Christmas comes early at Tescos

It amazes me how every year that Tescos in Oakham starts Christmas before they have even put the fireworks away. This year the run up started today and the Christmas tree appeared at the entrance to the store and hanging signs in the store itself.

Guess it was a good bet they would start the Christmas festivities soon, after all they started selling tins of Christmas chocolates and Terry's chocolate oranges back in early October. Every year they seem to sneak in the Christmas stuff earlier and earlier hope people will be tempted to buy.

Next the shops will be playing wall to wall Christmas music and the poor sales staff will have to endure the looped tapes over and over again, until soon they are so fed up with Christmas they can't wait for it to be over, and some customers will feel the same way soon.

Personally I just wish they would let us get at least through fireworks night before they start on Christmas. In fact mid November would be a better time, with just about 5 weeks to go before the main event. To me, the more the shops extend the run up to Christmas the more they spoil the time of year. 

Subway to open in Oakham

It been announced that Oakham is just about to get it's own Subway franchise to add to all the coffee shops, sandwich shops and restaurants we already have in the High Street. Soon the only place you will be able to buy anything but a lunchtime solution will be the charity shops in the town. Question is how long before they start selling tea, coffee and cake like help the aged in Melton.

Rutland is currently one of the few places in the country that you won't find a McDonald's or a KFC, but after the announcement of a Subway franchise one wonders how long before they both open a restaurant in Oakham. My guess is by the end of 2016 we will have both in the town. 

The sad thing is franchises take money out of the local economy while locally run sandwich and coffee shops do more to support it, and it be those local shops that suffer. In terms of jobs the coffee and sandwich produce on only low paid and unskilled work, normally undertaken by young workers.

One has to wonder how many coffee shops and sandwich shops the local economy can support in Rutland before we see a new type of death in the High Street. These type of operations require a high throughput of customers to make a profit, and if you can't get the footfall then these businesses will close.

Aldi Plans for Oakham get Approval

So many people turned up at today's planning meeting at Rutland County Council that it had to be moved to the Towns museum. It was there that between 200 and 250 members of the public watched proceedings as the Development Control and Licensing Committee debated and finally approved planning permission for a new Aldi store to be built off the Oakham ring road near to the new BP petrol station. 

Even since Adli came to show the plans to the people of Oakham last year there has been massive support for the project, however the project seemed set to be doomed when Andrew Waskett-Burt, Planning Officer of Rutland County Council, recommended that Rutland County Council reject the plans based on the fact the land had already be designated as employment land rather than land for retail developments.

What happened next seemed remarkable for a small county town where politics seems almost a dirty word, where the public are use to Rutland County Council what they please without much regard for public opinion. The people of the county started to get organised and were highly vocal about the issue in both the local press and on-line. By Tuesday morning over 1000 people had signed one of two online petitions supporting the opening of the store, while others had posted messages on support on the Rutland County Council planing web site and there was even a Facebook page supporting the store with over 100 people saying they were coming to tonight's meeting.

Given the report Planning Officer of Rutland County Council it really did look like the whole project was doomed. The report was so negative about the proposal and seemed to dismiss the hundreds of letters and emails of support that had been sent to the council. Next came the the fear that the adoption of the Sites Allocations Development Plan the night before, at the disrupted full council meeting, could have seen the whole thing rejected even before it was discussed. It looked at one point it was dead in the water.

Thankfully that did not happen and the people of Rutland and their mass support for the store coming to the town was too great not to be taken into consideration. Development Control and Licensing Committee had little choice but to approve the plans. Which was probably a good thing with so many people in the museum to see the outcome of the vote. 

I can imagine if they had turned it down their would have been a lot unhappy and just meters away from the council members and their bouncers. Then there would have been the public backlash from rejection of the plans from the majority of the towns people and the people in the nearby villages who come polling day next year at the local elections would have remember the events of the night and voted the council out office for sure.

The vote on the night saw 10 of the 11 councillors on Development Control and Licensing Committee voting for the plan to build the store, while the remaining one abstained. This ends a ten year battle for Aldi who have been trying to get a store in to the town.

Soon we will have quality discount food store in the town to compete with the existing two supermarkets and the proposed supermarket on the site of the old college. This will be especially good news to those on low incomes in the town who find the existing supermarkets a great strain on their finances. Having shopped in Aldi in Grantham at times they are in for somewhat of a treat, their cooked meats are excellent, as are their premium sausages and their clone of fruit corner yogurt are to die for. Well done to everyone that supported the store coming to Oakham. We won and Rutland County Council listened for once.

