Supermarket plan sparks mass protest

10:00am Saturday 9th March 2013 in News

PROTESTERS: Back, from left: Ruth Winder, Emma Pomeroy and Steve Pomeroy. Front: Sally Hamilton-Jones and Rebecca Clarke. PROTESTERS: Back, from left: Ruth Winder, Emma Pomeroy and Steve Pomeroy. Front: Sally Hamilton-Jones and Rebecca Clarke.

A CONCERNED group of residents are fighting back against proposals to build a new Sainsbury’s store in Moreton.

The supermarket giant announced its plans just before Christmas to build a ‘small supermarket’ and a petrol station on land to the south of Fosseway Avenue, next to the A429.

Plans have yet to be submitted for the store, which would be built opposite the North Cotswold Hospital and create up to 150 jobs.

But action group Moreton Against Sainsbury’s Supermarket (MASS), which launched less than a month ago, is fighting back against the chain moving into the market town.

Worried Fosseway Avenue resident Emma Pomeroy, aged 43, is the co-chairman of the group. The mother-oftwo said the town did not need another supermarket and the significant increase in traffic would cause a headache for residents.

“We’re not against development,”

she said. “It has to happen. We just think it’s the wrong site and out of proportion for Moreton.

“That site in particular is the gateway to Moreton from the south. Is that what we want people to see as they drive into Moreton?”

Since its launch, the group has attracted 600 hits on its website and 100 ‘likes’ on its Facebook page while a petition has gathered more than 100 signatures. Stickers and posters have also started to appear in shops and windows.

Fellow co-chairman Ruth Winder, 41, also a Fosseway Avenue resident, said she was concerned about flooding if the new store was built.

“A lot of houses along Fosseway Avenue were flooded in 2007,” she said. “The concern is if this gets passed they are clearly going to be tarmacking over the site. I live at the very end of Fosseway Avenue and my garden’s been under water several times this winter.”

Proposals will go before the public tomorrow and Saturday in the Redesdale Hall.

For details about MASS, visit moretonagainstsainsburys.co.uk.

Comments(1)

inthemarsh says...
3:59pm Sat 9 Mar 13

I also live on the Fosseway estate and I hope the supermarket goes ahead and that it’s a catalyst for further modernisation of Moreton (e.g. as may happen with Capita taking over the Fire College). Moreton, like it or not, is a growing town driven by easy rail commuting to Oxford, Reading and London and the resulting growing population needs modern out of town stores. Of course there are serious concerns about the impact of out of town stores on the town centre, but even without such stores and given the current economic climate businesses need to think 'out of the box' and consider looking towards selling niche/specialist products and services (e.g. as Budgens appears to by selling local products and with the post office) this might then attract new footfall to the town (parking of course permitting!); these businesses could also perhaps look for virtual shoppers if they could club together to sell and advertise goods and services on say a shared ‘Moreton.com’ shopping mall. But let’s not dwell on the past, I've been in Moreton myself for more than 50 years so I've seen significant change, for example the ‘arrival’ of the Fosseway estate, Antique shops & Estate Agents all of which weren’t desired at the time but now help to make the town what it is; let's embrace the current planned changes not fight them, let’s put Moreton at the ‘front seat’ of progress rather than in the ‘back seat’ after all we are no longer the village that perhaps we would wish to be and we now need to compete for trade and community services with the other towns in the district.

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