Tesco / ASDA !!!

[Marple Business Forum]

Why is everything always a closed meeting !  What do people talk about that they don't want people to hear. I thought only the Masons did that ?    And more to the point what do shop keepers talk about that is MI 5 stuff and deemed too secretive for the public  !  Oh my god its not the price of FISH is it 

I'll tackle your questions one-by-one:
- It isn't - this will be the first one I can remeber the Marple Business Forum ever having
- Nothing - you'll hear what our stance on this subject is after the meeting
- Their not
- Secrecy has nothing to do with it - the purpose of the meeting is for the members to come to a unified decision on the stance they want their local trade body to take on this one subject.  Therefore, it can only be open to members.
- No

[Rachael]

"To name just a few would result in Marple loosing it's unique quality and possibly ending up like Milton Keynes   I say enough is enough and to people who have chosen to move to Marple from elsewhere surely it was  something to do with it's uniqueness that you choose to move here.  I would doubt very much if people who were born and breed here are happy to see all our wonderful childhood memories being wiped of the face of the earth in an attempt to make money under that old chestnut called progress. And seriously how much more traffic can Marple take, be it Tesco or Housing the roads are bad enough ! I for one say that there should be no development on the site and the land used for the youth of Marple For which there is nothing !"


Marple won't lose it's unique quality and end up like Milton Keynes, I know MK quite well and it is soulless, something Marple hopefully never will be.
However I chose to move to Marple 22 years ago and we have loved it here, but life moves on, the kids have left and its time to move on, maybe to somewhere a bit more rural. You can't stop progress, Marple is not a village, it's a large town, and not really where I want to spend the rest of my life. As for Marple having nothing for young people, I disagree. Beavers, Cubs, Scouts, Rainbows, Brownies, Guides, Tennis Club, Cricket Club, Football Clubs, Rugby Club, Carver theatre, Cinema, Swimming Pool, Parks - and probably more that I don't know about!  Good lord what more do you want?

Chicken lady ,  if ever there was a post that I could have written, then you have done it for me  ...... I totaly agree with you x x  my children have more things to do here than really  what they know to do with , its fab !

[mabel]

With regard to the College closing, from what info I have been able to gather there is no question mark at present over student numbers, the college at present has enough students to fund itself. Questions need to be asked of the Governing body as to why they didn't apply for funding earlier, while it was still available, and why £12M needs to be spent on new buildings.

The college will only discover how many students they will have in the next academic year, after enrolment, which starts at the end of August. Until then its just guesswork.

I understand that the Hibbert Lane site needs a lot of money spending on it in order to bring it up to current standards. This I can fully understand after having been in there a few years back. It makes good sense to to dispose of the old building and create a new, state of the art, learning centre that would be more conducive to education.

As there isn't really a lot of competition in terms of sixth form colleges in the local area I think the question should be why the college is short of money, especially if they ARE recruiting enough students. Also I've noticed that a lot of other colleges (like the one in Hyde) have had nice new buildings without selling their land to Tesco so what's happened with the one in Marple?

[Miss Marple]

Why is everything always a closed meeting !  What do people talk about that they don't want people to hear. I thought only the Masons did that ?    And more to the point what do shop keepers talk about that is MI 5 stuff and deemed too secretive for the public  !  Oh my god its not the price of FISH is it 

[Marple Business Forum]

Just out of interest has the Marple  Business forum  gained  the views of local traders and if so is it positive or negative regarding Tesco 

The views of the members of the Marple Business Forum are currently similiar to the views expressed in this topic - some for it, some against and a large number holding their opinion until more facts are know.

The only facts we know at present are:
- The college would like to sell the Hibbert Lane site in order to raise funds.  Obviously, they would like to raise as much funding from the sale as possible.
- Any planning application entered for retail developement on the land should be rejected by SMBC.  Although, if an application went to appeal what would happen is anyones guess.

The only thing that we can surmise with reasonable certainty is that something is going to happen to the land - the college can't afford to keep it and nobody is going to buy it to do nothing with.

So whether it's domestic, retail or industrial some development will happen eventually.

The Marple Business Forum intends to discuss this matter at it's September meeting and come up with a stance and contingency plan for what might happen to the land (please note that this will be a closed meeting open to current members only).

[chicken lady]

"To name just a few would result in Marple loosing it's unique quality and possibly ending up like Milton Keynes   I say enough is enough and to people who have chosen to move to Marple from elsewhere surely it was  something to do with it's uniqueness that you choose to move here.  I would doubt very much if people who were born and breed here are happy to see all our wonderful childhood memories being wiped of the face of the earth in an attempt to make money under that old chestnut called progress. And seriously how much more traffic can Marple take, be it Tesco or Housing the roads are bad enough ! I for one say that there should be no development on the site and the land used for the youth of Marple For which there is nothing !"


Marple won't lose it's unique quality and end up like Milton Keynes, I know MK quite well and it is soulless, something Marple hopefully never will be.
However I chose to move to Marple 22 years ago and we have loved it here, but life moves on, the kids have left and its time to move on, maybe to somewhere a bit more rural. You can't stop progress, Marple is not a village, it's a large town, and not really where I want to spend the rest of my life. As for Marple having nothing for young people, I disagree. Beavers, Cubs, Scouts, Rainbows, Brownies, Guides, Tennis Club, Cricket Club, Football Clubs, Rugby Club, Carver theatre, Cinema, Swimming Pool, Parks - and probably more that I don't know about!  Good lord what more do you want?