---

Update 15th October - You can read a account of the meeting by Martin Brookes on his blog: Martin Brookes Oakham Rutland 
Update 15th October - You can read the Rutland Times account of the meeting on their website: Rutland Times

Aldi Plans to be Torpedoed Tomorrow

I was reading a post on Martins Brookes blog that mentioned that if the “Sites Allocations Development Plan” is approved tomorrow then members that approve the plan won't be able to vote on Tuesday for the acceptance of the plan. I'm not as knowledgeable as Mr Brookes on council procedures but there is reason not to think that he isn't correct from what I understand of such matters. Nor is there any reason to think that the “Sites Allocation Development Plan” will not be pushed through on tomorrow by the Conservatives. Those Conservatives on the controlled Development Control and Licensing Committee will no doubt vote for the “Sites Allocations Development Plan” and then Aldi plans will be torpedoed before we even get to Tuesday.

Having looked at the document prepared by Andrew Waskett-Burt Planning Officer of Rutland County Council that will go before the Development Control and Licensing Committee really does a good job of destroying the planning proposal in it recommendation for rejection by the committee. The Planning Officer maintains, throughout his report, that land that has been allocated to employment and that should remain allocated employment and recommends a high level marking campaign to attract development. However the site has been marketed pro-actively for the last 9 years though a number of marketing initiatives including mail shots, internet marketing and the production of e-brochures. Ever since it was allocated as employment land in 2001 it has failed to attract interest. Apparently according to the report the Oakham Enterprise Park can not be used to argue that additional development land now exists in the region which would allow the reallocation of the proposed site to other uses.

The report from the Planning Officer fails really to take seriously the views of local people and does it best to dismiss them. Those that have resounded positively to the application have commented on the following benefits to the town:

• Public demand and support for an Aldi store in Oakam.
• Job creation, especially for young people.
• Reduction in those travelling out of the area to access discount food stores in Corby and Grantham which would result in benefits to the local economy and the environment.
• Increased choice, range and competition to the existing two supermarkets and the planned supermarket Oakham, by offering a affordable alternative for food shopping for families on low incomes.
• The proposed plan is big enough to benefit town, but small enough to not adversely affect other shops on the High Street and that it is preferable to Sainsbury’s in its planned location
• Since the Council have purchased Ashwell Prison for employment use this the land the store will be built on can be freed up for other uses.
• The town is expanding and will need more supermarkets to cope with the increased population.
• Will free up traffic at the crossing on Melton Road due its location off the ring road.

All these have been considered and mostly rejected. It seems that the for addition provision for another supermarket in the town will largely be satisfied by the previously approved Sainsbury’s store on Barleythorpe Road. This is despite people wanting a store in the town that provide discounted quality food that people on low incomes can afford.

All the ways you look at it the plan looks like it will be rejected on Tuesday and all we can do is try and make ourselves heard and show our support and hope for the best and that reason takes over from stupidity at the Council. Two documents that might interest you are the report prepared by Andrew Waskett-Burt Planning Officer, Planning Rejection Recommendation, and the response by the developers, Response to the Rejection Recommendation. If you want to e-mail the councillors on the Development Control and Licensing Committee there details are as follows:

Mr M E Baines democratic@rutland.gov.uk
Mrs C L Vernon cvernon@rutland.gov.uk
Mr D C Hollis dhollis@rutland.gov.uk
Mr T C King tking@rutland.gov.uk
Mrs C J Cartwright cjcartwright@rutland.gov.uk
Mr J Lammie jlammie@rutland.gov.uk
Mr W J Cross wcross@rutland.gov.uk
Mr M A Oxley moxley@rutland.gov.uk
Mr J T Dale jdale@rutland.gov.uk
Mr C A Parsons cparsons@rutland.gov.uk
Mr R J Gale rgale@rutland.gov.uk
Mr M R Woodcock mwoodcock@rutland.gov.uk

One thing, I think, is for sure if the plan is rejected on Tuesday or torpedoed on tomorrow there are going to be a lot of angry people that feel they haven't been listened too by the Rutland County Council, but then again when have the Council ever listened to the people they are meant to represent in Rutland? May be it is time for a change.

Not to late to have your say - Aldi Oakhm

Local people are continuing to campaign for Rutland County Council to support the planning application that would see a Aldi store being built on wasteland, that has been allocated for employment land but left derelict for years and it is not too late to have you say and make your voice heard.

Simply by going on to the Rutland County Council website and filling in a simple on line form you can show your support for the plan. By clicking on this link, RCC Planning Online, you will be taken to the page shown above. On the page you just have to fill in the boxes with you name and address and some other details. The important bit is at the bottom where a drop down menu lets you add your support for the application and the box below that were you need to state your reasons for supporting the development.

