Council Reports for Marple Area Committee

[sooty2]

"Interesting stuff" indeed in the council report, thank you for publishing it here, Mr Admin. To me, it shows the town has truly spoken with one voice on the issue  - and the overwhelming verdict of residents is that we don't want a supermarket on the college site. Just look at the figures quoted in the report: just 73 letters of support, compared to almost 800 letters of objection sent to the council ... more than 8,000 signatories on the protest petition ... a further 297 objectors signed a newspaper petition against the plans. No petition received in support of the plan from the "yes campaign". It seems from the council report the only support petition was one carried out by Asda themselves at their local stores at Hazel Grove and Stockport. They managed to get just 284 signatures (and how many of those were Asda staff?) So let's show councillors and planning officials the depth of feeling in the town by attending the Wednesday February 6 area committee at Bowden Lane cricket club when they will be making their recommendations on the plan.

Good post Henry, You may feel you are a lone voice amongst the pro supermarket people on this forum. You are not. We just don't feel the need to keep posting anymore.

[sooty2]

MIA were asking people to sign their petition in order to stop Tesco from demolishing the swimming pool and building a large roundabout in its place. It took a long time for people to realise they were being conned. Asda were not even in consideration at the time.

Nobody has been conned. It was a rumour! It was up to the individual to believe it or not. Who knows if demolishing the swimming pool wasn't an option that was discussed by the college and it's planners?

[amazon]

MIA were asking people to sign their petition in order to stop Tesco from demolishing the swimming pool and building a large roundabout in its place. It took a long time for people to realise they were being conned. Asda were not even in consideration at the time.

Thanks Harry this post going on that long forgot about that .

[Harry]

MIA were asking people to sign their petition in order to stop Tesco from demolishing the swimming pool and building a large roundabout in its place. It took a long time for people to realise they were being conned. Asda were not even in consideration at the time.

[amazon]

Most if initial objections and petition signing revolved around the closure of the swimming pool.

When was this .Asda should have said we will build you a new swimming pool to replace the old one .
Things may have been a bit different then .

[Bluezorro]

Most if initial objections and petition signing revolved around the closure of the swimming pool.

[JMC]

First, we can forget about the petition: it tells us nothing about what anyone thinks about the proposed scheme, because most of the signatures were collected before the plans were published.  So if we just concentrate on the letters and emails of objection or support, 782 people objected to the scheme.  As usual, that's a lot more than the number of supporters, but it's just 3% of the population of Marple.  We dont know what most of the other 97% think, but we can assume that they either support the scheme or don't have a strong opinion either way. 

'The town has truly spoken with one voice'?    Pull the other one...   

Great post Dave.

[wheels]

"Interesting stuff" indeed in the council report, thank you for publishing it here, Mr Admin. To me, it shows the town has truly spoken with one voice on the issue  - and the overwhelming verdict of residents is that we don't want a supermarket on the college site. Just look at the figures quoted in the report: just 73 letters of support, compared to almost 800 letters of objection sent to the council ... more than 8,000 signatories on the protest petition ... a further 297 objectors signed a newspaper petition against the plans. No petition received in support of the plan from the "yes campaign". It seems from the council report the only support petition was one carried out by Asda themselves at their local stores at Hazel Grove and Stockport. They managed to get just 284 signatures (and how many of those were Asda staff?) So let's show councillors and planning officials the depth of feeling in the town by attending the Wednesday February 6 area committee at Bowden Lane cricket club when they will be making their recommendations on the plan.

Say's to me quite the reverse

[Dave]

Henry seems to disregard the well-known fact that almost all planning applications attract many times more objections than they do supporters.  If planning applications were simply considered on this basis, almost nothing would ever get built!

First, we can forget about the petition: it tells us nothing about what anyone thinks about the proposed scheme, because most of the signatures were collected before the plans were published.  So if we just concentrate on the letters and emails of objection or support, 782 people objected to the scheme.  As usual, that's a lot more than the number of supporters, but it's just 3% of the population of Marple.  We dont know what most of the other 97% think, but we can assume that they either support the scheme or don't have a strong opinion either way. 

'The town has truly spoken with one voice'?    Pull the other one...   

[hollins]

Like many Marple residents I won't be at this meeting because I will be at, or about to start the return from, work - one of the reasons why we need a new decent-size supermarket.

In my absence could somebody please ask Councillor Shan Alexander:
(a) what her alternative plans for funding the redevelopment of the college are;
(b) if the Kirkland plan is so good that it merits "Recommendation to Accept" why they have no declared supermarket operator and why our councillors are recommending acceptance of a development with no known operator whilst opposing one for which we do at least know what we would get. Would you put down money on a car without knowing whether you were going to get a mini or a Porsche ... or even no car at all? Apparently our councillors would.

BTW, unless Kirkland have a remarkably generous bank manager their company accounts suggest that they won't be buying this site themselves - just planning it for ... whoever they are planning it for.

[amazon]

"Interesting stuff" indeed in the council report, thank you for publishing it here, Mr Admin. To me, it shows the town has truly spoken with one voice on the issue  - and the overwhelming verdict of residents is that we don't want a supermarket on the college site. Just look at the figures quoted in the report: just 73 letters of support, compared to almost 800 letters of objection sent to the council ... more than 8,000 signatories on the protest petition ... a further 297 objectors signed a newspaper petition against the plans. No petition received in support of the plan from the "yes campaign". It seems from the council report the only support petition was one carried out by Asda themselves at their local stores at Hazel Grove and Stockport. They managed to get just 284 signatures (and how many of those were Asda staff?) So let's show councillors and planning officials the depth of feeling in the town by attending the Wednesday February 6 area committee at Bowden Lane cricket club when they will be making their recommendations on the plan.

You will reply to this Dave please .

[guy]

"Interesting stuff" indeed in the council report, thank you for publishing it here, Mr Admin. To me, it shows the town has truly spoken with one voice on the issue  - and the overwhelming verdict of residents is that we don't want a supermarket on the college site. Just look at the figures quoted in the report: just 73 letters of support, compared to almost 800 letters of objection sent to the council ... more than 8,000 signatories on the protest petition ... a further 297 objectors signed a newspaper petition against the plans. No petition received in support of the plan from the "yes campaign". It seems from the council report the only support petition was one carried out by Asda themselves at their local stores at Hazel Grove and Stockport. They managed to get just 284 signatures (and how many of those were Asda staff?) So let's show councillors and planning officials the depth of feeling in the town by attending the Wednesday February 6 area committee at Bowden Lane cricket club when they will be making their recommendations on the plan.

[Dave]

AFAIK there are no plans for a sixth form at MHS - just a bit of rumour and speculation, which no-one with any sense would take seriously. 

[wheels]

Thats correct Dave but actuallly these silly plans for a 6th form at Marple Hall will do more to damage the collage than any failure of the ASDA application.

[Dave]

But Dave you would not expect at this stage to know who any partner might be for the Kirkland development only when planning is approved would there be any serious marketing of the site on their behalf. Its unreasonable to expect them to do much prior to planning being agreed.

Nor is who the partner is a planning issue thus I don't think we have any right to know. We the public don't have a  veto on certain partners. You get what your given as far as the actual store goes.

I accept that, wheels, and that Kirkland are within their rights not to tell us what sort of supermarket they have in mind.  That's their decision, but I'm not sure whether they should then expect the council to approve it 'blind', as it were.  It's a 'black box', and we don't know what might be in it - or indeed, as Harry points out, whether there is going to be anything in it at all!  So the college's plans, and the Asda scheme, could just possibly turn out to have been stopped by something which in the end never happens!