[Miss Marple]

There is also the issue of possibly pulling down the original Willows building which was built in 1934. I feel that to continue to loose these buildings for example The Bowling Green. The Liberal Club. The Jolly Sailor. West Towers. To name just a few would result in Marple loosing it's unique quality and possibly ending up like Milton Keynes   I say enough is enough and to people who have chosen to move to Marple from elsewhere surely it was  something to do with it's uniqueness that you choose to move here.  I would doubt very much if people who were born and breed here are happy to see all our wonderful childhood memories being wiped of the face of the earth in an attempt to make money under that old chestnut called progress. And seriously how much more traffic can Marple take, be it Tesco or Housing the roads are bad enough ! I for one say that there should be no development on the site and the land used for the youth of Marple For which there is nothing !

[admin]

A hot topic at the moment is the rumour that Cheadle and Marple College may sell the Hibbert Lane campus site to a large supermarket chain. Some are for this and others against it and it looks like staying a hot topic for some time to come. This is a straw poll to establish the consensus of registered users on the forum. If you are a visitor to the site and wish to vote you will need to register. All registrations are manually approved, so please be patient. If you register using a yahoo, gmail, msn or similar type of email address it will take longer as additional checks are conducted due to so many spammers using these types of email accounts.

In order not to sway the votes you cannot see the poll results until you have voted  

The poll has now been merged with the "Tesco" topic.

[admin]

Miss Marple has received a reply from Cllr. Susan Ingham that she has asked me to post on her behalf:

From: "Susan Ingham"
Date: 13 July 2011 15:11:10 GMT+01:00
To: "Miss Marple'"
Cc: Cllr Shan Alexander, Cllr Kevin Dowling, Cllr Martin Candler, Cllr Craig Wright, Cllr Andrew Bispham

Subject: RE: Tesco coming to Marple

Dear "Miss Marple"

Thank you for your recent email. I'm replying as Chair of the Area Committee and (on) behalf of the Marple Councillors.

My understanding of this situation is this;

The College needs to sell the Hibbert Lane Campus to raise funds to enhance the facility on Buxton Lane. We don't know who they may sell the land to, only that they are in the process of identifying suitable buyers.

There are currently no planning applications for any development on that site, either housing or supermarkets.

From a planning point of view the Hibbert Lane land is designated for housing.  Retail developments are only permitted within the District Centre and the Hibbert Lane Campus does not fall within the District Centre. As such any planning application to build a supermarket on that site would be opposed by Planning as being against the District Planning Policy.

I hope that answers your question.

Kindest regards
Sue Ingham
Chair of Marple Area Committee

[Harry]

With regard to the College closing, from what info I have been able to gather there is no question mark at present over student numbers, the college at present has enough students to fund itself. Questions need to be asked of the Governing body as to why they didn't apply for funding earlier, while it was still available, and why £12M needs to be spent on new buildings.

The college will only discover how many students they will have in the next academic year, after enrolment, which starts at the end of August. Until then its just guesswork.

I understand that the Hibbert Lane site needs a lot of money spending on it in order to bring it up to current standards. This I can fully understand after having been in there a few years back. It makes good sense to to dispose of the old building and create a new, state of the art, learning centre that would be more conducive to education.

[Victor M]

With regard to the College closing, from what info I have been able to gather there is no question mark at present over student numbers, the college at present has enough students to fund itself. Questions need to be asked of the Governing body as to why they didn't apply for funding earlier, while it was still available, and why £12M needs to be spent on new buildings. The college also has a moral responsibility to the people of Marple that they don't change the fabric and infrastructure to the detriment of the local area.

With regard to involving Marple local councillors and MP, if they make any negative comment at all about the proposed development before the planning meeting then they will be barred from voting, and I think speaking at that meeting. Please bear this in mind when trying to involve them. They may well appear to be uninterested, when in fact they are only trying to keep their powder dry.

As for a balanced view, great all those in favour of such a development organise a separate petition!

[Miss Marple]

Just contacted Marple 6th Form College and asked about the proposed development.  I have been told that Christina Cassidy (principle) Mike Shaw (deputy principle) or Andrew Hubert (finance ) will contact me Asap about the matter.  Don't think I will hold my breath  . But who knows   It sounded very much like I was not the first caller as I was told that they would be very happy to discuss the development 

[Miss Marple]

Just out of interest has the Marple  Business forum  gained  the views of local traders and if so is it positive or negative regarding Tesco 

[Miss Marple]

Credit where credits due Councillor Bispham is the only councillor to date who has replied.  I think an on line petition would be a good idea but first the residents who will be directly affected by the proposed development need alerting to the possible proposal.   I have suggested a public meeting at the library when a little more is known and to advertise this with posters and door to door alerting.  There is a freedom of information act which probably would not work where there are issues of commercial confidentiality   COME ON OTHER LOCAL COUNCILLORS !!!! why are you not showing any intrest in matters which may directly affect or local area . It's the one time I wish that there was a local election looming.  Not to worry though there is a Local Area Committee Meeting in Marple  at the end of this month where all our local councillors will be along with our MP I hope by then we will have enough information to put to them.  NB if anyone sees a notice put up by the planning dept in that vicinity can you let me know ?

[Harry]

I think people should also realise that by objecting to these proposed plans they are actively trying to prevent the college from generating £8m (1) of much needed finance.

If the college were to close, where would our young people go to further their education?


(1) If Victor's figures are correct, as i suspect they are.