According to the article that appeared today on the Rutland Times website, there was when they looked some "460 letters in support of Aldi and three objections" for the planned store. This represents some 99.4% of the comments being in favour of the store being built on the site near to lands End and the new petrol station. However it does just stop there as there is another way you can show your support.

On the change.org site Hayley Rose has set up a online petition to support the planning application, which you can get to by clicking on this link, Petition to Approve Aldi Supermarket plans in Oakham. All you have to do this time is time is enter your details in the box on the right of the screen and then click the sign box and you are almost done as you might get a confirmation email which you just have to quickly look at and follow a link to make sure your a human being.

Please help out if you want a Aldi in Oakham, tell your friends on Twitter and Facebook and get those that are local to the town to do the same. Get them to go on the Rutland Council Website and sign the petition and make as much noise as they can on social media. Make sure people know that they could lose a valuable asset that will make Oakham a more affordable place to shop. Hayley is trying to get a thousand people to sign the petition and I sure we get those and a few more.

Social Media Campaign to get Aldi to Oakham

Since Tuesday and the when the story broke that Rutland County Council Planning Officer, is recommending refusal of a new Aldi store in Oakham social media locally is starting to feature the views of those that support the purposed plan. 

Twitter and Facebook has started to come alive with some of the views of the local residents that want the store to appear in Oakham. For examples this comment by Lynne Dalzell on Twitter that got several retweets: 

Rutland County Council recommend refusal for the Aldi store in Oakham despite 94% of locals backing it. Is that a rat I can smell?

While others have called it a disgrace and have question the decision to recommend refusing planning permission to Aldi. I'm sure we can expect more as the days to the vote in the council draws nearer. Most people, it seems, want to have the store open in Oakham as shown by this comment on Facebook by Natalie Freckingham when the plans were announced by Aldi:

Oakham is desperate for an Aldi! Like some of the others have written here, I too will be doing my shopping in Oakham for the first time in years if this happens!! What possible reason could there be to not have one? After all, many of us would have spare money to put back into other local businesses that we can't normally afford to frequent!

The support for the store is not surprising given the domination of the other two supermarkets in the town, which many people feel are too expensive and don't cater for their needs. When Aldi held a public consultation at the Victoria Hall in Oakham back in Novemeber last year it was by all accounts a very busy affair compared to other such events in the town. It seems it a very popular move by Aldi to open store in Oakham. 

Personally I think Rutland County Council would be stupid to reject planning permission for the store at Tuesdays meeting. It could really backfire on them come the elections when they are all up for the chop if they are not careful, although that wouldn't be a bad thing given their track record. Remember how they planned to waste public money to indemnify the Chief Executive to take some their own council members to court and all the other things that have happened in the last four years since we last had local elections. 

---

Update 10th October - A Facebook page has appeared to motivate people to go alone to the council meeting on Tuesday to make there feeling known and discuss the issue - https://www.facebook.com/events/1493868290867967/ .

Further update 10th October - It would seem that Rutland Times has at last got it's act together and posted a story on it website with comments from Aldi - http://www.rutland-times.co.uk/news/business/business-news/councillors-urged-to-reject-plans-for-aldi-in-oakham-1-6349512

Rutland County Council set Reject Aldi Store

I was shocked to find out that from another local blogger, Martin Brookes, that Rutland County Council Planning Officer, is recommending refusal of a new Aldi store in Oakham, especially since over the years the local residents of Oakham have been wanting a rival to Tesco's and the CoOp.

This is an ideal opportunity to provide Oakham a low cost supermarket with good access by car and by foot the new housing that has been forced on the people of Oakham and it is going to be wasted if the Council vote against the plan next week. It seems well supported by local residents and it would be a good opportunity to provide much need unskilled work into the town as well as support the local economy and stop people travelling miles to another Aldi Store.

The site chosen for the new store if off the Oakham Bypass near the site of the new petrol station and the planned hotel. This rather destroys the idea that planning permission has been refused recommendation by the Rutland County Council Planning Officer on grounds that the site was designated as employment land when exceptions already seem to have been made. What is more laughable is that apparently the bribe wasn't forth coming from Aldi. as part of the refusal states:

"The proposal would have an impact upon linked trips to Oakham Town Centre, and as such would be required to make contributions towards a County Council led planned programme of investment in the town centre to mitigate the agreed impact of the development on the town centre."

In addition to this many of the people that I see go to the Tescos or the CoOp drive there, do their shopping and then drive home. Most never ever think of going into Oakham. The same thing will happen if the purposed Sainsburys store is developed on the wasteland that was once Rutland College.

