Keep Our Town Special poster campaign………..
With the imminent date for some kind of decision on the Oswestry supermarket situation looming on the horizon - March 18th - the coalition of OS21, Civic Society, CPRE and the Chamber of Trade are orchestrating a poster campaign around the town, and also a leaflet drop by Royal Mail which will be delivered to all households in the SY11-1 and 2 postal districts.
The posters will raise awareness of the campaign, and the leaflets will provide information about the consequences for the town centre and it’s economy if Oswestry were to have another supermarket and part of it will form an addressed objection letter that will require and address and a signature - and a stamp. 7,500 leaflets will be delivered.
The pace is hotting up as March 18th approaches, but it’s likely that any decision will lead to a long period of appeals and possible judicial review, so this looks likely to be one battle in a long war. The consequences of excess supermarket development are visible in town centres everywhere, and for anyone who doubts it, they might like to take the short trip to Wrexham and walk down the unfortunately named Hope Street now Eagles Meadow has landed.
We will also put the objection letter on this site this week under a tab on the bar above which will be downloadable and printable.
It’s a crossroads for this town - it can be one of the few towns to not opt for supermarket retail supremacy, and forge a workable and viable 21st century identity for itself, or one of the last to settle for selling it’s retail economy down the river and becoming a town centre of boarded shop fronts. Address and sign your objection letter, talk about the issue with friends and family and ask them to do the same.
For every £1 spend on food in supermarkets, just 8p goes to the farmers
Five large retail chains account for 80% of food sold in the UK
Around 2000 independent convenience stores disappear every year, more than 5 a day
Research shows that 50% of turnover from local retailers is returned to the local economy. Large retailers may return as little as 5% to the local economy
OS21
IS A GROUP DEDICATED TO PROMOTING THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
OF OSWESTRY IN THE
21ST CENTURY
February 15th, 2010 at 7:04 am
Excellent poster. Could we have a downloadable version on the website? Good luck with the Battle for Oswestry.
February 15th, 2010 at 5:08 pm
I really feel Oswestry needs and should have a cinema as something for our young people to do - should I join Ows21 ?
February 15th, 2010 at 5:34 pm
@Dave Jones - no reason why not. Think almost everyone feels that a cinema is essential to Oswestry, but that we do not need a 5 screen one the like of which even Wrexham can’t fill, or one subsidised for a limited number of years by a supermarket, or one that we have to pay the price of a decimated town centre for. Digital cinemas are the way forward rather than old fashioned reel to reel - far more flexible when well run - number of different films a day and capability for streaming live sports and music events. If Wem can do it, why not Oswestry?
February 15th, 2010 at 9:03 pm
Join OS21 and campaign for a cinema. There is a very nice empty building down Victoria Road that used to be full of shiny VW cars and is now empty. How about that for a cinema.
February 16th, 2010 at 10:43 am
Exactly! People have got to think beyond supermarkets, though they can’t be blamed for believing they are the be all and end all since we’re under constant attack from their slick marketing and a complete lack of regulation of their power. It seems no one can control them and people in Oswestry have every right to ask that something else be thought of and investigated. Your Town Council seem to have got well and truly into bed with a development company, saying it’s all of the good of the town. Did they ask anyone what they wanted? Isn’t one of your Town Councillors now the leader of Shropshire Council? What does he say?
February 16th, 2010 at 11:31 am
Interestingly, Kieth Barrow now says that he has come round to our way of thinking over the last year or so, and believes that Oswestry does not need another supermarket. This reiterated in a number of conversations with him…..
February 16th, 2010 at 12:00 pm
Wow. So I guess he isn’t bound by the legal agreement with Liberty Mercian to support the Smithfield any more? Good work on OS21’s part for bringing him round! Well done. Keep up the good work.
February 16th, 2010 at 6:40 pm
Ah! But he would, wouldn’t he……….
February 16th, 2010 at 9:07 pm
thanks guys. Returning to my original question - how is Osw 21 going about campaigning for a cinema ?
I may not know as much about these matters as you guys but if a cinema is going to come to the town surely it would have already ?
Well spotted Chas re. the VW garage - what do we do next ?
Also with all the new houses planned for Oswestry - how will that affect things ?
February 16th, 2010 at 11:34 pm
Dave Jones: yes, join Os21 if you want to campaign for a cinema without strings attached. Particularly if you want a viable, community cinema. Not the kind of multiplex monsters that have taken our children and young people far out of town centres and made them dependant on cars to get there. Not the ones where you need a bank loan just to buy family tickets and some popcorn. Shrewsbury has done very well out of the Old Market Hall, with a fantastic cafe and good films. We have lots of empty buildings that could be fitted for purpose. The reason why we don’t have a cinema already? Well, the Town Council having made a pact with Liberty Mercian with the rotten carrot of a multiplex cinema in the Smithfield cattle market is one of the reasons why they are not interested in any other alternatives… Groups like Os21 can help as many voices shout louder than one. Let’s hear it for a Cinema.
February 17th, 2010 at 11:03 pm
@Dave Jones - the roll out of digi cinema is beginning, and possibilities are being looked at by digi cinema companies for towns the size of Oswestry, so that’s one reason we don’t have one yet. It’s something that is new and that is coming. Putting the evidence to your local councillors is one way of campaigning, as is research and letter writing and discussion.
The LDF does indeed propose more housing for Oswestry in the coming decade, but where will these people work? Will Oswestry become a dormitory town with a moribund town centre because it chose to build a supermarket on land that could have been, and in some cases was designated for, industrial/semi industrial use?
A town needs employment to attract people and then those people will require retail: i.e. decent and appropriate employment and long term jobs first, requiring housing for employees, who then require retail. To install large retail outlets first, using land that could be used for industry and that damage the town centre economy and character, then considering housing, without having a cogent strategic plan for employment, is looking at the whole issue through the wrong end of the telescope.
And by employment, it is meant jobs that pay enough to enable people to buy the houses built, afford to go to the cinema and to contribute to the local economy. Not temporary contract supermarket jobs at just above NMW.
February 20th, 2010 at 11:39 pm
Strange correspondence on Facebook with Dave Jones who posted above, regarding a cinema in Oswestry. He seems to have set up a Facebook group “Oswestry needs a cinema” http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=362501962176&ref=search&sid=1207761958.2586383378..1 - but if you join the group and entirely agree with him suggesting ways by which the town can have a lasting and contemporary digital cinema, rather than reel to reel that is already outdated by the time it is built and will be short term subsidised by supermarket retailers for a limited number of years, then you are instantly deleted from the group.
This would suggest that he is more interested in the supermarket development that subsidised a cinema under a short term 106 Agreement than any real long term cultural/leisure benefit to the town. Given that Burbidges and the Smithfield are the only schemes offering out dated reel to reel 5 screen cinema complexes the type of which larger towns than Oswestry have been unable to fill, I’d suggest that all posts from Dave Jones are read with a skip full of salt.
February 22nd, 2010 at 10:51 am
Is this the same gentleman who (on this site) asked Mike (Pashmina stall) where he worked “if indeed he does work” back in the summer?
February 22nd, 2010 at 6:42 pm
…and also took a pop at our good editor with a similar question.
March 29th, 2010 at 5:55 am
I really do not ordinarily reply to posts but I will in this case. WoW