| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Re:Reply | |
| Posted by: | Tracie Dudley Craig | |
| Date/Time: | 25/01/20 11:41:00 |
| Beautifully put, Mr Havelock. Brentford desperately needs somewhere where people can buy actual ingredients and cleaning materials, not just ready-meals and an emergency pint of semi-skimmed. Thinking about it, these amorphous supermarket proposals have been made solely with the future residents of the developments in mind, the assumption being that these small properties will be home to people who aren't especially interested in cooking, or will have their groceries delivered by van. This completely ignores the needs of Brentford's existing residents. The very notion of us being left without any provision for grocery shopping for a number of years is genuinely appalling. I would add that Morrisons also provides an extraordinarily valuable social function whereby the elderly and isolated can make some sort of vitally important human contact. I'm neither elderly nor isolated, but I still appreciate seeing familiar and friendly faces and the opportunity to say hello to customers and staff when I go there. Losing this is 'progress'? I don't think so. Still - when push comes to shove - all of this is irrelevant to developers, no matter how many pretty words they produce about regeneration and inclusion; money talks, cowpats walk. The only chance that these grim plans might not come to fruition is if L&Q decide that the game isn't worth the candle, rather as Essential Living did. If they do, what happens next? Sell on to another developer with deeper pockets? Offer to sell back to Morrison's, at a massively inflated price? Morrisons moves out and the site becomes derelict and a magnet for vandalism and anti-social behaviour? I have a fantasy; I win the Big One on Euromillions. One of my first actions is to offer L&Q (or whoever) over the odds for the site. It's an offer they can't refuse. Engage with Morrisons, retain the supermarket, parking and breathing space. It might even be an improved Morrisons, with a little café. (Sains in Chiswick got rid of their café, depriving the elderly and lower-income residents of somewhere to go and have a cup of coffee and a bun, a massive mistake. It's now an Argos pick-up point - yay.) I just hope that someone out there is listening and - more crucially - thinking. Real, actual, joined-up thinking about what's important and helpful for communities, both current and in the future. That's aimed at both developers and the council. Will there be any response from either? I doubt it. |