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It wasn’t much to ask, was it? A
spacious, well-stocked supermarket in Sheringham where families could fill a trolley
without breaking the bank, and the elderly and less abled could shop with dignity without
being jostled by other customers. At present shopping for groceries in the town must be an
absolute nightmare for the disabled. The store would also bring extra local employment for
all ages.
Once again the powers-that-be have moved their well-worn goalposts and say we can’t
have the store. After asking Tesco to resubmit their application in April 2006 and
promising to approve it, the JDCC have chucked it out once again. Now, if you can believe
it, they want a store half the proposed size, which would make it about one-third the size
of Fakenham’s Tesco, and it has to be in keeping with the architectural style of
Sheringham’s only listed building, the Roman Catholic church, i.e. a tall red-brick
building in the gothic style. As demonstrated for over a decade, the committee have never
had any intention of allowing Tesco into the town, but that hasn’t stopped them
wasting the taxpayers’ money by commissioning reports by our highly-qualified
planning and highways officers only to reject their research and recommendations. Does
this mean they consider their officers to be incompetent? Do you wish that other views and
opinions had as much voice with the council as those of the aptly named SCAMrod, with a
seemingly unstoppable propaganda machine? The leaders of this organisation are a handful
of local business people with a vested interest in keeping competition out of the town.
They have no relevance to my life, what about yours?
What it all comes down to again is that those with the means who want any choice and value
for money in their groceries, will still have to spend their spare time and their money
away from the town. Those who are restricted to the town will still have no choice but to
negotiate their way crab-wise around the narrow aisles of Budgens, past other shoppers
vainly searching for a wider choice or transfixed by some of the jaw-dropping prices. No
offence to Budgens’ entrepreneurial endeavours but they've already come up with the
best they can do. On a serious note, as pointed out by the Finance Officer, if Tesco win
their appeal against the decision, NNDC will face enormous legal costs. These will have to
be met by us in the form of higher taxation and/or cuts in services. Your local
councillors are currently bathing in the glory of the publicity of a so-called victory for
democracy. But it wasn’t democracy, was it? As was shown in the recent survey, more
people voted yes to Tesco than voted no. If you were in favour of a Tesco in Sheringham
and if you are at all dissatisfied with the way you have been represented by these
councillors, then please get in touch with them and make your views known. They are
obviously confident that the town is populated by families who don’t eat, and people
who have always been blissfully unaffected by the cost of living and think supermarkets
are vulgar. They have a duty to represent us all equally, not just the ones that shout the
loudest. As they have demonstrated, they are one hundred per cent in favour of the
anti-Tesco lobby.
Mrs W Norman |
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