light of impending cuts in public spending. And Severn Trent will be there to discuss mains water renewal in the town in 2010, the reasons for these works and how they plan to minimise disruption to town traffic and trade.

Hopefully these topics will be sufficiently interesting to keep fury about dog crap and wheelie bin mis-use to a minimum.

The following post has been contributed by a reader called Rebecca who e mailed with her concerns about affordable housing in the county and who invites comment and debate on this issue.

In the last decade, the number of people living alone has increased at an incredible rate in the UK.  Town planning has not adjusted to keep pace with trends.  Although National guidelines have in many instances provided the necessary policy statements to encourage forward thinking and provision of suitable housing at a local level, often at the local level the advice and policy is ignored.

Who’s suffering?

Why are National guidelines being ignored?

Who is ignoring the National policy?

You could ask, is this down to interpretation of the English language and the level of ambiguity that can be found in the way phrases are constructed.  This is very often the case with legal interpretations of the law as anyone having had to use the services of a solicitor knows full well.

A significant piece of the jigsaw to developing good practice in Town planning is about providing choice in the housing market, in order to provide a balanced community, of mixed diversity.  Without it, large sectors of demographic needs are left untouched and ill provided for.

Is this sustainable?

Is this fair?

Is this a deliberate prejudice?

Choice is missing, certainly from a local perspective for the communities in Shropshire particularly, in the North of the county, where the situation is reaching a dire near catastrophe.  The Market Towns of Oswestry, Wem, Ellesmere, Whitchurch and Market Drayton, have not supplied housing suitable for a balanced and mixed community with sustainable housing.

Local net income / house prices;

These two areas are continually compared to assess a local economy and its general affordability for its local inhabitants.  Shropshire is recognised as being in the BOTTOM ten percent of counties in terms of net income per household, and yet house prices in Shropshire are considered to be in the TOP ten percent in the UK. (These figures can be confirmed at the UK National Statistics office or web link:  http://www.statistics.gov.uk/default.asp )

When comparing these two figures, Shropshire is stated as being an area designated as not affordable to live in for an increasing number of the local population.  Housing specifically is determined as not affordable by an increasing level of demographic groups.

We need housing of a much wider diversity than has currently been provided, proposed and allowed under the current planning system.  Isn’t it desirable for this County to provide an opportunity for all of its inhabitants to own their own home, regardless of their level of wealth and background?