Here is a sample letter, feel free to use as much or as little of this as you like. Please don't forget to add your address as otherwise your letter will not be taken into account. (sorry, cutting and pastings seems to mess with the formatting, but I'm sure you can adjust if you cut and paste into your word processor)
Mr. C. Sampson
The Planning
Department
Town Hall
Hastings
East Sussex
TN34 1QR
[Date]
Dear Mr. Sampson,
Re: Plans to develop
ASDA supermarket on Ponswood Industrial Estate –HS/FA/09/00284
I would like to register my objection to the
development of an ASDA supermarket on the Ponswood Industrial Estate for the
following reasons:
1.
Traffic in Silverhill along
Road and surrounding feeder roads is already excessive. Silverhill junction is currently at full
capacity.
2.
PPS6, Paragraph 2.49 requires that “In selecting
appropriate sites for allocation, local authorities should have regard to”...”
ii) the impact on car use, traffic and congestion.”
3.
Goverment Planning Policy Guidance Note PPG 4,
paragraph 10, suggests that Development Plans should discourage new development
where it would be likely to add unacceptably to congestion. We feel that this
will undoubtedly be the case. If HBC Planning Department will consider this
application, we ask for a Paramics simulation of future traffic flow to be
carried out.
4.
Major emergency services – Police, Fire and
Ambulance – are situated in the same area along Bohemia Road. For any of these
to reach an emergency in the west, north or east sections of
St. Leonards, Hastings and the surrounding villages, they need to pass
Silverhill junction - many times a day. Blocking this route with more traffic
may cost lives.
5. PPG4, paragraph 15 also advises that planning permission should not be granted where there are specific and significant objections, such as unacceptable noise, and health impacts or excessive traffic generation. We believe that Sedlescombe Road North as well as the Silverhill junction are at capacity with regard to traffic. The two new lanes on the top 30 – 40 metres of Battle Road will do nothing to reduce congestion. Ashbrook Road and Old Harrow Road will be at capacity once traffic to and from the Superstore is diverted along these roads. Old Harrow Road residents have already petitioned HBC for a zebra crossing because it is felt that excessive traffic is causing problems. Additional cars travelling along Battle Road from Battle and surrounding villages, will mean that Battle Road will also reach capacity. We therefore believe that the development is not sustainable in this area.
Employment
1. A third supermarket opening in Silverhill is likely to result in more
local, independent shops closing, leading to the loss of well paid full-time
jobs.
2. Smaller independent local shops are more likely to buy their produce/products
and services from small, local suppliers who may also be put out of business as
local shops are closing. This means that
the jobs offered by ASDA will be created at the expense of existing jobs.
3. ASDA representatives have told us that approx. 60-70% of the jobs the
development will create, will be part time and/or temporary. We were also told that management staff will
not necessarily be recruited from the St. Leonards/Hastings area. This means that not all the jobs will be available
to local residents and a large percentage of those that are available will not
offer any benefits, such as pension schemes or employment protection.
ShShopping and Local Economy
1.
PPS6, Paragraph 3.9 informs us: “Need must be
demonstrated for any application for a main town centre use which would be in
an edge-of-centre … location and which is not in accordance with an up-to-date
development plan document strategy”. We
feel that need has not been sufficiently demonstrated and the area is already well
served by several supermarkets and superstores.
2.
PPS6, Paragraph 3.21 refers to the need to consider
the impact of the proposal on the vitality and viability of existing centres
within the catchment area of the proposed development. This proposal will
affect a number of small businesses, not just in Silverhill but also along
Road and .
This opinion is supported by the report produced by the All-Party Parliamentary
Shop Group “High Street Britain 2015”, which concludes that the trend towards
convenience stores placed in town centres by ASDA, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, etc. is
making it virtually impossible for smaller, independent shops to survive. It
further concludes that, if this trend continues, local shops will have disappeared
from ’s
high streets by 2015. On the basis of this report, the Federation of Small
Businesses have recently launched their campaign “Keep Trade Local” in a bid to
save the high street shops.
3.
At least 50% of money spent in local independent shops
stays in the local economy. In contrast, only 5% of money spent at a
supermarket chain will remain in the local economy. In the long term this will
be damaging not only for the areas of Silverhill and St. Leonards and go
against Hastings Borough Council’s published strategy for regeneration as laid
out in the Local Plan.
We ask that an Impact Assessment be prepared in
accordance with PPS6, 3.20. This should include Silverhill as well as Bohemia
and Central St. Leonards as the proposed development is very likely to have a negative
impact on these other centres.
Yours sincerely,
[Name]
[Address]
[Address]
That's great Gaby. I assure you I have been writing in but none are showing up on the planning website. Dozens of support letters are though. Have you seen this ad in Adnews? I hope I have uploaded it OK. Are there any articulate people out there who could heckle?
