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Bishops Waltham Action Group Newsletter #14
Email: info@bwactiongroup.org.uk
Web: www.bwactiongroup.org.uk
Dear [FIRSTNAME]
Bishops Waltham Action Group was formed following the Annual Parish Meeting on 22nd April 2009 as a response to the proposal for a new Sainsbury's store at Abbey Mill.
Our aim is to campaign against the proposed development as inappropriate to the site and the needs of the village.
The action group believes that the plan for a Sainsbury's in Bishops Waltham is not a done deal and that residents of this community can make a real difference in determining the future of Bishops Waltham.
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THIS ISSUE:
NEWS - WATCH OUT THERES A LEAFLET ABOUT
NEWS - LOCAL RETAILERS ATTACK PLANNING OVERHAUL
NEWS - GOVERNMENT AGREES TO SUPERMARKET WATCHDOG
WHAT CAN YOU DO - DONATIONS
SUCCESSES AND THANK YOUS - LOCAL FOOD SHOPS BEAT THE SNOW
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NEWS
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WATCH OUT THERES A LEAFLET ABOUT
Following the 'Consultation Update' issued by Sainsbury's about their plans for a Bishop's Waltham store, we are once again leafleting homes in Bishop's Waltham and surrounding villages. Volunteers have been hand-delivering leaflets since last weekend to residents pointing out the arguments against any supermarket development in the 800-year old market town. We assert:
1) Job losses are inevitable - research shows that an average net loss of 270 jobs results from each supermarket opened
2) Existing independent retailers and supermarket in Bishop's Waltham are no more expensive than a new supermarket would be
3) Huge congestion will follow from an estimated extra 30,000 car journeys per week on the B-class feeder roads plus up to 112 trips per week by vans and HGVs, some at night
Henry Fryer, Chairman of Bishop's Waltham Action Group, said: 'Fifty-one percent of Bishop's Waltham residents were against the store - even on Sainsbury's own figures. We have been informed of independent figures suggesting that this figure is nearer to 65%. Sainsbury's has yet to convince Bishop's Waltham residents that this massive store is needed.'
MIXED REACTION TO PLANNING OVERHAUL
A significant overhaul of the planning system intended to protect town centres and independent retailers from supermarkets has been attacked as a sop to the big grocers
The Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) has announced an overhaul of the planning system. In theory, this should mean that the ease with which the large supermarkets have set up new stores in and on the outskirts of towns may be constrained. The DCLG's plan is to make supermarkets pass a tougher test to show that a new store would benefit a town centre before they can set up shop. At the moment, retailers have only to prove that new developments are satisfying unmet demand; in future, they will have to pass a broader "impact test", which will include the environmental impact, the effect on the high street and on consumer choice.
John Healey, the Housing Minister, said: “By strengthening the hand of local councils, we are giving them the expert tools they need to put the viability and vitality of town centres first in difficult market conditions. The new tools go further than ever before to protect town centres from the harm large out-of-town developments can have.”
However, the broader definition could mean that councils are ill-equipped to fight off developments, according to some retail trade groups. The developers hold all the market research and data, so they will be best placed to make their case. James Lowman, chief executive of the Association of Convenience Stores, said: “This new policy will weigh heavily on under resourced planning departments in local councils, who will have to interpret and implement a policy that is ambitious, contradictory and highly subjective
Certain supermarkets have been accused of intensifying their store-opening programme before the introduction of regulations that will make new stores harder to develop -- an allegation that of course they deny.
The new rules are separate from the Competition Commission's proposal for a competition test that would make it harder for supermarkets to open stores in areas in which they are already dominant. Although it is only a recommendation at this stage this could be useful for Bishop's Waltham campaigners given the large number of Sainsbury stores within a few miles of the town.
NEW CODE AIMS TO COMBAT SUPERMARKET BULLYING
Small companies supplying supermarkets can expect greater protection if plans to create an ombudsman to enforce the Groceries Supply Code of Practice (GSCOP), which came into force on 4 February this year, go ahead. The Competition Commission suggested the role of an ombudsman after conducting a two-year probe into the supermarkets, which queried alleged business practices of supermarkets, such as below-cost pricing. Its inquiry ended in 2008.
The Government is due to start consultations next month on how a watchdog for the GSCOP would operate and what its powers would be. Phil Orford, chief executive of the Forum for Private Business welcomed the ombudsman decision, but said small suppliers and retailers continued to suffer as a result of supermarkets anti-competitive practices. One of the main problems is that many suppliers feel intimidated into silence and do not speak out; a situation we need to change, Orford said. "While a dedicated watchdog for these businesses is welcome, it does not go far enough to hold large retailers to account or to address the need to reinvigorate small shops on our high streets and the communities they serve," he added.
Launch of GSCOP spawned a spate of newspaper articles reminding us just how damaging supermarkets are to local economies, food producers and environments.
