Starbucks forced to close in Brighton because no planning permission
A Starbucks cafe which opened without planning permission in Brighton has been forced to close by the council. Protestors say that the big chain will take business away from the small, independent cafes of which there are enough in the area. (Good to see a council which takes its planning responsibilities seriously!).
In these difficult times, it falls to local people to support local shops wherever they can.
If it were true, as many people say, that large retailers bring benefits to the community can anyone tell us what they are? All profits are remitted to head offices (and then, just as often, abroad). They don't use local people such as plumbers, electricians - they have their own; they don't use local builders or shopfitters. Even if they buy from local suppliers, often all the stuff goes back first to a mega warehouse somewhere else (food miles) before being transported back again and local food is a minute amount of the stock in the store. Yes, they provide jobs - but here in Seaton, with 150 jobs about to go at the holiday camp and many shops having lost staff (and with Woolworths on a knife edge) that just doesn't wear - not to mention that many of them are low paid, part time and there is even a growing trend to employ agency workers rather than permanent staff.
The 400 tourists from the holiday camp spend in Seaton - you see them in the pubs, you see them in the coffee shops, you see them in the newsagent, you see them in Rainbow. Our guess? Watch late January and early February and see how many of the shops that depend on the tourists at the camp go to the wall. No, you can't blame the holiday camp owner, who was given an offer he had no intention of refusing. Why was he made the offer? Well, one Seaton resident apparently asked that question at the Tesco exhibition and was apparently told "Well, if we hadn't bought it, another supermarket might have".
posted by Anonymous @ 12:08 pm
4 Comments:
EDDC were responsible for the demise of the holiday park in Seaton by agreeing to grant planning permission for a major housing development on the land. This probably meant that the land was considerably more valuable as residential housing and too expensive to remain in its current use.
Will Seaton ever recover from the affects of this decision ? I doubt it.
It will never again be classed as a 'destination holiday resort' and therefore will lose all the potential inflow of income that could be gained.
Seaton is not just losing the Lyme Bay holiday Park, it is losing the opportunity to develop that site into 21st century tourism/leisure facilities that have the potential to generate far more prosperity for the town than exists at present.
The sad thing is that we are going backwards, not forwards, and all with the blessing of our District Council ! Not only are we losing the future potential wealth creation by using the land to create successful businesses, but we are sacrificing the ability to add enormously to the prestige and reputation of the town.
We are now in danger of continuing for many years to come with a derelict site (now even larger), because with the collapse of the housing market very little of the councils "regeneration plans" can be salvaged. It was constructed like a deck of cards (dependant on the 'housing bubble') and is now in tatters ! The only bit we will get is a huge supermarket, which will bring congestion to the town and little else... and that should see off any remaining independant businesses who were still viable and managed to survive the closure Seatons main tourism facility !
Seatonbob
Hear, hear! But Tesco does not have clean hands here either. They could have taken out an option on the holiday village rather than purchasing the land and closing it, leaving it to operate until such time that the land was needed.
You hear such a lot about jobs going because of the credit crunch - here were jobs that could have stayed.
Dont need to wait until late January or February, the shops are already closing down now or at least up for sale!!
Tesco claimed that they were told by EDDC that they had to buy the Holiday Village.
Planning permission has not been granted for residential housing on the land. It can not be granted unless the land is raised massively. But I agree that EDDC gave Seaton the kiss of death by suggesting that it might be possible.
Don't know who owns Seaton's shops but they will need to look at lower rentals to entice new businesses in.
Post a Comment
<< Home