Interestingly since the land that the supermarket proposal is planned to built on was allocated employment land a lot has changed. The prison at Ashwell has closed and brought by the council and allocated to employment. This site has to be of equal size if not bigger than the planned supermarket and it would be easy for the Council to offset one against the other. This would negate the effect of reallocating the land.

I think a lot of people are going to  be upset if this plan doesn't get planning approvals when it goes before Rutland County Council on Tuesday evening next week. People want this store in Okaham and they want the benefit of cheaper good quality food at a price they can afford, rather than being ripped off by the major supermarkets. Personally I don't think there store look too bad and given that the land is just a load of mud it got to be a better use than it has now and it provides jobs for the town.

Currently people are losing patience with the Conservative led Rutland County Council who never seem to listen to the views of the people they represent. They just seem to feel they can do what they like and they will still get elected come the local elections in 2015. From what I read and hear locally they are doing this at their peril as nobody seems like them and feel they are letting the people of Rutland down. Personally I think they are right to think that way.

New Computer Games Shop

A new computer games shop is set to open in Oakham at the corner of Dean Street and the High Street. It will be the first time that people of Oakham have had somewhere they can buy computer games since the closing of Blockbusters back in mid 2011.

The owner of the shop is currently a regular on a Saturday at the Market in Melton and prior to that he shared a shop with a children clothes supplier in small shopping precinct off of Sherrard Street that connects to Windsor Street. Although the shop had many regular customers it was off the beaten track and didn't get many passing customers given its out of the way position.

The owner has a good reputation for selling and buying games at a good prices and he is very linkable. You always got a warm welcome if you visited the store in Melton or the market stall and I'm sure the same will be true in Oakham. On the whole the shop has always had a good stock of second hand games for a whole range of consoles and even sells DVDs.

Hopefully as the shop develops the owner will start branching into second hand consoles as well as games and maybe he will start selling accessories as well. I wish him well because he deserves some success and he tried so hard in Melton with stiff competition for an already established computer games shop, Voodoo games, and the over priced CEX.

Personally I recommend the shop for my own experiences of buying games from the store in Melton. It always been a pleasant experiance and I always thought I paid a fair price for a game.  

Harrington School gets the go ahead

Plans for a new free school in Rutland for post 16 education get the go ahead by the Department of Education. The bid to create Harington School was put together by Catmose College, Uppingham Community College and Oakham School. It is hoped that the school will be opening for it first intake in September 2015.

Over the years many of the top achieving students have decided to leave education in Rutland and seek courses in other counties because of the poor resources for 16 plus education around Oakham and Uppingham. Currently there is just one college based on the outskirts of the former hamlet of Barleythorpe which is now a district of of Oakham, Rutland County College. This college isn't conveniently placed for public transport, since it move from central Oakham, and it has a bad reputation among the students it sets out to attract for social problems, despite it being academically excellent according to OFSTED. Clearly these social problems that are going around could just be rumour rather based in hard facts, but they have damaged the colleges reputation with many. 

The organisations behind Harington School believe that there is a need in Rutland for a new post-16 provision with a clear academic focus. The goal is to create a school provides an academic curriculum that meets that which the leading universities require for entry, together with  enrichment activities that are particularly attractive to universities and employers. There aim being  to get students throughout their A Levels to provide them with the best chance of being accepted by the most prestigious universities in the country, including Oxford, Cambridge, and those within the Russell Group.

Personally I know that until recently students at Catmose College are looking outside Rutland at post 16 education options. These include scholarships to Oakham School, King Edward VII School in Melton Mowbray, Stamford College and even as far afield such as Kings School Grantham and the Kesteven and Grantham Girls' School. Hopefully with the opening of  Harington School these students now have an alternative which won't require them to be travelling hours and hours to get to a place of education each day.

The granting of the go ahead will be a real kick in the teeth to Rutland County Council who recently took over the running of Rutland College. Both Catmose College and Uppingham Community College were once local authority controlled and became academies as soon as they possibly could as have a number of other schools in the county. The current list  to July 2013 includes:

• Uppingham Community College
• Catmose College
• Casterton Business & Enterprise College
• Brooke Hill Academy
• Catmose Primary School
• Leighfield Primary School
• English Martyrs RC Primary School
• Langham  Primary School

Privately having talked to one of the Governor of  at the time of the Catmose College move to becoing an Academy the main reasoning was to do with funding and feeling they didn't get a fair deal by the Rutland County Council who were creaming off money from the education budget for administration and not passing enough money back to the schools.