Among the numbers worth noting are:
* Food transport - such as shunting goods from centralised warehouses or a supermarket chain's preferred single national abattoir - is responsible for a 33% increase in road freight over the past 15 years.
* We now import 95% of the fruit we eat and 50% of the vegetables as supermarkets opt for low-cost producers rather than buying British.
* Of the 25 million tons of waste generated each year, 33% is food packaging.
* 8.3million tonnes of edible food is binned each year largely due to the “best before” dates used by supermarkets.
* The waste mountain is compounded by supermarkets refusing to accept food from suppliers which has less than 75% of the time before its “best before” date due to run - so forcing suppliers to throw away perfectly edible food.
While the new GSCOP rules will help prevent the supermarkets' bullying behaviour the need to source more food locally is also taking centre stage in the run-up to the general election. The Tories have already committed to encouraging councils to increase local food sourcing while Environment Secretary, Hilary Benn, is also urging local involvement and consumer action: "People power can help bring about a revolution in the way food is produced and sold," he told a farming conference in Oxford last month, arguing that "food businesses, including supermarkets and food manufacturers, would follow consumer demand for food that is local, healthy and has been produced with a smaller environmental footprint - just as consumers have pushed the rapid expansion of Fairtrade products and free range eggs over the last decade."
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WHAT CAN YOU DO?
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Every Newsletter we hope to provide you with a couple of quick things you help us with:
DONATIONS
If you would like to make a donation then you can do this by credit or debit card via the Paypal donate button on the website (Paypal will handle the payment securely, BWAG does not receive any card details). You do not need a Paypal account.
Alternatively you can make a donation by direct bank transfer into our deposit account : Bishops Waltham Action Group, SORT CODE 20-97-01, ACCOUNT NUMBER 93626512. If you use this method could you please send an email to treasurer@bwactiongroup.org.uk with your contact details so that your donation can be acknowledged. You can also donate via cheque made payable to Bishops Waltham Action Group or BWAG. Please send these to : BWAG, 2 Merlin Mews, Houchin Street, Bishops Waltham, SO32 1AR.
A local chartered accountant is BWAG's treasurer. All funds are held in a bank account with Barclays Bank in Bishops Waltham. Five committee members are signatories to that account and everything to do with the account has to be authorised by two people.
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SUCCESSES AND THANK YOUS
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LOCAL FOOD SHOPS BEAT THE SNOW
Local retailers in Bishop's Waltham and surrounding villages came to the rescue during the Arctic conditions of the past weeks keeping shelves stocked and delivering supplies to the elderly, demonstrating just how important local food suppliers are to the community.
Bishop's Waltham baker, Stainers, increased production to meet demand and also kept many convenience stores in outlying villages well stocked with bread. Owner Christine Blanford said "We are a small local business and we live on the premises ,with themajority of our staff living close by. Therefore, we were able to provide 24 hour service throughout the extreme weather conditions ,to our shop and all of the local shops we currently supply".
Phil Channon who runs greengrocer Hylands, across the street to Stainers, was just as busy. Despite the heavy fall of snow overnight on 5-6 January, Phil still headed for the local wholesale market next morning to ensure that Bishop's Waltham shoppers had plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables to choose from.
Local village shops also came into their own. In Swanmore queues snaked through the village store as residents, unable to move their cars on ungritted roads, stocked up. Next door, butcher, Robert Stewart, also saw unprecedented demand with his sales doubling compared with a normal early January. Robert was working late in the shop on Tuesday 5 January when the snow came down so left his car safely parked outside and spent the next few days walking the 10 minutes to and from his home on the outskirts of the village to the shop each morning. With the local meat wholesaler also able to get through there was no shortage of sausages in Swanmore.
While Budgens in Bishop's Waltham was occasionally caught out by panic buying, and the home delivery service briefly suspended, the company's van drivers were determined to bring supplies to the snowbound.
Marjorie and Victor Easterby-Smith, both in their late eighties, were completely cut off at Wyches Farm in Upper Swanmore but they didn't go hungry. Marjorie was able to phone her order through to Budgens as usual and the shopping arrived on time: “Budgens have done wonders,” she says. “I think the driver must have borrowed a Land Rover but he still had to carry our shopping all the way up our drive. I very much doubt if we'd have had that sort of service from Sainsbury.”
Bishop's Waltham is fortunate to have local independent food shops, either buying from local farms, markets and wholesalers or producing food locally so no matter what the weather brings the shelves generally stay filled.
Henry Fryer, Chair of Bishop's Waltham Action Group said 'We are fortunate in Bishop's Waltham to have a vigorous, supportive and integrated community. Supermarkets, with their longer supply lines than our local shops, are less well able to cope with this kind of weather emergency. If Sainsbury's were to build their supermarket here, many independent retailers here would be forced out of business, undermining the vitality and viability of this community.'
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