Credit to the council for making the right decision for once despite the lobbying of a well known supermarket. The council on Tuesday night turned down a planning application by the supermarket chain Sainsbury's to open a supermarket as part of the proposed Hawksmead eco-disaster to the north west of Oakham.
There really no need for another supermarket in Oakham at the moment, especially one so big and all the problems it will cause in terms of increased traffic and the pollution that will bring to our lovely county. We have lived with the two supermarkets we have had in Oakham for many years and they fulfil our needs combined with the local shops in the high street and with online shopping there isn't even the need to travel to the surrounding cities any more.
Many people claim that Sainsbury's would offer competition to Tesco's but this is unfounded. In fact they would competing against the CoOp and not Tesco's. What many people think is that supermarkets locally compete against each other and that having two major supermarkets in the town would keep the cost of things down but this is supermarket propaganda. Supermarkets compete and set prices regionally if not nationally. The Tesco's in Melton for example is not cheaper than the one in Oakham despite the more supermarkets in the area. In fact going out the region to Nottingham the Tesco's there are more expensive than the one in Oakham where the competition is even greater. So have more supermarkets doesn't mean lower prices at all.
I agree that another petrol station run by a supermarket might take a penny off the price of petrol, but given the fact traffic is light to medium around the county we do enjoy the benefit of not wasting petrol sitting in queues of traffic. The question is it worth a penny, when we have two petrol stations in the town that cater for our needs as it is. Is it really going to save us that much a year in the running costs of our cars given the other increases in motoring costs recently all caused by the Banking crisis and World events.
Assuming the Hawksmead eco-disaster, which I oppose, does go ahead as planned, it is still not clear we need a supermarket built on a green field site to add to shameful destruction of green field land that this development will bring to the county and the eco nightmare that will result. There is the brown field land available in the area and this should clearly be used before any green field land is even considered. This is both true of the Hawksmead eco-disaster and Sainsbury's plans to build a supermarket. For example it might be possible to save the village of Barleythorpe by using the land at former Ashwell prison for some for some the planned housing of the Hawksmead eco-disaster and provide a buffer around the village. I might not like the idea of the Waitrose development but at least in it's favour it is built on a brown field site.
The thing is that since all these plans were thought up the economic conditions in the county have changed dramatically. The whole development and the plan that is driving it needs to be considered in the light of what is happening to the area now. It should at least be put on hold or scaled down until things are more certain in the local economy.
The one thing I think people haven't really thought of, even leaving the environmental arguments aside, is what this Hawksmead eco-disaster will do to the economy of the county at the moment. Just looking at one measure of personal wealth, house prices, these will be driven down by the flood of new houses on the market. Then there is the employment question as to if there is enough growth nationally or locally to provide jobs that the people moving into the area will need when the local economy is already shrinking due to cuts in council spending and the loss of two major employers. Shouldn't we be stabilising the local economy and finding jobs for the people already out of work before we look to growth from outside the county.
On Tuesday night the council for once made the correct choice. I just hope they can now look at all their plans before it is to late for the county. They really need to think hard about the Hawksmead eco-disaster and the problems it will cause and not the money they will get from the government for letting these eco terrorists build these house and spoil Rutland. I have seen some of the figures and we all know that greed, the problem that caused our problems now because of the Banks, is driving factor behind Hawksmead eco-disaster, but we don't have to be greedy and we should all look at the big picture before supporting the developers plan. The money might be nice now but in twenty years time the legacy of the development will be a nightmare for our children. We should let the developers blind us with there polished presentations and promises of cash, what we should be doing is looking at preserving what makes Rutland one of the most beautiful places in England.
It is now important we keep the pressure on these people to stick to the decision they made on Tuesday evening. The Sainsbury's corporate machine won't let their plans die without a fight and we the people need to fight back. They have all ready been instructing people of Rutland write to the following people to express disappointment at turning down their plans on their website. The people that oppose it also need to do the same to the same to counteract this move.
Planning Officer
Councillors for Oakham
Jeffrey Dale - jdale@rutland.gov.uk
Vijay Dighe - vdighe@rutland.gov.uk
Richard Gale - rgale@rutland.gov.uk
Trevor Lovell - tlovell@rutland.gov.uk
Mark Wells - mwells@rutland.gov.uk
Gene Plews - gplews@rutland.gov.uk
Peter Jones - pjones@rutland.gov.uk
Heather Wells: hwells@rutland.gov.uk
Councillor for Langham
Nicholas Wainwright - nwainwright@rutland.gov.uk
The Rutland Times
The Editor - rutland.editorial@jpress.co.uk
Just write a letter to these people and the newpaper showing that the local community is against the plans and stop the Sainsbury's corporate machine adding to the Hawksmead eco-disaster. You never know if we encourage them to stick to their decision we might be able to get them to revisit the scale of the Hawksmead eco-disaster and the affect it will have on Rutland and the surrounding area's.
Keep Rutland Beautiful
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