Where this leaves Rutland County College is going to be an interesting question as Harington School will cream off the best students and many more besides from the two schools involved in the project. This will impact on there A-level programmes which until now according to their website have been excellent in terms of pass rate at least. It could force the existing college to introduce more vocational qualifications which might also be a good thing county that lacks this sort of provision. 

Oakham Fire Fighting Services to be cut

It has been announced in the press that it is proposed that fire fighting services in Oakham should be cut which will put lives and properties at risk. The current two appliances in the town under the plane will be reduced to a single machine as cuts bite and 100 firefighters lose their jobs. This comes as Leicestershire fire services have to make cuts of £5.5 million due to cuts in Government funding.

Mr Webb, chief fire officer, said "Members of the public would probably notice the difference if they called the fire service. Probably not with the first fire engine arriving but certainly the second, in some areas, would be slower than it currently is.". With the nearest fire station to Oakham being in Melton Mowbray the people in Rutland will certainly notice a slower response time as fire engines heavy with water have to travel  from further afield to assist in fighting fires.  

To give you an idea of the scale of the cuts to the fire service in Leicestershire and Rutland, the force current employs around 400 fighters which would be cut to 300 with the loss of 100 jobs. That is one quarter of the fire fighters in the region losing their jobs. It is no wonder we are being warned that the service, which is all ready lean, will be slower to respond to emergency calls in future. Unions warn that the fighters lives will be put at risk as well, as members of the public, when crews of five on each appliance are reduced to four. Talking about the manning of the fire engined Graham Vaux, from the fire fighters union said "If we have less than five on each fire engine there wouldn't be enough firefighters to carry out a rescue or put up a ladder, which means we could put ourselves at risk or the public,"

These are no small cuts they are massive. The fire services are something the Conservative government be protecting from cuts just as it protects the NHS. It is an essential service that saves lives. One of the many roles of any Government is to protect there citizens not putting them at risk. This is Government fail and the sooner we have a Government that cares about the people and maintenances services the better. The shower we have in cares about nothing but looking after their own.

I urge the people of Rutland not to accept these cuts and write to Sir Alan Duncan and if he fails to protect the fire service in Rutland then vote him and his local Government Conservatives friends out at the next election. If they can't protect the people of Rutland they don't deserve to be in power.

Tescos Cat

The blog has been a little heavy on late, so may be it is time for something of lighter note. Anyone that has been to Tesco's in Oakham over the years will recongonise the cat pictured below, in a more heavy form, as one that use to that was a regular sight at the entrance to the store. To many she has become known as "Tesco's Cat". In recent years she has made the odd visit but recently she has been seen a little more regularly. 

She is now a lean and beautiful young lady who loves to be fussed as longs as you don't rub her tummy. Originally many people thought she was something to do with the supermarket but she actually lives near the supermarket and the last thing she needs is treats. I'm sure she gets enough of those and love at home. Although I'm sure she won't be around for to long before her owners workout how she is escaping she has made many people smile as they go in or come out the store. She is that sort of cat. She even has her own Facebook fan page she is so popular in the the town.

Rutland Country Council Fail

Typical of Rutland Country Council that that they should forget to inform the motoring public of a road closure during the middle of a Sunday afternoon. Clearly they think everyone that travels in and out of the town reads the Rutland Times or pops on the Council website everyday. Little do they think that a lot of people don't read the mouth piece of the Council or it website.

At 1500 on Sunday the roads in Oakham get busy as everyone make the Sunday afternoon supermarket dash, but this sunday the only thing travelling down the road in the town was the band of No. 5F (Northampton) Squadron Air Training Corps and members of the RAF 504 Squadron who were based in the former RAF base in Cottesmore. They were meant to have left the market Place after an Inspection at 1545 after a service at  All Saints Church in the centre of town at 1400, however they were early and their was no advanced notice about the closing of the roads in the town, and especially the level crossing which causes problems at the best of times.

Although it was nice of the Rutland Country Council and the Oakham Town Council to give the Freedom of Entry to Oakham to RAF 504 Squadron after their long service at the old RAF Base, it wasn't good of them to close the roads without putting up signs. It might have made a good photo opportunity for the Mayor of Oakham, Cllr Mrs Jayne Woodcock, but for all those people that need to get food for the week ahead it was a nightmare. It was an epic fail in public relations and shows how little they think about the people of the town. How hard is it to put up some signs a few days in advance.

Oakham Bus Station

The title Bus Station might be a bit on the ambitious for the new structure built in Oakham, it is more on the scale of a Bus interchange, however it is the title it has been given. It was opened on 4th May 2014 by 102 year old Tommy Suthern with the omnipresent leader of Rutland County Council, Councillor Roger Bilton  Begy OBE, who never misses a chance to get his face in the papers.The total bill for a project was somewhere in the region of £700,000 according to the Rutland Times Newspaper.

