News. . . .
March 29th, 2010
Stopping the Supermarket Onslaught
Tesco’s announcement of plans which would more than double the size of its existing store in Cardigan is just the latest in a tidal wave of supermarket planning applications across South-West Wales. Currently there are plans at various stages for new supermarkets in Cardigan, Newcastle Emlyn, Fishguard, Narberth, St. Clears and Llandysul as the supermarket chains race to fill every last blank on their maps.
Unfortunately, the county council planning system tends to look at each application in isolation and does not take a wider view, but the Welsh Assembly Government does have powers to intervene, and now is the time for it to press the pause button to review the implications for our small towns, locally owned businesses and the environment. There may be cases where supermarkets bring genuine benefits to local communities, but all too often their legacy is the loss of smaller shops and jobs and the draining of money out of Wales back across the Severn Bridge.
In Newcastle Emlyn local people and businesses have been fighting one particularly destructive plan for a new supermarket for over a year, and I hope that readers will join us in writing to their assembly members and Jane Davidson, the Environment Minister, to call for a halt to this flood of developments in order to allow for public consultation and a careful reappraisal of retail planning before it is too late to save the places which both local people and visitors love so much.
You can write to Jane Davidson at the following address:
Welsh Assembly Government
Cathays Park
Cardiff
CF10 3NQ
I think another supermarket will kill Newcastle Emlyn, just like Cardigan is gradually being killed off. Both Cardigan and Newcastle Emlyn were loved for their individuality, that sense will be killed off as people by pass the centre and get everything they need under one shop and forget about the little shops.