(Above) Artist Drawing - (Below) The New Bus Station

 

The Bus Station has a nice indoor waiting area, with Wi-Fi internet connection if you don't mind giving your Facebook ID to the council, real-time bus information screens, a rather nice toilet facilities that including disabled and baby changing and a unbranded coffee machine. Outside there is a cycle storage, an outdoor canopy for shelter, small bus information screen, improved lighting and outdoor seating which was a later addition together with some litter bins. All it needs now is some nice art work on the wall rather than the dull orange brick and numbered bus stops so you know where a bus might happen to be stopping.

Although rather nice the cost did seem a little high despite Councillor Roger Begy saying "careful management and attention to detail has ensured that we have spent £150,000 less than originally planned", after all they have basically done is covered the waiting area of the older Bus Station and rebuilt the building that was once a public toilet. Some people have asked why they didn't reuse the existing buildings by modifying there function rather demolishing buildings that appeared to be structurally sound. Other criticisms of the project, initially, was about the timing of the project which was done during the winter and left elderly waiting for buses near the library with no place to shelter from the cold and wet weather.

Now the people of Oakham have a nice new Bus Station all we need are bus services that meet the ordinary peoples needs and just not those in recite of bus passes like Councillor Roger Bilton Begy OBE. Talking and listening to a number of people that use the bus services in Rutland to get to and from work the service lets them down. This needs addressing by the Rutland Country Council rather than being suppressed. If the the Country Council and the Government are as committed to green as they claim then they need to provide public transport that works for people.

New Rutland Bus Timetable - Council fail the working

Today saw Rutland County Council publish it new bus time table for the country and it came with little in the way of surprises and thankfully no shocks. It seems just looking at the time table, other than a reduction in the shore link service for the winter, there is really no change in the timetables at all. Not one service has been cancelled for a change.

The disappointing thing was that Rutland County Council continue to fail the people that want or need to get to work by bus. From Oakham there is still no service to Leicester or to Grantham, one a city and the other a large time that are area of employment for people in the country. Then there still remains the problem that some service end to soon in the evening to get people back home from work even if it manages to get them there. Typical of that is the 19 service from Nottingham which leaves people stranded in Melton Mowbray. One person I talked to recently said her husband had to travel to Melton to bring her home every night.

Providing people with the public transport it need to get to work should be a priority for Rutland County Council especially with the expansion of Oakham they have allowed without the creation of any real jobs in the county. The council needs to get it's act together on this before the only way you can work in the county is by being able to drive. Already the roads are getting busier and busier and improving the range of destinations offered by local bus services is becoming more important as more boxes are Larkfleet Homes.

Grainstore Beer Festival

With the coming of the bank holiday weekend their will be many things going on and around the County of Rutland. On even that has been going on and has been attracting large happy crowds is the Rutland Beer Festival held at The Grainstore Brewery, which is now in its 14th year.

The  Festival  brings together a wide range of real ales from around the UK, and features over seventy Real Ales with an array of golden ales, stouts, bitters, porters, ciders and barley wines, that just goes to show that brewing is still popular today despite the hold of the big commercial brewers that have done so much to destroy famous names of the past, like Ruddles Brewery formerly in Rutland. As always there will be live entertainment, barbecues and that friendly atmosphere that The Grainstore is known for. Opening Times are: 

• Thursday 21st August 2014 - 5pm until Midnight 
• Friday 22nd August 2014 - 11am until 1.30am 
• Saturday 23rd August 2014 - 11am until 1.30am 
• Sunday 24th August 2014 - 11am until 1am 
• Monday 25th August 2014 - 11am until Midnight 

Admission is free, but there is a deposit of £3.00 on a commemorative festival glass, which is yours to keep, or return for a full refund if you so wish. The choice is yours. Even if you got for just a couple of pints and brave this weekend weather you are sure to have a good time. It is well worth a visit.

Rise of the Coffee Shop

A few years ago Oakham High Street like many others in the UK was showing signs of the rescission caused by the banking crisis. You couldn't help notice the boarded up shop fronts as small family run shops closed one by one. Businesses that in some cases had been in the town for years. It hard to imagine what it was like for the shop owners to see something they built over years finally come to an end. 

If you come to Oakham today you will see a different High Street, one that is fall of restaurants, fast food and the mania that seems to be gripping the towns all over the England. They have popped up where ever their seems to be a free shop of a suitable size, and Oakham is now different from anywhere else. Posh clothes shops, traditional sweet shops and like have been replaced by posh coffee shop.

It is the rise of the coffee shop, but the growth isn't just due to the demand for coffee but more a sign of cheap rents in the High Street that makes selling coffee profitable. Sell coffee at £2 to £3 ago requires you to sell a lot of coffee to pay the rent and the wages of the staff that work in them. It is a retail area that has very low profit margins compared to other businesses on the High Street and it if rents raise again then you can be sure that some of the coffee shops will be no more.  

What you will see in the next couple of years is the High Street changing again as the coffee shops close. One of two things will happen, either the shops will be be reused by other businesses or they will be boarded up. It will be interesting to see which way it goes, especially given the rise of Internet shopping and in Oakham's case the introduction of two more supermarkets which ultimately remove money from the local economy, something that seem to be overlooked when these companies are given planning permission. 

The Larkfleet approach to Neighborhood Plans

Reading back through the letters pages in the Rutland Times it was interesting to read peoples views about the developers Larkfleet in Uppingham and their recent changes to their planned developments.

The first letter was from Brian Bruce and the second was from Niel Bennet about the Uppingham's Neighborhood Plan and about a what has become a controversial development by Larkfleet around the town. Larkfleet are seeking judicial review with the High Court’s planning court to over turn the Neighborhood Plan which was endorsed by more than 90 per cent of voters in a referendum back in early July 2014. The neighborhood plan proposes at least 170 homes to be built between 2013 and 2026, allocating three sites for development in the market town however the Lakefleet is promoting a site that was not allocated in the document and hence their launching of a review to overturn the plan.

In the letters published in the newspapers the two writers are clearly concerned that future development by Larkfleet. They are not opposed to development of housing as such but the tactics that Larkfleet are using to push their developments passed what the communities themselves feel is acceptable and have agreed upon. In the case of Brian Bruce he talks about how the Neighborhood Plan allows development that would not compromise the character of a beautiful, traditional market town, but would rather enhance it. Both are worried about the  effect that planned developments will have on their local area's as are the people that voted for the Neighborhood plan.

Larkfleet have a recent history of criticising and challenging Councils back in January 2013 it was South Kesteven District Council as it felt it was being left out of the Councils development plans for political reasons and said so publicly in the press. This was after failing to overturn the councils decision to not allow the construction of 1,000 homes in manthorpe back in December 2012 who refused their plans. In April 2014 the company was refused a full hearing by the High Court to have South Kesteven District Council’s grant of planning permission for the relief road to the south of Grantham quashed.

What is ironic in this is that the rant to the  press in January 2013, Larkfleet's managing director Karl Hick said “Grantham’s growth should be about what’s best for Grantham", well what is best for Grantham, as is best for Rutland, is what the people decide not a group of developers.  Larkfleet should be consulting the public, listening to communities, looking at their Neighborhood Plans and Strategic Development Plans and not railroading the whole process through the use of the High Courts. No wonder Karl Hicks won an award for high and profitable growth because he more interested in money than what people in the local communities think.

Since moving to Rutland I have notice in particular in the couple of years an increase in the the level of noise in and around the Oakham area caused by the increase in car usage in and around the town. All this has been caused by the influx of extra people due to the developments in the area. With this has come an increase in air pollution. Once green areas around the town, once used by local farmers or for recreation have been turned in to a brown muddy mess caused by the development of hundreds of houses which in my experience has little public support in and around Oakham.

It is imperative if the people that live in the area have a say in the development of the areas they live in, after all we can't trust bodies like Rutland County Council to do this for us on their own. It is wrong that developers like Larkfleet, under whatever disguise they choose to trade, can walk all over the Neighborhood Plans which were introduced as part of the Localisation Act passed in 2011. These are our communities and developers have a moral right to listen to the people that live in them. The last thing they should be doing is threating and acting like bullies.

Boring Tescos

The refurbishment of the Tesco store in Oakham is now well underway with the store smelling of paint. I was hoping they were going to make the place a little more interesting but all they are doing is making it look more boring and drab, which I didn't think was possible.

There is some nice wood being put onto the entrance to the store and they have add some wood along some of the isles which varies the height shelves and pin points the more expensive items in general.  Other than that the seem to have painted everything white, so much so that under the glare of the lights the supermarket has become extremely bright and makes it look more like a warehouse than it did before. In fact if anything they have made shopping their even worse rather than better. It is just so bland like many of the things they seem to sell.

There are some new posters been attached to the windows on the outside of the store that made me smile. The first one was "Passionate about Food" which was I thought a little ironic in a supermarket that is often running out of food including many basic items such as eggs. In some cases these shortages go on days and in one case I can remember one common product being sold out for weeks. I like to plan menu what I eat before I go into the store not have to rethink meals because I can't buy what I need. The second one about "Great Value" from a supermarket that has pulled many of its value ranges from the shelves and who seems to be constantly putting up it prices or replacing items in its standard range with more expensive products in their premium range, which in some case aren't so good. Finally the third one has cleverly been place behind the trolley park where you can't see it at all, bet that one is a real laugh.

What I dislike more than anything about Tesco is the way they keep moving stuff around the store. They seem to think I want spend ages looking for stuff around the aisles and partake in their shopping experience. To be honest I couldn't give a dam for their shopping experience. I just want to be in and out as quickly as possible to get away from the place. I have far better things to do with my life they spend it shopping, especially in a supermarkets that are kill the high streets and the real shopping experience and local economy. They are at best dull and at worse annoying.

To be honest Tescos in Oakham are going to have to get there act together if they are going to carry being the major store in the town. Soon they will have even more competition in the form of Aldi and Sainsburys. I know from talking to staff in Melton Tescos that the opening of a new Sainsburys there has hit their trade hard and combining that with an Aldi in Oakham they are going to be squeezed even more.

It is my view, that with four supermarkets in the town one of them won't be around for long. The betting is it will be the Cooperative Supermarket that we lose and that would be a shame because it offers a far better shopping experience when you compare it to Tescos and to Sainburys in Melton too. The food is better for one reason and the staff are friendly too.

What Charles didn't see

Those locally will know that the Prince of Wales visited Rutland and Oakham today with all the usual self congratulation from the Country Council and their talk in the press how much interested he shows in the area, after all the last time he was here was just a mere 13 years ago. You have to love our Country Councilors for their idiosyncrasy and eccentricity when making comments to the press.

Like most people, I think it is nice that the Royals fly the flag for Britain and all that. In Charles case I like that he is politically interested in the country and especially environment and what it means to future generations. Anyway, I thought it would be interesting to list the things in and around Oakham that I'm sure the Prince was kept away from or wasn't told about, so here is a shortened list:

• The destruction of the habitat of various forms of wildlife, including birds of prey, owls, woodpeckers and various small mammals, around Oakham.

• The destruction open spaces in Oakham, where people once walked there dogs and children played.

• The willful destruction of farming land to allow for the urbanization of Oakham and the threat of more it being used for development in the future.

• The destruction of playing fields by developers, which was sold to them by Rutland Agricultural Society, who you would have thought would try and protect the environment.

• The destruction of local communities that have existed for hundreds of years in the expansion of Oakham, destroying a way of life for many in those communities.

• The over stretching of public services such as doctors and schools by over development with poor infrastructure planning. 

• The loss and the threat of loss of emergency services in the town, starting with the sale of the police station. 

• The closure and sale of the Oakham Post Office (The for sale/let sign was even removed to hide the fact the Post Office has closed during the Royal visit).

• The slow decay to the High Street as we know it by the opening and development of more supermarkets in the town.

• The appalling lack of front line hospital services within 10 miles of the town. The nearest Accident and Emergency unit being in Leicester over 20 miles away.

The list goes on and on. I wonder what he would have thought about some of the people hands he undoubtedly shook today if he had known all that. I'm sure a man with his credentials and views would be applauded at some of the things that is happening to the beautiful market town he visited today.

Rutland Earthquakes

In the last few days we have had two largish, by UK standards, earthquakes in the Oakham area, which have shock peoples houses and rattled peoples never to some extent.

The first of the two earthquakes measured 3.2 occurred on Thursday morning at 6:07 am and woke everyone up in the house, while the second was stronger and measured 3.5 and occurred today at 6:50 am. It was the first one that was more shocking than the second despite the fact it was slightly smaller. Maybe that was due to the fact that it woke us all up with the shacking of the house while the other was sightly later in the morning and was more like thunder with what appeared to be less shaking.

Both earthquakes were in the Ashwell area, rather than Oakham as reported in the press who managed to find some what they called terrified locals to give them interviews for the news paper. All the people I talked to were more matter of fact about it all and just curious to know and understand why they had occurred and if we were going to have a third even bigger quake. Like usual the National newspapers blew the whole thing up and sensationalised the whole thing, and that included the quality press too.

UPDATE 28th April 2014 - The third Earthquake arrived today at 10:05pm centered again in the Ashwell area. Much smaller than the other two at 1.7, didn't really feel anything, it was more sort and large clap of thunder.

UPDATE 25th July 2014 - Hopefully the final earthquake for a while which measure 1.5 occurred at 10:36am, this time located between Langham and Cold Overton. This time it was just more of a rumble rather than anything really noticeable.